GRANTEE IN FOCUS
GCRCF grant helps support ASAC ongoing prevention efforts
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Melissa Walker, ASAC’s deputy director of prevention services
Substantial funding cuts at state and federal levels threatened to undermine ongoing substance abuse prevention efforts of the Area Substance Abuse Council (ASAC) in the community. Fortunately, a two-year, $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation’s Momentum Fund will erase that threat. The funding for 2011-12 also enables ASAC to continue a more comprehensive approach in teaching prevention and healthy decision-making skills to kids at risk for addiction and substance abuse. The partnership with schools that works directly with students and parents is still an integral part of ASAC’s work, explains Melissa Walker, ASAC’s deputy director of prevention services. But ASAC advocates are charting a new path that links direct interaction with kids and broader approaches to establish healthy attitudes community-wide. “It’s becoming a challenge within our field to find funding,” Walker
explains. “We used to target specific groups of kids in school. That works, but you only affect those individual groups. It’s a more effective use of funding and staff time to go beyond just working with curriculum.” ASAC works with community coalitions to reduce youth use and access to alcohol, prescription drugs, marijuana and tobacco. Examples abound: the Rural Communities Reducing Alcohol in Linn (RC RAIL); an alcohol-free graduation sign campaign encouraging alcohol-free graduation parties; working with pharmacies on a Prescription Drug Drive to raise awareness of prescription drug abuse among youth, and decrease the number of prescriptions available by collecting expired or unwanted prescription drugs. “These kinds of programs have such a large effect on the community as a whole,” Walker explains. “We want to have a greater impact through changing policies and raising awareness.”
ASAC served more than 20,000 people in Linn County in 2009 and anticipates serving that many or more through 2011. Facing more than $200,000 in funding cuts, ASAC turned to the GCRCF for help. “We’ve been fortunate to have entities like the GCRCF that are supportive of big-picture programming,” Walker notes. “Not very many communities have that kind of support.” ASAC and collaborative efforts seem to be working. From 2005 to 2008, the percentage of 11th graders who admitted using alcohol in the previous month dropped from 32 percent to 29 percent in Linn County; the 2008 state average was 36 percent. Tobacco use is also down. But there’s more work ahead, Walker adds. “We need to help prepare the community to be there for these kids when they go home,” Walker says. “The Community Foundation grant allows us to address the changing needs of the community. It’s a great resource.”
Philanthropists of the Year winners As part of National Philanthropy Day, John and Dyan Smith of Cedar Rapids received the 2010 Individual Philanthropists of the Year award presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Eastern Iowa Chapter. Les Garner, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, nominated the Smiths along with several other organizations including Cornell College, Four Oaks, Mercy Foundation and the United Way of East Central Iowa. Through personal gifts and corporate gifts from their family business (CRST International) the Smith family has contributed to the betterment of life in Eastern Iowa through their support of the arts, human services and education. 10 The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation
www.gcrcf.org