During this hour-long CADCA TV program, we’ll hear why some schools are leery of participating in drug surveys and how you as a coalition can try to calm their fears.  Survey experts will teach how to get things organized before approaching a school.  You’ll also learn about a coalition in Hartford, Connecticut that forged a strong partnership with local schools, and how this partnership has helped strengthen the coalition’s mission.  Also, see how one coalition formed its own school to help a part of the population that was under-served.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how to approach schools about data collection
  • Find out why schools are often leery about surveys
  • See how a coalition formed its own school to help and under-served part of the population

Originally Aired: April 24, 2008

Panelists

Paul Evensen

Vice President and Chief Science Officer at Community Systems Group, a national public health consulting and evaluation firm.

Mr. Evensen has worked with hundreds of local partnerships to address a wide variety of health issues including substance abuse, teen pregnancy, literacy, youth suicide, immunization, nutrition, physical activity and HIV prevention.  Mr. Evensen holds a master’s degree and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas.

Paul has been involved in nearly every aspect of coalition work as a former Executive Director, Evaluator, Board Member and volunteer.  He was the Executive Director of the Upstate HIV Prevention Coalition in Greenville, SC and has been the volunteer evaluator for Safe Streets of Topeka Kansas for the past eleven years.  Mr. Evensen is the co-founder of two non-profit organizations and currently lives in St Louis, Missouri.

Doug Hall

Pride Surveys, President

Doug Hall was a daily newspaper editor in 1975 when he became involved in Drug and Alcohol Prevention Advocates, one of the first community anti-drug coalitions in the United States.  Under his guidance, the newspaper adopted adolescent drug use as a civic journalism project, championing public funding for DAPA, running a weekly column on drug prevention and giving front page attention to ATOD issues.

In 1987, Doug’s experience with DAPA led to a second career when he joined the National Parents’ Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE). In the early 1990’s he was appointed by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to the National Advisory Council of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).

In 1998, PRIDE founder Dr. Thomas J. Gleaton retired from the organization and established International Survey Associates, which does business as Pride Surveys.  Doug joined ISA as a consultant and worked in that capacity until 2006 when he joined ISA/Pride Surveys full-time as senior vice-president.  He became president of the company in January 2008.

Since 1982 Pride Surveys have been administered in more than 32,000 schools in the US and other countries.  More than 10 million students, parents and faculty members have responded to a Pride Survey.

Andrew Woods

Executive Director, Hartford Communities That Care, Hartford, CT

Woods is the founder of the Stump the Violence Youth Leadership Institute that began in 1998 to address the issues of drug use and violence in Hartford.  He is also a state-certified substance abuse counselor.  Woods has a Bachelor of Human Services degree from Springfield College.  He serves on several community and school boards dealing with drug and violence prevention issues and is a grant reviewer for both the CDC and SAMHSA.