The Chase County Drug Free Action Team serves Chase County, Kansas, a rural area covering 776 square miles with a population of 3,033. The goals of the program are to: 1) provide prevention education for parents, youth service providers, and other community members in order to increase knowledge of science-based strategies to prevent youth alcohol and other drug use, 2) provide prevention programming and intervention activities for youth designed to prevent, reduce, or delay first use of alochol, tobacco, and other illicit substances, and 3) increase community collaboration and networking in order to develop a comprehensive, community-wide prevention response to youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. To achieve these goals, the coalition will implement the following staregies: 1) provide community members and youth impactors training on prevention issues including science-based prevention programming and basic drug awareness and prevention strategies relating to alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, marijuana, and methamphetamine, 2) sponsor a multiple media outlet prevention campaign to increase awareness of local issues and strategies, 3) provide research-based parent training for families, including Preparing for School Success and Guiding Good Choices, 4) support youth alternative activities, including Red Ribbon Week and County Night Out, 5) support implementation of model prevention programs for students, including Project ALERT, Promoting Alternative Thinking Skills (PATHS), SMART Team, Keep a Clear Mind, Reconnectioning Youth, and Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol, 6) suport provision of mentoring programs for students, and 7) provide training for a cadre of adults and yoth to implement strategies to increase resiliency in youth using the Developmental Asset framework.

The Chase County Drug Free Action Team is represented by the following sectors:

Youth, Media, Parents, Schools, Businesses, Youth-serving organizations, Law Enforcement, Healthcare professionals, Religious or fraternal groups, Civic and Volunteer groups, State and local government agencies with expertise in the field of substance abuse, and other organizations involved in reducing subsstance abuse.

Officers for the 2006-2007 fiscal year are:

President, Cheryl Jones, Chase County Health Department Nurse

Vice-President, Imogene Hewitt

Secretary, Ken Grochowsky, SRS Outreach Coordinator

Treasurer, Stan Elliott

Program Director: Richard Scott

Youth Program Coordinator: Liz Scott