CITY GROUPS UNITE TO PREVENT DRUG ABUSE

A coalition of Billings nonprofit organizations is poised to attack the
community's drug problems with prevention programs.

The Billings Healthier Communities Coalition signed a contract earlier this
month with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services to use
about $800,000 in federal grant funds for a variety of drug, alcohol and
tobacco prevention programs over the next three years. United Way of
Yellowstone County will be the fiscal agent and help handle reimbursement
through the state Addictive and Mental Disorders Division.

This grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Services
Administration was approved last October after months of work by volunteers
from Billings organizations, including both local hospitals and colleges
and the Yellowstone City-County Health Department. It was awarded from an
allocation of nearly $9 million in federal funds that Montana can use for
community drug prevention programs.

After months of processing the Billings grant through federal and state
bureaucracies, first-year funds are just now becoming available. Agencies
that are instituting and expanding programs for Billings kids were informed
Tuesday by state officials that reimbursements can be requested starting
next month.

The largest project to be paid through this grant is a prevention
curriculum that eventually will reach all 16,000 or so District 2 students
in kindergarten through 12th grade. Among other programs are projects
conducted by Family Tree Center, Tumbleweed runaway program, CASA
(community after school program), Boys and Girls Club, Planned Parenthood
and Montana State University-Billings.

Part of the requirement for obtaining this prevention grant is using
programs scientifically proven to produce positive changes in young people.

"The programs that we're putting out there have been tested," said Ernie
Randolfi, an associate professor at MSU-B. "We're not experimenting. We're
replicating programs that have been proven effective, We're not just
wasting people's money." Randolfi and Associate Professor Carl Hanson, both
of the MSU-B health promotion department, wrote the grant application and
are coordinating implementation and evaluation of the programs.

Some of the prevention programs will need the help of community volunteers,
especially for mentoring youth. "That's how we are going to reduce drug use
in our young people," Randolfi said. Young people need caring adults in
their lives to help them avoid involvement with drugs.

Funding is another area in which ongoing community support will be needed.
"This is just an initiation grant. Our funding runs out in three years,"
Randolfi explained. "We have to figure out how to sustain those efforts
after three years."

Big Brothers and Big Sisters is among the programs that will get a boost
from the drug prevention grant. It will provide some money for staff to
recruit adult volunteers as well as recruiting high school students for a
similar one-to-one program.

Big Brothers and Sisters of America's mentoring program was found to be
effective at reducing the "little" brothers and sisters involvement in
risky behaviors, said Reatha Thomas, executive director of the program in
Billings. A 1995 study found that youth who were matched with caring adults
in Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America for a year were 46 percent less
likely to start using drugs.

"This is exactly the program that we do here in Billings," Thomas said.
"We've got something here that works. We've just got to get it working for
more kids that means we need the adult volunteers. We want to be more
proactive when it comes to prevention programs. We don't want to just react
to the statistics."

Thomas said Tuesday that her organization has 70 Billings children ready to
be matched with adult volunteers who will spend some time with them each week.

Pat Bellinghausen can be reached at (406) 657-1303, or by e-mail at
pbelling@billingsgazette.com

(SIDEBAR)

Here are some ideas for participating in Billings drug prevention efforts:

Attend a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in Lincoln Education Center
with Barry McCaffrey, director of the National Office of Drug Policy; Sen.
Max Baucus; Gov. Marc Racicot and other officials to discuss dealing with
drug and addiction problems.

Join the Billings Healthier Community Coalition at its regular meeting at
3:30 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Deaconess Health Conference Center. Business
people, students and other community members are welcome to join this
broad-based group of community agencies involved in health, education and
children's services. The community youth drug prevention grant will be the
first topic of discussion at the meeting.

Advertising and marketing professionals are needed to help a coalition of
Billings nonprofit agencies develop multimedia social norms marketing
campaign with prevention messages. Call Ernie Randolfi, associate professor
at Montana State University, Billings at 657-2123 or e-mail to
randolfi@optimalhealthconcepts.com.

Learn more about opportunities to mentor local youth at "Mentoring 101," at
6:30 p.m. on Jan. 24 at Deaconess Health Conference Center. Call Jessica or
Pam at the United Way Volunteer Center for more information.

Call Big Brothers and Sisters at 248-2229 to learn about become a "big" for
one of the 70 boys and girls waiting for a match. These are Billings
children, ranging in age from 6 to 16.