Getting Started

As you begin your Too Smart To Start initiative, there are several research and planning activities that you should conduct. These tasks will help ensure that your program is tailored to your community’s needs and effectively uses your community’s existing resources. The tasks for getting started include researching your target audiences, assessing local needs, identifying local resources, and mobilizing a network of supporters in your community, which involves identifying allies or partners and creating a detailed action plan. Each of these steps is described in this section, and helpful tools, such as a guide for conducting a needs assessment, are included in Appendix A for your use.

Research Target Audiences

Nine- to thirteen-year-olds are unlike any other generation of youth, so forget all the stereotypes about youth. Find out what makes this group unique, what they think about alcohol use for kids their age, and what their current alcohol use behaviors are. “TSTS SmartSTATS: A Data Book” includes national data on this population and their parents. Use this as a starting point. Talk with 9- to 13-year-olds in your local area not only to see if their thoughts and actions are similar to the national data but also to figure out the best types and directions for your local TSTS activi-ties.

For example, according to the audience profiles (see Appendix B), 9- to 13-year-olds are self-reliant. They like to believe that they are making decisions for themselves, and they want to participate in the discovery of information rather than being told what to do. So one thing you might do, in this instance, is to include opportuni-ties for discovery in your local TSTS initiative.

For another example, SmartSTATS data tell us that “more than three out of five 9- to 13-year-olds (62 percent) do not like watching television commercials, and more than half (56 percent) sometimes/usually change the channel when a commercial begins.”  The data also tell us that 9-to 13-year-olds tend to equate television commercials with public service announcements, and that subsequently television public service announcements should not be considered the only or central mechanism for reaching youth with messages. Check this out in your area, and ask local 9- to 13-year-olds about their impressions of TV commercials and public service announcements. Unlike others, you might find compelling reasons to include or develop televi-sion public service announcements for this group.

As yet another example, SmartSTATS data reveal that although parents exert a critical influence on their children, many parents perceive that they have little effect on their children’s alcohol use decisions and behaviors. To support parents in exercising their influence, your local effort might focus on ways in which you can encourage more conversations between parents and children, or you might focus on other activities that suggest steps toward actual changes in the parents’ behavior.

In short, how Too Smart To Start is implemented depends greatly on the knowledge, needs, experiences, practices, values, and composition of each locality. Examine carefully the initiative’s desired behavior (more conversations between parents and kids), the benefits associated with the behavior change (improved understanding of the role alcohol may or may not play in the life of a 9- to 13-year-old), the price the audience will pay to adopt the current behavior (time), the appeal used to promote the behavior (respect for 9- to 13-year-olds’ current knowledge), and the vehicle used to convey the message (radio public service announcements). Ensure that such things will work in your locality. And remember that no population is static. Factors related to acceptance of a new idea and the audiences’ knowledge levels are constantly changing. Therefore, pretesting the Too Smart To Start material is advisable.

Assess Local Needs

An important first step in designing and develop-ing any effective health education program is to conduct a community needs assessment. A needs assessment is a tool to help communities plan for and implement strategies. A community needs assessment will help you tailor public education initiatives, such as Too Smart To Start, to your community in the following ways:

• A needs assessment can make a project justifiable, fundable, and measurable. Projects that rely on needs assessments achieve results because the solutions are targeted at the real causes of the problem. With the needs assessment in hand, supporters of the prevention program can explain and defend their activities by describing the relationship of each activity to actual prob-lems. They can also justify their project when they request participation or financial assis-tance from Government agencies, corpora-tions, foundations, or other potential supporters and funders.

• A needs assessment targets resources. A completed needs assessment enables an agency to effectively use existing resources and readily identify needed resources. Because resources are scarce for most organizations, this targeting can help to achieve results without wasting precious funds or time.

• A needs assessment reenergizes efforts. A new initiative or a different twist on an existing program, identified by a needs assess-ment, can be the energizer that gets people involved and active again.

• Needs assessment findings can be used to attract media attention. A good needs assessment contains pertinent, useful information, and can convince the media that the problem is a story worth covering.

• A needs assessment involves more people. It is a good technique for involving various members of an organization in important activities. One of the best ways to make people feel valued is to ask their opinion.

• A needs assessment can change the way you do things. It is an opportunity to take a fresh look at a problem and determine whether old programs can be ended and new ones begun, or whether existing programs are working well and should be sustained and/or replicated.

A completed needs assessment will help you determine the nature of the underage alcohol use by 9- to 13-year-olds in your community, how far it reaches, and how different groups of people in your area view the issue. It will help you design activities that will appeal to your community’s 9-to 13-year-olds and their parents and caregivers, and uncover the most effective ways to communicate. The needs assessment will also help you determine the resources you and your community can bring to this initiative as well as point out the areas in which you may need assistance.

Five steps should be followed in conducting the needs assessment:

1. Identify the goals of the needs assessment (Ask yourself why you are doing this.)

2. Conduct a review of past and current preven-tion programs and activities

3. Identify existing community resources

4. Gather key information from and about the target audience(s)

5. Synthesize and analyze all assembled data.

For details on how to conduct each of these steps, see the Community Needs Assessment Guide in Appendix A. You can use the forms provided to get started.

