............Prevention in the Community

• Easy availability of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
• Commercial and media messages that glamorize use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
• Community norms and cultural messages that support alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse
• Inadequate laws and policies that fail to discourage substance abuse
• Community systems and services that are inadequate to address substance abuse

ESN Prevention Services staff work with local coalitions, organizations, and groups to look at substance abuse problems and plan strategies to address them. These preventionists use a four-phase process called the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to assess, plan, implement strategies, and evaluate results. The process includes assessing local risk factors that encourage substance abuse, as well as the protective factors that are shown to reduce these problems. When determining how to address a particular issue, ESN preventionists refer to Best Practices which have been researched for effectiveness.

The community-based prevention work of the ESN Prevention Services staff currently includes the following coalitions, organizations, or groups in ESN’s three-county service area.

• BEST (Building Esteem Support Teams)
• Bridging Athletics and Academics
• Coalition Toward a Tobacco Free Will County
• Engaging Youth for Positive Change (EYPC)
• Hispanic Latino Coalition
• Joliet Alliance for Youth (JAY)
• Joliet Township High School YESS (Youth Experiencing Success in School)
• Safety Training to Encourage Profitable Service (STEPS) http://www.steps-wkg.blogspot.com/ 
• Smoke-Free Joliet Coalition http://www.smokefreejoliet.org/ 
• Southwest Coalition For Substance Abuse Issues http://www.southwestcoalition.org/ 
• Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community http://www.wilmingtoncoalition.org

• Kendall County Anti-Tobacco Coalition http://www.co.kendall.il.us/health.htm 
• Kendall County Methamphetamine Task Force
• Kendall County Network Project (KCNP)
• Kendall County Youth Service Board (YSB) http://www.kendallcountyysb.org 
• Plano Community Coalition for Character
• Safety Training to Encourage Profitable Service (STEPS) http://www.steps-wkg.blogspot.com/ 
• Targeting Underage Drinking with Environmental Strategies (TUDES)
• Yorkville Wellness Committee

• Grundy County No Tolerance Task Force (NTTF) http://www.nttf.org 
• 13^th Judicial Family Violence Coordinating Council
• Grundy County Interagency Council (GCIC)
• Morris Ministerial Association
• Safety Training to Encourage Profitable Service (STEPS) http://www.steps-wkg.blogspot.com/ 
• Coal City Community Cares Initiative

ESN Substance Abuse Prevention Services are funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention.  NTTF is funded through the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office.