RD278 - Annual Report of the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention


Executive Summary:
[The entire report was replaced on 01/27/06.]

In the past three years, GOSAP has laid the foundation for an exceptionally strong prevention infrastructure at the state level by establishing the GOSAP Collaborative, by achieving consensus around a cross-agency strategic plan for prevention, and by making ahead-of-schedule progress in implementing that plan. This year, GOSAP is pleased to report that all state agencies and organizations responsible for prevention throughout the Commonwealth have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in support of a uniform set of prevention principles and standards, and have pledged to continue their support for a unified, collaborative and evidence-based approach to prevention. Additional prevention achievements include the following:

• In June 2005 released, Touching Down at Mid-Way: A Mid-Term Progress Report summarizing progress that has been made in implementing Virginia’s comprehensive strategic plan for prevention. The plan is on schedule and will be completed a year in advance.

• Collaboration has been strengthened with local prevention coalitions throughout Virginia, prevention professionals in Virginia’s 40 Community Services Boards (CSB’s) and in faith, private, and non-profit sectors. This strengthened collaboration was reflected in the November 2005 "KIDsafe" Virginia Prevention Conference where sponsors, for the first time, included the Community Builders Network, the Virginia Community Service Board’s Prevention Task Force, and the Interagency Anti-Gang Workgroup.

• Virginia’s Community Profile Database won a national Best of the Web Innovation in State Government Award from the Center for Digital Government and Education. This user-friendly web-based tool puts important social indicator data in the hands of Virginia’s communities for use in state- and local-level needs assessments, strategic planning, benchmarking and measuring progress. The tool is being further enhanced to generate more pre-formatted reports, graphs, and maps to link to related resources and to identify evidence-based programs.

• The third statewide "KIDsafe" Virginia Prevention Conference, held in Richmond on November 16, 2005 was attended by a capacity crowd of over 500 prevention leaders from throughout Virginia.

• The GOSAP Website has been further improved to serve as the GOSAP Collaborative’s central clearinghouse for prevention information, resources and best practice solutions.

• Prevention resources developed by GOSAP and the GOSAP Collaborative have continued to be disseminated both in print and via download from the GOSAP Website. "Our Common Language: A Quick Guide to Prevention Terminology in Virginia", a “primer” containing basic prevention terms, concepts, and principles has helped to make prevention science more understandable and to improve communication within the prevention community statewide.

• Building upon the framework for cross-agency collaboration established by the state-level prevention MOA, the GOSAP Collaborative is continuing to develop resources to support evidence-based prevention including a cross-agency template for prevention funding proposals and a model for local prevention needs assessment and planning.

• "KIDsafe" Virginia has continued to serve as a very effective child personal safety and public awareness initiative during its third year of implementation. In response to continuing high demand, more than 370,000 print copies of the Parent Guides and over 4,000 School Safety Toolkits in CD format have been disseminated. Electronic copies of "KIDsafe" Virginia resources have continued to be made available via download from the GOSAP Website.

• The Protect & Respect initiative has continued to improve the safety of Virginia’s senior citizens through crime prevention education and intergenerational projects that have improved the safety and well being of both seniors and youth. Evaluations have produced strong evidence of success in achieving intended results for both young and old Virginians alike.

• Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act grants were awarded to 21 projects to support youth substance abuse and violence prevention efforts in more than 35 Virginia communities. These grants have increased data-driven prevention planning and the use of evidence-based programming throughout Virginia.

• A final evaluation of the 20 local prevention coalitions funded through Virginia’s State Incentive Grant (SIG) Project showed that all sites met or exceeded their goals and objectives. Local collaboration was increased, and use of evidence-based programs increased. Although the SIG project has ended, funding was authorized to continue Prevention Basics workshops in 2005 and the SIG Advisory Council’s important role is being continued under the auspices of the GOSAP Council.

• Youth leadership development opportunities continued through the 21st Annual Youth Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Project (YADAPP) Conference held at Longwood University in July 2005. Ninety high school teams throughout Virginia were trained before developing plans for youth-led prevention projects in their home schools and communities.

• The Governor’s Youth Public Safety Advisory Council (GYPSAC) has continued to serve as an effective vehicle for listening to the voices of youth in identifying concerns and developing strategies for improving youth safety. GYPSAC’s official report to the Governor, titled "Virginia’s Youth Speakout! About Crime and Public Safety," clearly reflects the connections between substance abuse, violence, and gang activities and has been used to inform public safety planning.

Building upon numerous substantive recent achievements, GOSAP will continue to provide leadership and coordination in sustaining Virginia’s unified, collaborative, and evidence-based approach to prevention. A primary goal for the upcoming year is the achievement of all goals and objectives set forth in Virginia’s comprehensive, cross-agency strategic plan for substance abuse prevention – an achievement on pace to be completed one year ahead of schedule. Future efforts will be focused primarily in two areas: continuing to strengthen Virginia’s prevention infrastructure and continuing to build local prevention capacity.