Making Sobriety Attractive (MSA)

Funded by: SAMHSA Drug Free Communities Support Program (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Implemented by: ALERT Labs, Nancy L. Harper, Ph.D., Project Director;
Fall 2005 – Fall 2010, renewable for 2010-2015.

Abstract:

The Kent County Prevention Coalition (Coalition) supports an environmental management project* in Kent County, Michigan. ALERT Labs delivers the program using a social norms campaign which is implemented within selected high schools, in combination with an intervention program, STARR (Screen, Test and Refer for Recovery) for 14 – 20 year old high school and college students.

The overall goal of the Campaign is to reduce youth use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drugs. STARR functions to intervene with students who have begun to use AOD in order to restore them to sobriety.

MSA is an adaptation of a U.S. Department of Education Model Program, the ALERT Labs prevention program developed by Dr. Nancy L. Harper. Collaborating entities include local media and professional education units as well as with Network 180 (the Kent County Community Mental Health and Substance Use Authority), the Kent County Health Department, and a variety of other community organizations and institutions, e.g., county school districts, prevention and treatment professionals, and local recovery support groups.

Project funding can be renewed for up to five years. If successful, the project can then apply for an additional five years of funding. The project requires matching funds from the community. The prevention effort will focus on young people by bringing programming into the public schools around the population center of the County (Grand Rapids) and into the public eye through Town Halls, billboards, yard signs, newspaper and magazine ads, and local radio and television programming.

*According to the Environmental Management Model, comprehensive prevention requires analyses of, and actions to, adjust the following: