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SPF-SIG Goals and Objectives

SPF-SIG Advisory Council

State Epidemiological Workgroup (SEW)

Tennessee Strategic Prevention Framework
State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG)

Communities in Tennessee are challenged with burgeoning rural methamphetamine and urban club drug epidemics in a state with persistent, significantly-high usage rates, culturally supported youth alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use and continued prescription drug diversion and other illegal drug problems (particularly cocaine). Communities also face a growing need to build cultural competencies and gain access to the materials needed to address rapid racial and cultural demographic changes.

Issues considered in this endeavor are the Governor’s office strong support for evidence-based prevention, a strong network of coalitions committed to accountability, cultural competence and strong evaluation and long-term sustainability for excellent system change and service delivery.

The Tennessee Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG) funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, a division of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides the framework and resources for the State of Tennessee and communities to effectively partner in order to strengthen drug prevention in Tennessee. This partnership will target resources within the community and enhance actions that amplify the organization's ability to work towards its mission, making more effective substance abuse and reducing related negative social problems, such as impaired driving deaths, risky sexual behavior and drug-related crime.

SPF-SIG has three major goals, each of which include several priorities that have been developed based on Tennessee statistical substance abuse data. The overall objective of SPF-SIG is to develop outcomes-based logic models that outline a locally-defined strategic response for addressing SPF-SIG priorities.

Tennessee’s SPF-SIG design will use data-based problem solving within a systems change model. This model requires:

1. an ongoing Epidemiological Workgroup of data experts from state departments, community agencies and research organizations responsible for building an effective, accessible data system and make policy and program recommendations;
    
2. an ongoing SPF Advisory Council from state departments and the community to oversee and address the data system and leverage existing programs that utilize evidence-based practice and accountability;
    
3. the development of data infrastructure at both state and community levels, making high-quality data available for planning, evaluation and sustainability decisions and
    
4. implementation of the Strategic Prevention Framework for data-driven decisions about system change at the state and community levels and evidence-based prevention interventions at the community level.

Collaboration is not a cliché, but a fundamental necessity to insure success in such a model. County-wide coalitions will plan and manage prevention interventions and associated funding. The State Epidemiological Workgroup (SEW), SPF-SIG Advisory Council, and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Inc. (PIRE) will integrate the work of coalitions with existing programming. Community Anti-Drug Coalitions Across Tennessee (CADCAT) will provide support and technical assistance to the coalitions, networking and mentoring opportunities and a web-based, prevention-specific data tracking system, interactive Getting To Outcomes (iGTO).  Although Tennessee expects its state’s prevention system to incorporate an all-encompassing prevention infrastructure, the plan begins with an emphasis on ages 12 to 24. The scope of the plan will maintain a focus on the needs and populations identified in a formal needs assessment, and is expected to be expanded following the initial phase. As stated in the Tennessee SPF-SIG grant application, the shared vision for this funding is that:

The State Role in Outcome- Based Prevention Implementation

• Determine priority problem(s) to be addressed based on consequence(s) consumption patterns.
• Determine allocation approach for distributing funds to address the problem(s).
• Develop an initial logic model to identify:

• support communities in the process of local planning based on Tennessee’s logic model where goals, objectives, strategies, and activities are linked with risk and protective factors.

The Community Role in Outcomes Based - Prevention Implementation

• Understand the problem(s) to be addressed.
• Assess intervening variables (such as easy retail access to alcohol by youth, easy social access to alcohol and promotion of alcohol use) for planning purposes.
• Determine intervening variables for intervention.
• Choose and implement effective and relevant strategies to address intervening variables.