Assessment driven planning: The development of a strategic plan to address risky drinking behaviors (underage and binge drinking) in 12-25 year olds

Increasingly, community-based organizations are selecting evidence based strategies to boost the success of interventions. However, evidence based strategies risk minimal impact if a community does not assess the resources, level of readiness, or the priority placed on the problem to be addressed by the intervention within the community.

This paper reports on strategies employed by the Youth Community Coalition (YC2) of Columbia, Missouri to avoid these common pitfalls by preceding their intervention and evaluation planning with a multi-phase assessment. They conducted a data, a resource, and a community readiness assessment regarding risky drinking behaviors in 12-25 year olds to develop a strategic prevention framework.

Using Getting to Outcomes, data were collected from multiple sources on risk and protective variables associated with risky drinking behaviors, and the resources available to address them. This information was used to select the intervening variables and to identify and address resource gaps.

Using the Community Readiness Handbook, the community readiness assessment identified the level of readiness within Columbia to address risky drinking behaviors and to determine the level of intervention necessary.

Upon completion of the assessments, YC2 developed a strategic plan to address the risky drinking behaviors of 12-25 year olds in Columbia Missouri based on a solid understanding of the community climate and needs. The interventions in the strategic plan enjoy broader support from the Coalition and appear poised to have a greater effect on risky drinking as a result of the multi-phase assessment efforts.