By Amanda Winn, 8/19/21, positiveexperience.org/blog
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing examples of how different organizations from our HOPE Innovation Network (HIN) have added elements of the HOPE framework into their day-to-day practice. This HOPE in Practice blog series hopes to shine a light on what HOPE looks like in different settings, from pediatric clinics to substance use treatment and the local YMCA. We are starting the series in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota.
When an organization says that they hope to reach their whole community with the services and support they offer, they are generally speaking aspirationally. Tammie Doebler and Sandy Peterson with the Lake of the Woods Prevention Coalition at Lake of the Woods School in Minnesota are speaking literally, though. Lake of the Woods is a county of about 4,000 people. They have one grocery store, one hospital, and one K-12 school that serves all of their 470 children. Tammie and her team know every child in that school by name, and most of their parents.
Lake of the Woods is a close-knit group, and word travels fast in the community. Eleven years ago, the Prevention Coalition began using The Montana Institute’s Positive Community Norms Framework to empower students to make healthy and safe choices when it comes to NOT using alcohol and other drugs. The Positive Community Norms Approach is proven to correct misperceptions of norms and change community narratives. The data was clear, MOST students were NOT using alcohol or drugs. But most students, parents, and community adults thought that MOST students were using substances regularly.
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