Awareness
The world is constantly evolving around us and with those evolutions come new substances, new trends for drug use and mental health issues, and new tools and strategies for preventing substance misuse and promoting mental health wellness. At Prevention Action Alliance, we work to raise awareness about the issues that affect everyday people, families, and communities.
Supporting Everyday Prevention
Everyone has a role in prevention, and prevention can happen every day. In order to support everyday prevention in a virtual world, we created Everyday Prevention. Everyday Prevention shared practical tips for implementing the Developmental Assets Framework by Search Institute.
In all, we shared 40 tips, one for each of the 40 Developmental Assets. These tips include information about the Developmental Assets and ways you can support even during COVID-19.
During the 2019–2020 fiscal year, 283 people from nine states signed up to receive daily Everyday Prevention emails. Afterward, we surveyed participants to see how effective and useful the campaign was. 84 percent of survey respondents said the campaign increased their awareness of how to engage with youth, and 88 percent said Everyday Prevention increased their awareness of the positive benefits of the Developmental Assets.
Since the initial campaign, Everyday Prevention has become a self-paced email series. Anyone can sign up for Everyday Prevention on our website.
Keeping Parents and Teachers in the Know!
The 2019–2020 fiscal year saw a lot of upheaval in families and schools. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many schools across the country, but the pandemic created a surge of mental and behavioral health issues. To respond to this surge, we created parent and teacher tips to help adjust to the new normal.
“Prevention Action Alliance is taking the lead in providing parents with these not-easy-to-have conversations but breaking them down into manageable talks.”
—Amy Macechko
Health and wellness coordinator, Talawanda School District
These Know! tips help parents, educators, and other caring adults play their role in prevention by protecting the young person in their lives from unhealthy behaviors, including alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. The COVID-19 pandemic puts young people and parents under incredible stress, and we shared ways they can combat feelings of stress, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression. During the 2019 fiscal year, we shared these tips with more than 60,000 parents and teachers monthly.
Preventing Problem Gambling
Ohio for Responsible Gambling, which Prevention Action Alliance supports, launched the Get Set Before You Bet public awareness campaign in 2015. This campaign addresses the risk of problem gambling by highlighting warning signs of problem gambling and encouraging people to get help if they need it. ORG also ran the Change the Game campaign, which raises awareness about youth gambling and helps adults prevent youth gambling in their communities.
To raise awareness among their target audiences, the campaigns ran pre-roll video, social media, display, and search ads. In the 2020 fiscal year, the two campaigns’ ads were viewed more than 24 million times. Additionally, more than 4,000 people took the Get Set Before You Bet quiz and more than 1,200 people visited the Community Toolkit.