Course Descriptions and Learning Objectives
Instructor bios are available by clicking on each person's name

Drug Free Community (DFC) New Grantee Year One Training- Week Two
DFC YEAR 1 GRANTEES AND YEAR 6 NEW HIRES ONLY!
Trainers: Carlton Hall, Deacon D. Dzierzawski and Rhonda Ramsey Molina

April 8-10, 2008

This training track is designed for Year 1 DFC grantees. CADCA's National Coalition Institute, together with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) have developed a three-part training plan for Year One DFC grantees. The plan is based on the CADCA National Coalition Academy model, and consists of three separate training events. The first took place at the DFC New Grantee Meeting held in Washington DC in January 2008. The second event consists of a three-day training track to be offered at the Atlanta regional training. Unlike the New Grantee training, which was required, the Atlanta training event is optional for Year One DFC grantees. The third, and last event will be held in Palm Springs, CA, during CADCA's Mid-Year Training Institute July 28 - 31, 2008.

Focused on improving the competencies of the grantee coalitions and their ability to develop key products that correlate to their DFC goals, this three-day training is designed to build participant skills and provide the coalition team members with an opportunity to apply these skills with instructor support.

Learning Objectives:
Review week one (New Grantee Training in DC) content planning products from week one:

• Community Assessment
• Logic Model

Deepen participant understanding of how to:

• Create strategic and action plans
• Evaluate the coalition

Assist particpants in the development of plans to implement coalition evaluation activities.

• Strategic and Action Plan
• Evaluation Plan

Coalition Sustainability: Don't Leave Your Change to Chance
NEW WORKSHOP!
Trainer: Paul Evensen

April 8-9, 2008

If you have heard the word "sustainability" a thousand times but still aren't sure exactly what it means or how to plan for it, then this class if for you! This two-day course will explain the fundamentals of sustainability, teach the basic steps involved in creating a sustainability plan, show you how to conduct sustainability planning in your home coalition and provide examples of what sustainability plans actually look like. A panel of coalition experts will share "real life" strategies used to sustain their resources, efforts, and outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will understand the differences between planning to sustain individual interventions and planning to sustain an overall coalition or community partnership.
• Participants will know how and when to use a six step planning process to sustain individual interventions.
• Participants will understand how each key coalition planning product (community assessment, logic model, intervention map, and evaluation plan) forms the foundation for a high quality coalition sustainability plan.
• Participants will know how and when to use a six step planning process to sustain an overall coalition or community partnership.
• Participants will be familiar with the most popular formats for coalition sustainability plans.
• Participants will know the characteristics of effective sustainability plans and will be able to use these characteristics to critique and improve their own coalition sustainability plan.

Environmental Approach to Alcohol and Drug Problems:
Implementing Strategies with the Power to Change Communities
NEW WORKSHOP!
Trainer: Michael Sparks

April 10, 2008

This one day training will provide an overview of the principles of the environmental approach to preventing alcohol and other drug problems. Through presentations and interactive activities, participants will explore the evidence-based strategies that have been show effective in preventing AOD problems. The training will also present promising new environmental strategies focusing on preventing illicit drug problems.

Participants will have the opportunity to examine which strategies may have relevance to their local communities through exploration of their unique local conditions that serve as contributing factors to AOD problems. Special emphasis will be placed on exploring strategies that impact community systems as well as those that impact problems at the neighborhood level.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain an understanding of the principles of environmental approach to preventing alcohol and other drug problems
• Participants will explore the strategies that may be relevant to addressing their local community issues
• Participants will develop a set of next steps to guide their implementation of this approach in their local community

Capturing the Four Core Measures: A Guide for Drug-Free Communities Grantees
NEW WORKSHOP--DFC GRANTEES ONLY!
Trainers: Dave Shavel and Evelyn Yang

April 11, 2008

The purpose of the Workshop is to enhance DFC grantees’ ability to collect and report the DFC core measures. The workshop provides an opportunity for grantees to engage in hands-on problem solving to address their specific challenges in collecting and reporting core measures. After receiving an overview of the purpose and function of the core measures and training on collecting core measures, participants will be able to select “troubleshooting” sessions that address specific aspects related to the core measure data including:

• Working with schools to ensure the administration of a valid student survey
• Ensuring appropriate survey sampling
• Ways the coalition can support the student survey

By the conclusion of the workshop, each DFC Grantee will have developed a list of specific “next steps” necessary to enhance their collection and reporting of core measures.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

• Increase their ability to collect and report valid core measures
• Understand DFC core measure data collection and reporting requirements and the cross site evaluation
• Develop a plan to enhance the collection of core measures and other appropriate measures
• Troubleshoot existing core measures concerns

Coalition Evaluation: Making Data, Efforts and Outcomes Matter
NEW WORKSHOP!
Trainer: Carlton Hall and Deacon D. Dzierzawski

April 11, 2008

This one-day course focuses on creating an evaluation plan, establishing a documentation system, selecting appropriate outcome measures and conducting an analysis of contribution. Participants will learn how to systematically track the "dose" of the coalition's work in the community and determining whether the "dose" is contributing to improvement in community level indicators. The course is designed for coalition staff who will be conducting the evaluation without the help of a professional evaluator.

Learning Objectives:

• Key differences between research & evaluation
• Three major elements in coalition evaluation
• Techniques to overcome major challenges in coalition evaluation