Drug Free Communities Support Program National Evaluation

Drug Free Communities (DFC) Coalition Leader(s) Interview Protocol

Coalition Leader(s) Interview Introduction

My name is [introduce self and note-taker]. Thank you for agreeing to participate in today’s interview regarding the Drug Free Communities program at [insert name]. The purpose of this interview is to gather information regarding your coalition efforts to increase collaboration and to reduce youth substance abuse, in particular coalition activities which target the seven DFC environmental strategies for community change.

We greatly appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to assist with the national DFC evaluation that ICF International is conducting. You were selected to participate in an interview because your individual perspective represents important issues relevant to this evaluation. We are conducting case studies with nine DFC programs this year to gather information about the planning and implementation of DFC, relationships across all stakeholders, and outputs and impacts of your activities to reduce youth substance use. Please feel free to be open and candid in your responses to our questions, as we will keep this information strictly confidential.

Again, this component of our evaluation is completely voluntary; specifically this means that (1) the interview is voluntary; (2) you can decline to answer any questions, or stop the interview at any time; (3) the information will be held in confidence; and (4) only evaluation staff will have access to the interview tape and interview data (that is, if you agree to be tape recorded).

With your permission, we would also like to record the audio of this interview so that we can transcribe the conversation for accuracy in the analysis and interpretation of your comments along with comments of other staff. Nobody outside of the National Evaluation team will have access to this audio recording. Upon transcription of these recordings as appropriate to the evaluation, we will destroy the recordings themselves, maintaining only written records.

Are there any questions before we begin?

(Interviewer: Please remember to ask permission to tape record the interview. They can decline. Ask if they have any questions for you before you begin.)

DFC Coalition Organizational Structure, Membership, Roles, & Past Experience

1. Leadership

• What is your title and role on the coalition?

• How long have you been involved with your local coalition? In what roles?

• What stakeholder group do you represent (e.g., DFC staff, education, business, neighborhood leader, youth)? How long have you been with this stakeholder group/agency/organization?

• On average, how much time (in hours) do you spend per month related to DFC (e.g., meeting preparation, meetings, work outside meetings, workgroups, attending DFC activities)?

2. Coalition Role(s) & Structure. Please describe for us the structure of your DFC partnership.

Probes: Subcommittees, workgroups, teams, etc. charged with specific tasks

Agency/Organization/Individual and Representative Names(s) * = Prior coalition experience	Role(s) on Coalition and Workgroups/Subcommittees
Parents
DFC Staff (fully or partially supported by DFC funding)
Youth
Business Community
Civic/Volunteer Groups
Healthcare Professionals
Law Enforcement Agency
Media
Religious/Fraternal Organizations
Schools
State, Local and/or Tribal Government Agencies
Youth-Serving Organizations
Other Sector Not Represented Above: ______________________________
Other Sector Not Represented Above: ______________________________
Other Sector Not Represented Above: ______________________________

a. Is DFC funding used to support a DFC director/coordinator or related

staff position? What percent of DFC funds is used for this purpose?

_______%

b. How often does your coalition meet?

Quarterly _____

Bi-monthly _____

Monthly _____

Weekly _____

c. Are there any agencies with whom agreements need to be in place but are not? Any with whom the agreements are not working? Please explain.

3. Key Personnel. Have there been any changes in Key Personnel (Chair, Co-Chair, DFC Coordinator, Local Evaluator, Key Stakeholder(s)?

A. New Employee/Position	B. Former Employee/Position	C. Reason for Change

1. What has been the impact, if any, in changes of coalition leadership on coalition dynamics and effectiveness in the community? On changes in coalition participants?

2. What are they keys to effective coalition leadership?

3. What has been the impact, if any, in changes of local political and community (please specify which one) leaders? Has this helped or hindered efforts? How can coalitions sustain momentum for policy change during transitions in political and local neighborhood leadership?

3. Prior Drug Use Coalitions and/or Activities.

1. What year was your coalition founded?

2. Did your community have any prior experience implementing drug use prevention strategies or was your coalition in existence prior to DFC funding? If so, please describe these past efforts.

c. Do you believe these past activities and efforts increased your readiness and

capacity for the DFC initiative (in terms of having the right people, agencies/organizations, knowledge, skills, resources, leadership, implementation)? Please explain.

DFC Assessment, Capacity & Planning

(This section should be pre-filled from the appropriate sections of COMET, CCT, and related documents and verified on-site. Use a separate font color for information obtained on-site.)

3. Vision/Mission.

   1. What do you see as the main vision and goals for your DFC work?

   2. How were the goals, vision, and mission developed? When?

   3. Who was involved and at what level?

3. Target Population. How did your community select the target population? How did you identify the needs of this population?

1. What assessment activities were conducted? What role, if any, did you have in the needs assessment process?

   1. Did you receive any assistance in these efforts (e.g., local evaluator)?

2. What difficulties, if any, did your coalition experience in conducting assessment activities and selecting a target population (e.g., availability of data, buy-in from participating organizations, turnover)?

