Community Readiness to Adopt the Communities That Care Program within an Urban Setting

Introduction: This presentation highlights Year 1 activities from a 5-year community based participatory research project in east St. Paul, MN. The project involves building a community coalition that will develop a school-linked intervention to prevent and reduce risk behaviors among African American, socioeconomically disadvantaged boys age 8-14 years. Intervention strategies will include the promotion of family, school, and community connectedness; academic investment; and social and emotional well-being. Project activities will be accomplished through the step-by-step coalition-based prevention approach, Communities That Care (CTC) (Hawkins, Catalano, et al., 2008). During Year 1, members of the partnering community were evaluated for readiness to adopt the CTC program.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 community members, comprised of a school principal, teachers, parents, community leaders, and community volunteers. Participants were asked to (1) define community; (2) identify community strengths; (3) recommend methods to strengthen community relationships; (4) envision ideal functions of the coalition; (5) identify current community resources; (6) recommend prevention targets and methods; (7) identify potential barriers to coalition participation; and (8) assess overall community readiness to adopt CTC.

Results: Interviewees stated that the community is comprised of numerous individuals and institutions. Definitions of community included students, parents, and teachers, as well as local businesses, recreation centers, and visitors. All interviewees believed that their community is invested in the positive development of youth and would be ready to adopt CTC.  However, interviewees identified several barriers to parental participation in a coalition, including lack of financial security, childcare, and transportation, as well as alienation from one’s community.  Interviewees highlighted potential barriers to coalition success, including tensions between parents and teachers. Interviewees emphasized the need for frequent, clear, and concise communication in order to strengthen relationships. Although interviewees were able to identify multiple local resources that could aid the coalition, they perceived a lack of cohesion among resources and a lack of community awareness of available resources.  Interviewees emphasized that academic expectations and engagement should be prevention targets.  Interviewees also felt strongly that links between multiple environments (home, school, community) should be targeted and strengthened in order to promote the well-being of youth. Interviewees envisioned the CTC coalition as a task force of community members with varying talents invested in youth across their entire lifespan.

Conclusion:  Community members expressed eagerness and readiness to adopt the CTC program. They were able to identify community strengths and local resources that could contribute to coalition success. They also identified potential barriers to participation and group cohesion that if left unaddressed could diminish the impact of the coalition. Community members’ insights will be used to guide implementation of coalition activities.