A community systems approach to substance abuse prevention in a rural setting

The Community Health Demonstration Project developed a community systems model of program development and interventions which provides consistent, ongoing prevention messages and services across multiple delivery systems and service providers. This model has brought together various sectors of a rural disadvantaged Appalachian community in Pennsylvania to plan, implement, and evaluate a community-wide campaign addressing the prevention of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) problems. The model for this community prevention effort focused primarily on the development of community awareness, resources, and programming - capacity building - all of which provides a foundation for continuing attitude and behavior change. Preliminary evaluative data indicate that awareness of local ATOD problems has increased. Moreover, new programming has been implemented and interaction and cooperation among services providers have improved dramatically during the course of the project.