Mission, Vision, and Goals

Mission:
Communities That Care of Lorain County is a strong partnership within the community to help our youth face the many challenges ahead of them, including substance abuse.

We VISION a community that:

  • Promotes strong families
  • Fosters collaboration between school and communities
  • Supports positive youth development
  • Works to reduce problem behaviors
Goal One:

Establish and Strengthen collaboration among communities including schools, private non profit organizations and government entities to support the efforts of Communities That Care Lorain County to prevent and reduce substance use among youth
Goal Two: Reduce substance abuse among youth, and over time, among adults by addressing factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse.

Prioritized Risk Factors:
Research has identified, through multiple longitudinal studies, twenty reliable predictors of adolescent substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, school dropout, violence and depression and anxiety.  Identifying and understanding risk factors aids communities in preventing problem behavior.  In Lorain County, the following risk factors have been identified (using the 2006 data findings):

  • Community Disorganization and Low Neighborhood Attachment
  • Personal Transitions and Mobility
  • Academic Failure
  • Favorable Parental Attitudes and Involvement in Problem Behavior
  • Friends who Engage in Problem Behavior

Prioritized Protective Factors:
Protective factors can buffer young people from risks and promote positive youth development.  Protective factors include individual characteristics (gender, resilient and outgoing temperament and intelligence), healthy beliefs and clear standards and bonding.  Research has also identified protective process that build strong bonds between young people and adults in their lives and promote positive youth development.  They include providing opportunities for involvement, fostering skills, and offering recognition for meaningful involvement and contributions.  In Lorain County, the following protective factors have been found to be most lacking (using the 2006 data findings):

  • Community Opportunities for Positive (Prosocial) Involvement
  • Religiosity
  • Community Rewards for Positive (Prosocial) Involvement

Communities That Care of Lorain County has identified the following priorities to reduce the prioritized risk factors, increase protective factors and reduce problem behaviors:

  • Continue evidence-based program interventions initiated in 2005: (the Strengthening Families Program and ATLAS & ATHENA)
  • Explore prevention interventions that start earlier than 6th grade with the goal of reducing targeted problem risk factors and increasing protective factors
  • Reduce the following three risk factors for youth between grades 6 and 12 by 5% in the following areas: favorable attitudes toward drug use, friends’ use of drugs and perceived availability of drugs/firearms for youth.
  • Examine programs/alternatives and strategies that can build and promote collaboration between community agencies and school systems to reduce academic failure by 5% in each of the grades surveyed.

 

Click here to download our one year workplan.
Click here to download our current Action Plan (2008)