Van Buren County IPFS Project Update

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition was awarded the Iowa Partnership for Success (IPFS) Grant in February 2015 to address underage drinking and underage binge drinking in Van Buren County.  The coalition began the fifth year of this five year grant on September 30, 2018.  The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition’s IPFS project is funded by Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

During the final year of the IPFS Project the coalition continued to build capacity, built sustainability for the strategies with the most positive results, evaluated the work completed, and implemented the five strategies it was funded to work on as follows:  

1) Alcohol Restrictions at Community Events at Privately Owned Facilities: The coalition worked with privately owned facilities to help them write, adopt and implement alcohol policies focused on the Best Practices for Alcohol Service at their location.  During the year the coalition members continued to work with three of the ten facilities in Van Buren County to encourage implementation of alcohol restrictions policies.  None of these implemented a new policy.  Four of the ten facilities had already adopted and implemented new written alcohol restriction policies since 2016.  The coalition would recommend that all facilities in the county put into place a written alcohol restriction policy.  The coalition worked with local law enforcement and IDPH to provide training on how to enforce these new policies. 

2) Alcohol Restrictions in Public Places: One town has a written no alcohol allowed policy for their ballpark and will be hanging signage that states the new policy.  One town allowed the coalition to participate in a community event planning committee, but no new policy was written for their community events.  One town decided to not write a policy but hung information at their parks about not providing alcohol to anyone under the age of 21 at the parks.  Another town considered an alcohol restriction policy for their new sports complex and baseball fields and then chose not to implement one at this time. The coalition worked with local law enforcement and IDPH to provide training on how to enforce these new policies. 

3) Substance Abuse Prevention Programs for Youth: The coalition has worked with the Van Buren Community School District to implement the Botvin Life Skills Training Program in the 7th and 8th grades since the 2016-17 school year.  During the 2018-19 school year 97% of the 7th and 8th grade students completed the Life Skills Curriculum.  There was also a 7% increase in the students reporting on the pre/posttests that they would definitely and probably would say no when someone tries to get them to drink beer, wine, or liquor.  The Life Skills program will continue to be implemented at the Van Buren County Community Middle School for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years per a Memorandum of Understanding the district signed with the SAFE Coalition.

4) Underage Drinking Prevention Media Campaign: The coalition has worked with local media outlets to implement IDPH’s “What Do You Throw Away” underage drinking prevention media campaign.  It has been displayed on posters in the Van Buren County Hospital & Clinics; posters at local libraries; on the SAFE Coalition’s Facebook pages, Website, and Blog; on the billboard in Keosauqua; and posters at the Van Buren Community Middle/High School.  During the 2019-20 school year the Youth Leadership Council members helped by placing the media campaign ads on their personal social media accounts to reach their peers with the message.  During the summer of 2019, the coalition worked to have the campaign displayed in poster form at local convenience stores, the Keosauqua Pool, Local Baseball Parks, and at Lacey Keosauqua State Park. The coalition will continue to work with local media outlets to ensure youth are exposed to the media campaign. 

5) Social Host Ordinance: A Social Host Ordinance would address the problem of people knowingly providing a place for underage drinking to happen in Van Buren County.  The coalition worked to educate community members and government officials on why this ordinance would be helpful in Van Buren County and to build support for the ordinance.  Coalition members are attended community meetings to help educate community members about the ordinance, about how to approach local government officials to encourage support for the ordinance and to allow for discussion on the need for such policies in Van Buren County.  They have also some signatures on a petition of support for a local social host ordinance to submit to the Van Buren County Board of Supervisors.  In the end, the coalition has not yet gained enough support to take the proposed ordinance back to the Board of Supervisors.  The coalition members still believe this is a tool that would be helpful in reducing underage drinking and binge drinking in Van Buren County.