Office of Prevention Services
1300 First Street, NE, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20002
Telephone: (202) 727-8857
Fax: (202) 645-8426
Substance Abuse Prevention
Effectively addressing substance abuse requires a continuum of services that address prevention, treatment, and recovery. APRA’s prevention activities focus on creating conditions for healthy individuals, families, and communities and developing personal skills to prevent the onset, reduce risk and the progression of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among the District’s children and youth. To carry out prevention objectives, the Office of Prevention Services provides the following functions: outcome-based planning; prevention system development; community capacity building; and program monitoring and evaluation. These functions are designed to support the vision of prevention prepared youth, families, and communities.
Prevention Objectives
- Develop and sustain an infrastructure and substance abuse prevention delivery system that seamlessly functions at both the District and Ward levels.
- Develop and sustain a data and evaluation system and increase the use of data for substance abuse prevention planning and evaluation.
- Develop and promote a District of Columbia Prevention Network (DCPN) in order to create awareness, delay the onset of gateway drug use, and reduce the damaging consequences of tobacco use, underage drinking, and other drug use among children and youth.
- Increase community capacity to prevent the onset of and reduce the progression of substance abuse in the District’s eight Wards.
- Implement and support a substance abuse prevention planning process at the District, Ward, and neighborhood levels in order to develop a comprehensive plan that guides substance abuse prevention policy, program planning, and resource allocation decisions.
Prevention Centers
The Prevention Centers are designed to strengthen community capacity, address needed community and systems changes, reduce substance abuse risk factors, and achieve targeted outcomes for District children and youth across all eight Wards and 120 neighborhoods. These Centers are envisioned as dynamic hubs that engage, support, and help connect the many community elements that are needed for promoting healthy children, youth, and families as well as a drug-free District of Columbia. The focus is also on building or strengthening collaborations and partnerships within and across Wards.
Each Prevention Center serves two Wards: Wards 1 and 2, Wards 3 and 4, Wards 5 and 6, and Wards 7 and 8. The Prevention Centers are currently under development. More information will be provided at a later date.
The following are the substance abuse prevention priority outcomes along with risk factors that negatively impact the outcomes:
- Outcome: Increase in attitudes opposed to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use among children and youth
- Risk factor: Favorable parental, caregiver, and adult attitudes toward ATOD use among youth
- Risk factor: Friends/peers who engage in ATOD use
- Outcome: Reduce ATOD risk factors and prevent ATOD use among children and youth
- Risk factor: Early initiation of ATOD use among children and youth.
- Risk factor: Availability and accessibility of ATODs to underage children and youth
- Risk factor: Friends/peers who engage in ATOD use
- Outcome: Increase in families, youth, and concerned citizens who are part of their community’s planning, decision-making, and evaluation for substance abuse prevention
- Risk factor: Low neighborhood attachment and community disorganization contributing toward ATOD use among children and youth
- Risk factor: Community laws and norms favorable toward ATOD
- Risk Factor: Availability and accessibility of ATODs to underage children and youth
- Outcome: Maximum 20%* sales of tobacco to underage youth
- Risk factor: Friends/peers who engage in the use of tobacco products
- Risk factor: Community laws and norms favorable toward ATOD
- Risk Factor: Availability and accessibility of tobacco products to underage youth
(*Note: 20% is a federal mandate.)
Tobacco Enforcement (Synar)In addition to the functions discussed above, APRA is responsible for enforcing the prohibition on selling tobacco to minors. In July 1992, Congress enacted the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act (Public Law 102-321). This law includes what is commonly referred to as the “Synar Amendment.” The Amendment requires States and Territories to enact and enforce laws prohibiting any manufacturer, retailer, or distributor from selling or distributing tobacco products to individuals under the age of 18. The law also requires compliance checks with more than 500 tobacco merchants annually and a District-wide merchant education program.
To report the sale or suspected sale of tobacco to a minor, please contact (202) 727-6916.
Data measures and five year projections are provided in the APRA prevention document entitled “
Youth and Drugs: the Case for Infrastructure and Targeted Strategies in the Nation’s Capital.”
Informational and educational resources are also available. If interested, please call (202) 727-5577.
Prevention Staff Directory:
