Partnerships for Success: State and Community Prevention Performance Grant

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (SAMHSA/CSAP) is accepting applications for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 to fund Partnerships for Success: State and Community Prevention Performance Grant (short title: Partnerships for Success). This grant program is designed to provide eligible States and U.S. Territories (collectively referred to as “States”) with grant funds to achieve a quantifiable decline in State-wide substance abuse rates, incorporating a strong incentive to grantees that have met or exceeded their prevention performance targets by the end of Year 3. Grant awards will be made to applicants with the established infrastructure and demonstrated capacity to reduce substance abuse problems and achieve specific program outcomes, as outlined in the RFA. SAMHSA/CSAP intends to offer a performance incentive of $500,000 (in the form of a Program Expansion Supplement). This incentive is designed to reward Partnerships for Success grantees that have met or exceeded their performance targets by the end of Year 3.The Partnerships for Success program is authorized under section 516 of the Public Health Act, as amended. This announcement addresses Healthy People 2010 focus area 26 Substance Abuse.Partnerships for Success GoalsThe purpose of this program is to improve the health and well being of our nation’s communities by providing States and U.S. Territories (collectively referred to as “States”) with grant funds and a special incentive to decrease State-wide substance abuse rates by meeting or exceeding quantified, State-wide, prevention performance targets.The overall goals of Partnerships for Success are as follows: * Reduce substance abuse-related problems; * Prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance abuse, including childhood and underage drinking; * Strengthen capacity and infrastructure at the State- and community-levels in support of prevention; and * Leverage, redirect and realign State-wide funding streams for prevention.To address the Partnerships for Success goals stated above, State applicants will be required to set, in conjunction with SAMHSA/CSAP, State-wide three-year performance targets for substance abuse and will continue to reduce rates after the performance targets are reached. Applicants must also identify and select subrecipient communities that can most effectively collaborate with the State to achieve an overall reduction in State-wide substance abuse rates through the implementation of evidence-based programs, policies and practices. SAMHSA/CSAP intends to offer a key performance incentive (in the form of a Program Expansion Supplement) during Year 4 of the Partnerships for Success grant period to reward States that have met or exceeded their performance targets.The Importance of the Public Health ModelIn order for grantees to be successful in meeting or exceeding their prevention performance targets, CSAP strongly recommends the use of a public health model to address substance abuse problems. The public health approach to reducing substance use and related consequences focuses on preventing health problems and promoting healthy living for whole populations of people (e.g., people who share a common characteristic such as residence in a common geographic region (e.g. county), age (e.g., children) or experience (e.g., pregnant women). Traditionally, substance abuse prevention has been more individual- or person-centered, reflecting its close association with substance abuse treatment. Prevention research, however, has demonstrated that prevention approaches that broadly target population level change are effective in producing measurable improvements in harmful consumption patterns and negative consequences in groups as a whole.Public health as a discipline is concerned with the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. A population of study can be as small as a handful of people or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents. In the field of substance abuse prevention, the public health approach identifies trends in a population as they relate to substance use and abuse. This focus on population health extends beyond the individual level to address a broad range of factors which impact health on a population level, such as the environment, social structure, and distribution of resources.The focus of a substance abuse prevention-based public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat substance abuse through the promotion of healthy behaviors. Inherent in this process is an epidemiological approach. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related events in populations. Epidemiological data describing the extent and distribution of substance use and the consequences of substance use within and across populations is vital to a successful prevention initiative that embodies outcomes-based prevention and a public health approach. Such data allow States to begin answering basic questions that serve as a foundation for data-driven prevention planning. (See Section I-2.2, Guidelines for Choosing State Priority Needs, for a discussion on how epidemiological efforts are critical to the success of Partnerships for Success, through the work of the State Epidemiological and Outcomes Workgroup [SEOW].)The Importance of SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention FrameworkSAMHSA/CSAP expects all of its grantees to follow a proven outcomes-based planning model. The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) represents an effective outcomes-based prevention planning process, a direction and a common set of goals to be adopted and integrated at State and community levels, ultimately resulting in reduced substance abuse. Moving SAMHSA’s SPF from vision to practice is a strategic process that States are undertaking by working in partnership with hundreds of community coalitions and their stakeholders.The Partnerships for Success program is designed to address gaps in prevention services and increase the ability of States to help specific populations or geographic areas with serious, emerging substance abuse problems. Supported by Partnerships for Success funds, States will be able to: 1) leverage and begin to integrate all needed State-wide prevention-related resources, leadership, technical support and monitoring; 2) set measurable, need-based, State-wide performance targets for substance abuse prevention; and 3) partner with identified subrecipient community coalitions to meet those targets. Subrecipient communities will work closely with States to implement evidence-based programs, policies and practices, guided by the five steps of the SPF. The five steps of the SPF are as follows: 1) profile population needs, resources and readiness to address the problems and gaps in service delivery; 2) mobilize and/or build capacity to address needs; 3) develop a comprehensive strategic plan; 4) implement evidence-based prevention policies, programs and practices and infrastructure development activities; and 5) monitor progress, evaluate effectiveness, sustain effective programs/activities, and improve or replace those that fail.The following implementation principles are provided to guide all Partnerships for Success applicants. The principles provide broad guidelines that inform each step of the process, from strategic planning and capacity building, through evaluation and sustainability. They are intended to promote a comprehensive, systems-oriented approach to prevention in each State, as follows: * The SPF promotes a public health model. * The SPF promotes a systems-based approach to substance abuse prevention. * The SPF allows States and communities to build capacity and sustain a culturally-competent infrastructure. * The SPF is an example of outcomes-based prevention. * The SPF requires evidence-based programs, policies and practices as the basis for program implementation. [Refer to specific guidelines under Part I, Section 2.6, Implementing Evidence-Based Programs, Policies and Practices]. * The SPF encourages community-level change through a combination of environmental and individual strategies, which in turn, can promote State-wide change. * The SPF requires States to address substance abuse issues across the life span. Developing and maintaining a prevention system with community involvement that includes a public health approach is crucial to the success of all prevention efforts. CSAP continues to work closely with States to develop comprehensive prevention systems to support healthy communities in which people enjoy a higher quality of life. The role of prevention, as embodied by SAMHSA/CSAP in all its grant programs, is to foster long term community change (including attitudes, perceptions and norms) to achieve “Healthy Communities” in which the following conditions are present: * healthy environments at work and school; * supportive communities and neighborhoods; * healthy connections with family and friends; and * drug- and crime-free environments. Healthy communities refers to an environment where people come together to make their community better for themselves, their family, their friends, their neighbors, and others. It fosters an environment that creates ongoing dialogue, generates leadership opportunities for all, embraces diversity, connects people and resources, fosters a sense of community, and shapes its future.