Montana Prevention Coalition

A state-wide initiative to reduce underage and binge drinking by youth under the age of 21

Boyd Andrew Community Services was awarded a contract with the State of Montana, Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) in 2011 to administer and manage the Montana Prevention Coalition (MPC). MPC’s goal is to reduce underage drinking to include youth and young adults up to the age of 21. The Montana Prevention Coalition consists of eleven separate ‘state approved’ chemical dependency treatment and prevention programs who will provide environmental prevention services within all 62 Montana counties.

This is achieved by using the Strategic Prevention Framework to identify needs to be addressed, expand the capacity of MPC coalitions to address those needs, select specific evidence based environmental policies and practices based on the results of the assessment processes, implement the strategies according to community resources and readiness and continually evaluate each strategy for effectiveness throughout the life of the project so changes in program delivery or activities can be made as necessary.

To realize its goal MPC members will change community norms that support underage drinking; it will reduce the availability of alcohol for minors through increased law enforcement activities and provide alcohol servers training: it will develop community groups to create policies that prevent underage drinking by building new and supporting on-going coalitions; and it will change local policies and practices around alcohol and address emerging substance abuse and drug related issues through the establishment of a statewide SAPT-BG advisory committee.

MPC works closely with the Native American Chemical Dependency Directors Association (NACDDA) to ensure activities are culturally relevant to the Native American population and to better integrate prevention services through out Montana.