PROGRAM FIGHTS USE OF DRUGS BY YOUTH

Federal Grant Used To Set Up Treatment Centers In Low-Income Areas

Like any good mother, Delphine Byther is concerned that drugs might
find their way into the life of her 15-year-old son.

"I would be less than a mother not to worry," said Byther, a resident
of the Roger Williams housing development and the president of its
tenant association. "He has to leave, he has to go out, go to school,
walk through the neighborhood to get home."

So far, Byther said her worries remain just that -- Kendrick has
never done drugs, they both say. In fact, Kendrick said he's never
even been offered drugs.

But his mother's concerns are real. From suburbs to inner-cities,
marijuana, cocaine and alcohol have crept their way into the lives of
young people, and the problems are no less severe in low-income
neighborhoods like Roger Williams.

In Mobile and Prichard's poorest communities, alcohol and marijuana
use among young teenagers is two and al most three times higher than
the national average, said John Bolland, director of the Institute
for Social Science Research at the University of Alabama. Those
findings mirror low-income neighborhoods across the nation, he said.

Bolland has done extensive research in Mobile-area low-income
neighborhoods and recently obtained a one-time $3.74 million federal
grant to set up treatment centers for youths in Roger Williams and
Trinity Gardens in north Mobile, along with the Alabama Village, Gulf
Village and Snug Harbor in Prichard.

Bolland said that he hopes the five-year program will do more than
reduce drug and alcohol use. He said community development projects
will aim to reduce the hopelessness felt by many young people.

"I don't think that we're going to get rid of poverty in five years,
I don't think that there will be a waiting list to get into Alabama
Village because it's such a great place to live, but I do think there
will be some (more) people who will be accepting the challenge to
make their neighborhoods a better place to live," Bolland said.

The crux of Bolland's program, Strengthening Neighborhood Investment,
is the outpatient treatment centers scheduled to be set up next year.
Housed in churches and apartments, the treatment centers will offer
counseling for 10- to 20-year-olds, and case managers will connect
them with other services, if needed.

The counseling will be done by public or nonprofit agencies that are
awarded contracts.

The centers possibly could turn into a resource outlet for the
community if other groups get involved, Bolland said. For example,
health screenings could be offered once a month or maybe a local
college could visit with admission applications and scholarship
information.

In the next year, Bolland said neighborhood councils will be set up
to initiate community building efforts -- a neighborhood welcoming
committee, or possibly classes to teach word processing. Bolland also
is forming an advisory and brainstorming group made up of state and
local agencies along with residents.

The program departs from traditional methods by putting treatment in
the middle of the affected neighborhoods, said Sheron Thames,
director of the Mobile Teen Center and a member of Bolland's advisory
consortium. She said making counseling more accessible can take some
of the taboo out of seeking treatment.

The goal of the community development programs is to galvanize
support for reform, Thames said. "It's trying to bring the community
together to realize this is a problem and we need to address this
problem as a community," Thames said.

There were nearly 8,100 people living in the targeted communities in
1990, the most recent year for which numbers are available, Bolland
said. Of that number, 1,735 were 10- to 20-year-olds.

Bolland said that younger teenagers who took part in his study
reported drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana at an earlier age
compared with national statistics. Despite perceptions, Bolland said,
rates for older teenagers are about par with national figures.

Although he didn't have a comparison for cocaine use, Bolland said he
suspects that it is higher than usual in the targeted neighborhoods.
Still, alcohol and marijuana by far are the drugs of choice.

Bolland started his research in 1998, focusing on 13 neighborhoods in
Mobile and Prichard. Each summer, university students would go into
the community and survey young people about their habits, feelings
and circumstances.

That research was used to get the grant from the Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. Trinity Gardens, a neighborhood that has seen a turnaround
in recent years, was not part of the original 13 but was added this
summer partly for the purpose of applying for the grant.

Ossia Edwards, a Prichard councilwoman and nurse for the Mobile
County school system, said drugs flourish in poorer areas where
people are apathetic, deprived and vulnerable. She said children have
trouble paying attention in school when they're "zonked out" on
marijuana, and drug use can affect school attendance.

"Anything I think that's going to try to address the drug problem, I
think would help," Edwards said. "And it is needed."