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| Prevention Services |
| The objective of prevention is to promote the personal and social growth
of individuals in order to avoid alcohol, tobacco, and other drug-related problems as well as violence.
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City County Alcohol & Drug Programs has two Community Prevention Networkers
(CPN's). Linda Colhoff is a certified Community Prevention Specialist for the Rapid City community
and Jami Kuchenbecker is the CPN for the outlying Pennington County areas of Hill City, Keystone,
Box Elder, New Underwood and Wall.
South Dakota has a network of prevention professionals across the state which
includes 22 Community Prevention Networkers and Certified Prevention Specialists. The South Dakota
Prevention Network can be accessed through the
Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
website. There are also four
Prevention Resource Centers
which provide alcohol, tobacco, drug and violence prevention services, educational materials and
serve as resources to the communities in South Dakota.
Prevention services in South Dakota operate under the IC & RC/AODA
(International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium) Performance Domains. The International
Certification & Reciprocity Consortium/Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, Inc. (IC&RC) sets the
international standards of practice in addiction counseling, prevention and clinical supervision
through testing and credentialing of addiction professionals.
IC&RC and its members are committed to public protection through the establishment
of quality, competency-based certification programs for professionals engaged in the
prevention and treatment of addictions and related problems.
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| The performance domains include: |
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Education & Skill Development:
Community Prevention Networkers develop and deliver age appropriate alcohol,
drug and violence educational presentations, assist other agencies, and provide prevention
information and trainings to the community. Information is also made available by the
prevention program via informational booths at the Rapid City Health Fair and the Central
States Fair.
Researched based curriculum is provided when possible in the community
and the schools. The Boys and Girls Club of the Black Hills located in Hill City is actively
implementing a curriculum call SMART Moves. Smart Moves aims to provide young people with the
knowledge, skills, self-esteem and peer support to help them achieve the following: 1) avoid using
alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; 2) avoid involvement in other drug-related activities, such as drunk
driving or drug trafficking; 3) postpone sexual activity. The program is intended primarily for young
people ages 6 to 16 who are not actively involved in drugs or sexual activity or have only experimented
with them. Although SMART Moves was originally designed for Boys and Girls Club members, it can easily
be adapted for use by schools and other youth-serving organizations.
Rapid City and Hill City schools in Pennington County along with other
Black Hills area communities are fortunate to have school based prevention services available
through Lifeways, Inc. CCADP provides support and assistance to their programs whenever possible.
For more information, please visit Lifeways website.
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Community Organization:
Part of good prevention programming involves knowing all aspects of the
communities in which prevention services are provided. Knowing who the people are, what
ethnicities and cultures are represented in those communities and what demographics are being
serviced are all a big piece of prevention. Prevention Networkers must identify what the core
values are in the communities that are being served, who the key community leaders are from all
sectors and then engage them in prevention efforts. Many communities have prevention coalitions.
CADCA (Community Antidrug Coalitions of America) defines prevention coalitions as a formal
arrangement for collaboration between groups or sectors of a community, in which each group
retains its identity but all members agree to work together toward a common goal of building a
safe, healthy, and drug-free community. Coalitions are an integral component to a community's
response to alcohol and drug problems. They build community capacity by encouraging local
organizations to expand services, programs, or policies (i.e., organizational capacity).
Rapid City has numerous prevention coalitions that provide services and
activities. One such coalition is A.S.A.P., Inc., which stands for Adolescent Substance Abuse
Prevention. A.S.A.P. is a non-profit, non-political coalition whose members come from all walks
of life and they are committed to promoting a drug-free environment for youth in the Black
Hills area. A.S.A.P. was named the Mayor's Anti-Drug Task Force for Rapid City in 1999.
The mission of A.S.A.P., Inc. is to educate parents, youth and citizens of Rapid City about
the dangers of alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse among children and adolescents. The main
focus of this effort is providing prevention activities; such as the Red Ribbon Campaign held
each October, the Youth to Youth Conference and the S.A.V.E. (Stand Against a Violent Environment)
Conference and any other community prevention activities, which would provide information on
substance abuse. For more information on A.S.A.P., please visit their website.
Other prevention coalitions are: S.A.V.E. Rapid City (Stand Against a Violent Environment) and
CCPC (Campuses Community Prevention Coalition) which includes SDSMT, WDT and NAU. CCADP Prevention
Networkers are also actively involved in the fight against the growing epidemic of methamphetamine
use with the Methamphetamine Awareness Prevention Project (MAPP). For more information visit,
the MAPP-SD website.
Each coalition has its own goals and objectives
with the focus being alcohol, drugs and violence prevention issues.
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