2007-308M - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Substance Abuse Council of Indian River County Right Choice Program CSAC of IRC B. PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page. 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? b) Who has the need? c) Where do they live? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. Indian River County has a continuing need for a program that addresses drug and alcohol use committed by it ' s youth. Some of these youth are charged with misdemeanor drug or alcohol related charges. For others, their use is uncovered by a parent, without contact with law enforcement. This program was designed to reduce drug/alcohol use by youth by increasing protective factors thus reducing incidences of substance use and re-occurring juvenile offenses. Juvenile delinquency cases received in IRC within the six year period from FY99-00 to FY05-06 decreased from 946 to 803 cases (an increase of 4. 3 % from FY04-05 of 770 cases). Of these 74 cases were for misdemeanor drug and alcohol offenses and 30 were for felony drug and alcohol charges This represents a total of 12 .95% of drug related charges. (These stats are based upon statistical data collected and reported in the 2005-06 Profile of Delinquency Cases and Youths Referred, by the Office of Research & Planning, Florida Department of juvenile justice). These numbers only reflect the youth charged with misdemeanor offenses and not those identified by schools or family. The Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) provides scientifically sound information on the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use, risk and protective factors. Risk and protective factors are characteristics of the community, school, family, individual and peer characteristics that are known to predict alcohol and other drug use, delinquency, and gang involvement. Besides measuring risk and protective factors, the FYSAS also assesses the current prevalence of these problem behaviors in the community. The FYSAS (2006), indicates that Indian River youth (35 .5%) continue to exceed the Florida State rate (32 .01/o) of youth reported drug use in their lifetimes. Even though IRC 's youth prevalence drug rate has shown a decrease in the past five (5) years, the prevalence rates for all drug use in Indian River County youth have historically been elevated above the state and national rates. Based upon FYSAS (2006) IRC ' s youth prevalence rates for past 30 use of Alcohol or any illicit drug use is recorded at 38.2% (down from 44.6% in 2000) verses the state rate of 35 .4%. The FYSAS 's findings illustrate the complexity of drug use and antisocial behavior among our youth and possible factors that may contribute to these activities. In addition, the FYSAS (2006), IRC scored higher than the State and other like Counties in the following risk factor areas Family: Peer and Individual: • Poor Family Management • Early Initiation of Drug Use • Family History of Antisocial Behavior • Favorable Attitude to ATOD use • Favorable Attitude to Antisocial Behavior • Current ATOD use among youth • Parental Attitude Favorable to ATOD use • Sensation Seeking It is important to note that the following two risk factors have shown a significant improvement: • Perceived Risks of Drug Use • Friends Use of Drugs a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. New Horizons provides Student Support Specialists in the middle schools. DATA also provides services to youth. Both these agencies work with a very small indicated population of students and can not serve the entire indicated population of youth. These youth would receive no program services if the Right Choice Program was not available. Right Choice provides no duplication of services. 4