Mobilize the Community

Community mobilization is a deliberate process of involving local institutions, local leaders, community groups, and members of the community in taking action on a particular issue. It is potentially an effective strategy for creating change in the community because community mobilization can:

• Improve the probability of the initiative to reach a broad audience by involving people who have a variety of roles within a community

• Minimize the risk of introducing unacceptable ideas or messages that could appear foreign to the community and/or target audience

• Contribute to sustained behavioral change (Many efforts suffer a drop in behavior change after the program is over.)

• Encourage local capacity building and promote investment in objectives.

Two critical steps in community mobilization are identifying allies or partners and creating an action plan.

Identifying Allies or Partners

When you are ready to start your local Too Smart To Start initiative, the last thing you want to do is spend time reinventing the wheel. If you can use existing structures as a starting point for your effort, you can avoid duplicating efforts. From the results of your community needs assessment, you will be able to assess your community’s resources and identify potential allies and outlets for your message or activities. You may find that there already are organizations engaged in underage alcohol use prevention efforts that you will be able to partner with.

Local partners

Partners can be individuals and organizations. They can serve as cheerleaders, do needed leg work, provide resources. Local partners who are cheerleaders spread the word, loudly and often, about your local initiative and about underage alcohol use in general. They are people who already have the respect of families and young people. Some have influence with local law enforcement and governing bodies; others may have influence with community or youth groups that could be invited to get involved.

Local partners who do leg work have lots of energy, contribute as called upon, and often come up with creative ideas. They may work the phones to invite community members to your kickoff event or distribute posters to local businesses. They may pick up and drop off donations of materials from other community members and partners, or put together folders of information.

Local partners are often organizations such as high school service clubs, local colleges and community colleges, senior centers, religious groups, and civic clubs. These organizations may provide both volunteers and resources. Consider reaching out and asking large companies to serve as local partners, especially if they are major employers of the adults in your area.

State, regional, and national partners

Many States and communities have established underage alcohol use prevention organizations. Appendix C contains contact information for the Regional Alcohol and Drug Awareness Resource (RADAR) Network, SAMHSA’s National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. These groups can provide information on region- or state-specific organiz-tions and resources working to prevent underage alcohol use.

Creating an Action Plan

Creating an action plan based on your community’s needs and resources is your next critical step. An action plan will help you specify what is needed to address each of the issues related to underage alcohol use and how each of your goals will be reached. It will also help you determine who will complete each action, according to what timeline.

The format of the action plan depends on the needs of your local initiative. But no matter what format and tools you use, your action plan will always describe the goal(s) that are to be accomplished, how each goal contributes to your local initiative, what specific results (or objectives) must be accomplished, how those results will be achieved, and when the results will be achieved (timeline).

For example, you might choose to use an outcomes-based framework as a tool to help you create your action plan. An outcomes framework can help you:

• Determine the overall outcomes you would like to achieve through your local initiative

• Identify which segment of 9- to 13-year-olds you will focus on

• Define your local initiative’s success in terms of the changes in conditions and behaviors to be achieved by your audience and community (performance targets)

• Manage your project by selecting milestones to guide your success and learning

• Describe the activities you will develop and the key people who will run them to achieve your milestones

• Refine your milestones as your view of the potential success or the big picture becomes clearer.

You can use the performance target outline forms included in Appendix A to develop your performance targets and milestones and determine any other information you will need to implement your local initiative. Based on these forms, you will be able to create your plan of action by:

• Developing your program’s outcome statement, which is the overall goal you will work toward.

• Defining your customers, or your audience, on a more specific level. You will be able to define the number of customers you are planning to serve and the conditions and behaviors of a typical customer. For example, the typical customer is a 10-year-old Latino boy who does not drink but has friends who admit to drinking one or two wine coolers within the last year. He has a strong interest in art, especially drawing and photography.

• Developing your performance targets, or your objectives, for each of your customers. For example, of the 500 9- to 13-year-olds who will participate in the Too Smart To Start initiative, 350 will gain a better understanding of the harms related to underage alcohol use.

• Developing your milestones, or the steps that each of your customers will have to take in order for you to reach your performance targets.

• Describing your products, or the key strategies, activities, programs, and materials that you will use in order to reach your objectives.

• Describing the key people who will be involved with your local initiative.

Using an outcomes framework process will help you evaluate the results of your action plan and its performance targets. Once you have your outcome framework in place, you will be able to carry out your plan of action. It will help you keep on track when using the media to publicize your activities and events and when meeting with your task force to address any issues that arise. Additionally, an outcomes framework process will help you determine whether any changes need to be made in terms of leadership, activities, or approach.

Get ready: Organize your task force.

• Define your mission statement.

• Outline overall goals and objectives.

• Identify group leaders and committees.

• Conduct a baseline evaluation of your initiative.

• Set up regular meetings.

Get set: Set your parameters.

• Choose your target audience: Parents, 9- to 13-year-olds, or both?

• Choose your objectives: Increase the number of conversations between parents and children about underage alcohol use? Increase the percentage of parents who see underage alcohol use as harmful?

• Choose a tactic to support your objective: See the Too Smart To Start Menu for sugges-tions.

• Choose your strategies to accomplish your objectives.

And go!

• Carry out your plan.

• Use the media to publicize your activities and events.

• Continue meeting with your task force to address any issues that arise.

• Determine whether any changes need to be made—in leadership, activities, or approach.

• Make modifications as needed.

• Evaluate the results of your action plan and its performance targets.

• Recognize all the hard work and achieve-ments of your task force members.

• Remember to celebrate your successes and publicize them to the media and other groups!

Online technical assistance to help you create a complete action plan is available at www.preventiondss.samhsa.gov