Evaluating environmental prevention initiatives to reduce underage drinking: Field examples of youth and adults working together to evaluate change efforts

This presentation will focus on the partnerships between two California county agencies and the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), a community-based youth leadership development, research, and training institute, to train and support young people to evaluate the alcohol prevention programs for young people in their counties.

YLI partners with youth evaluators and adult staff within the Butte County Department of Behavioral Health and the Sacramento County Office of Education to assess how youth-led alcohol policy and other alcohol environmental prevention work affects youth participants and the communities they are working to change.

The youth researchers administered surveys and conducted participant observations, focus groups, and interviews to examine: 1) the impact of the alcohol environmental prevention projects on their target schools and communities and 2) the effect of participating in and leading the projects on the youth participants, in terms of their skills, knowledge, and behavior related to alcohol. The youth researchers also analyzed their data and presented their findings and recommendations to community decision makers, including their county Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board and adult staff at the County Office of Education and County Office of Behavioral Health.

Discussion will focus on the successes and barriers each county agency has had on institutionalizing the work of the youth researchers within their organizational scopes of work as well as lessons learned and recommendations for other communities that want to adopt this innovative approach to engaging constituents in driving and evaluating their alcohol prevention programs and services.