3. What specific protective and risk factors, if any, did your community identify to target in order to reduce youth substance use? How?

4. What size of population does your coalition serve?

5. Given the findings from your assessment activities, and coalition discussions during the planning phase, what do you feel are the strengths of your strategic plan?

   1. What do you see, if anything, as potential challenges in implementing your strategic plan? (For instance, do you feel that your strategic plan is realistic in terms of goals and the timeline associated with these goals – please explain?).

3. Cultural Competence. Did the coalition assess the cultural competence of various aspects of your system, such as in coalition policies, procedures, and practices; in coalition representatives; in any contracts with service providers; in available services?

Other areas?

1. Have any activities been planned to increase cultural competence within your coalition (e.g., coalition representation), or throughout your system - including at the level of service availability, service delivery, in staff? If yes, what has been planned/conducted?

2. If so, what are the expected outcomes/successes of these efforts? What, if any, results have been accomplished to date? What challenges have been encountered?

3. Youth/Family Involvement.

   1. What activities have been planned/conducted to increase family and youth involvement?

   2. How many parents of the target population are actively involved? How many youth are actively involved? In what capacity (please describe)?

3. Collaboration. How well do different agencies work together to meet the needs of your target population?

1. Would you say the right organizations and right people are active and engaged in your DFC partnership? Is there any individual or agency representative missing that could help coalition efforts to reduce youth substance use? Please explain.

2. Are all the key neighborhood leaders involved in the effort? What are the challenges or facilitators of bringing in neighborhood leaders?

3. What efforts have been made to recruit those who are missing?

4. If you are in a rural community, how have you worked across jurisdictional boundaries to build capacity?

5. If you are in an urban community, how have you co-opted other prevention initiatives in lieu of competing with them?

Implementation

3. What key activities has your DFC coalition planned or implemented to increase collaboration between coalition members? The broader community?

1. Can you describe the activity? Was it successful? What challenges did the coalition encounter and how were these resolved?

2. Was your organization involved (or were you involved if DFC staff)? How?

3. What sectors were represented in this effort? Which agencies took the greatest lead in implementing the activity (please name up to 3)?

4. What percent of time, in terms of coalition time and energy, did your coalition spend on this activity?

5. How many individuals or organizations did the activity impact? Please describe in detail.

6. How did the coalition involve families and youth from the target population in implementation activities and efforts? How many families and youths were involved and what were their roles and responsibilities?

3. What activities has your DFC coalition planned or implemented to decrease youth substance use in the targeted communities?

1. Can you describe the activity? To what extent did this activity contribute to your coalition achieving its objectives and goals (i.e., youth substance use reduction)? What makes/made this activity successful? What challenges did the coalition encounter and how were they resolved?

2. What type(s) of overarching strategy(ies) did your activity target?

3. Was your organization involved? How?

4. What sectors were represented in these efforts? Which agencies took the greatest lead in implementing the activity (please name up to 3)?

5. What percent of time, in terms of coalition time and energy, did your coalition spend on this activity?

6. What adaptations, if any, were necessary to achieve success?

7. How did the coalition involve families and youth from the target population in implementation activities and efforts? How many family and youths were involved and what were their roles and responsibilities?

Community and DFC Strategies

3. How would you describe your local community – is it safe, is there a good sense of community, are drugs readily available, are there enough recreation areas and other facilities for pro-social activities for youth?

   1. Has DFC had any impacts on the local community? Please describe.

3. Of the seven DFC strategies, were there any particular you felt made the most difference – in terms of increasing collaboration or decreasing youth substance use/abuse?

   1. Do you have any recommendations for future DFC communities on what strategies or activities that were particularly effective?

3. How are data and evaluation findings incorporated into future planning and implementation activities?

DFC Impacts & Outcomes

3. What community and systems changes (e.g., increased ownership of drug use issues, increase in safety, increase in community identity and sense of community) have resulted from DFC activities? What do you feel was responsible for this change or changes? Why?

   1. Has your DFC coalition generated momentum in the community (i.e., engaging community members)?

   2. How (formalized strategy, grassroots campaign)?

3. Have core outcomes for your identified target population changed during the DFC initiative? If so, how? What do you feel was responsible for this change in core outcomes?

Critical Events

3. What key events most influenced the activities and impacts of your DFC coalition (critical events)?

1. Specifically, what are the two or three greatest facilitators to implementation of DFC activities and community change?

b. Specifically, what are the two or three greatest barriers to implementation of DFC activities and community change?

Sustainability

3. What has your coalition done, if anything, to ensure sustainability of your drug use

prevention effort for when federal funding is terminated?

a. What are the keys to sustaining a coalition over time?

DFC Coalition Leader(s) Interview Protocol Page 7