Plan, The Reality, The Roadblocks Along the Way: Health Planning Hoops and Hurdles

East Boston is a diverse neighborhood made up of 6 micro neighborhoods and has always been home to many of Boston's immigrant families. Residents have long recognized substance abuse as an issue. In 2009 staff was hired to revitalize the once vibrant East Boston Neighborhood Against Substance Abuse (EBNASA) coalition and its substance abuse prevention activities. Partnerships were formed with a hospital, local public health department, and a technical assistance agency. During the same year, a city official from the community was arrested for illegal drug trade. As a result, resources poured into East Boston, including those for data collection. Members of the Coalition however did not want to be reactionary and thus employed the use of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to guide their strategic planning process. As a result, the coalition was able to devise and implement its own plan for data collection that complimented the city's efforts. The plan for the Assessment Phase of the SPF included collecting archival data and conducting a community and youth survey, while maintaining cultural competency. Contextual challenges along the way included staff turnover, school resistance to the youth survey, the closing of the community center in which the Coalition was housed, and many others. Despite multiple barriers, the Coalition was able to regroup and devise secondary and tertiary plans that allowed them to continue moving forward in the data collection process.