Bach Harrison Report Fall 2021
Final Appendages (Raw Survey Data)
Program Overview - 2022
Organizational Description:
The Discovery Family Coalition brings together local cities, school districts, police departments, media, community organizations, non-profit organizations, government agencies, libraries and businesses. My Discovery Destination! (MyDD!) serves as the fiscal agent and coordinates efforts of other coalition members. In addition to local coalition members, we are joined by a number of state and national partners including Uplift Families, Blue Star Families, the Utah State Board of Education and their Utah Civic Learning Collaborative, Let’s All Do Good, DigCit Institute, Youth Service America, UServe Utah, and Epik Deliberate Digital.
Coalition members work together to implement the Discovery Family Program, a comprehensive community change process that focuses on supporting parents in the home to prevent problems before they start. We know that families play multiple key roles in the lives of their youth across home, school, and community activities, setting expectations for their youth’s future, connecting youth with school and community activities, supporting relationships, monitoring progress toward goals, and helping youth take care of personal needs. We believe family involvement can and should be a critical support to help youth achieve their goals and therefore, we work to empower parents to become social development strategy experts in their own homes.
The foundation of the coalition, the Discovery Family program, is a way to start early and execute often and repeatedly to get ahead of the curve instead of reacting to problems in kids after they happen. Rather than always being in the reactive cycle, it helps parents and communities move upstream and get ahead of the problem by strengthening families through quality family time and supporting parents in doing a better job of raising children to keep them out of trouble in the first place.
The coalition works on the philosophy that if we provide young people meaningful opportunities to be involved at home and in the community, teach them the skills to be successfully involved, and recognize them for their involvement, they will develop stronger bonds to the adults in their lives and to the community, avoid risky behaviors, and be prepared to contribute in positive ways as adults. The strength of the process is that it engages parents as key partners and empowers them to reduce risk factors and strengthen protective factors across the board to prevent drug and substance abuse, smoking, bullying, crime, anxiety and depression, low commitment to school and even suicide before it happens.
The Lead Coordinator on this project has been building effective local and national coalitions to bring organizations together to collaborate for the benefit of youth and families for more than three decades. One of the unique strengths of the coalition is that each partner determines their contribution and engages as they are able to without being required to attend non-related meetings. The project team coordinates with each coalition member/partner on specific contributions. This results in a more efficient utilization of coalition members' time.
The Discovery Family coalition has a unique ability to reach families regularly and consistently as shown by a recent head-to-head comparison. In September 2020 four media outlets spent six days promoting the same event. The data showed that we reached seven times as many families as KUTV and 17 times as many families as the largest parent organization in the state (Utah PTA) over a six day period! Our reach has more than doubled since that time.
Proposal Summary:
Everything about the Discovery Family Adventures, the foundation of this proposal, is designed to strengthen families and build resilience in youth. We do this by bringing stakeholders in the community who care about young people together around a common, evidence-based framework to promote the healthy development of young people. The proposal provides tools and support needed to create a safer, healthier home environment based on family bonding and togetherness, resulting in a reduction of known risk factors in the community and enhanced protective factors. Most importantly, it empowers adults in the community, especially parents, to learn and begin using evidence-based strategies to achieve better outcomes for young people.
Community Description:
The target demographic for this project is families with children under age 18. The goal of the program is to provide plenty of opportunities for families to spend quality time together and to teach parents to apply the social development strategy at home.
Lyndon B Johnson said, “The family is the cornerstone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child . . . Unless we work to strengthen the family . . . all the rest– schools, playgrounds, public assistance, and private concern will never be enough.”
Our coalition members focus on engaging parents as key partners and stakeholders in the prevention efforts to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors for our youth.
One of the most effective characteristics of the Discovery Family program is the unique ability to be widely available to any family that wants to participate. Community Coordinators and the Executive Team maintain the various elements of the program such as the Discover Family Fun communities, the Adventures and seasonal programs. These programs can then be accessed by any family in the geographic area served, usually a city or county. In addition, the built-in flexibility of the adventures makes it possible for families of all ages, or even mixed ages, to participate. While implementation of a particular adventure may look very different for a family with young children than it does for a family of teenagers, the result is the same: bonding happens and parents are supported in their efforts and indirectly trained in the social development strategy principles.
Many prevention programs carry a cost per family price tag, limiting the number of families that can be served. For example, if the cost per family is $100 a $10,000 investment can serve a maximum of 100 families. Because of these limitations, it is common to limit services to families in specific categories that tend to have the greatest need such as low income or at-risk families, specific age groups or nationalities, etc. Since we are so used to prevention programs having this type of ‘per child’ ‘per family’ ‘per school’ or ‘per area’ price tag, it can be hard to imagine that one program has the capacity to serve and impact a large number of families without additional funding.
However, with the Discovery Family Coalition programs, once established in a community, they can serve 100,000 families as easily as they serve 100 families. The funding requirement is to cover the cost for staff and resources to create and maintain the programs in the local area. Once that is done, it is available to everyone that chooses to participate. The only limitation is letting families know about the program and getting families connected to the resources. That is where the power of the coalition and involving all sectors of the community becomes critical. New partnerships are continually developed to help reach more families in your community.
In summary, a small investment to cover the cost for staff, development and family reward events makes the program available to all families in the community regardless of income, nationality, or any other family characteristic. In addition, other common barriers to family engagement are also eliminated:
❏ Time and Schedule: because the program focuses on the home and is implemented on the individual schedules of each participating family there are no time limitations. Families do not need to worry about fitting the program with someone else’s schedule.
❏ Transportation: because the program is delivered in or near the home the need for transportation is eliminated.
❏ Childcare: because the program involves the entire family there is no need for childcare
❏ Attitude and expectation barriers. Because the program is able to serve ALL families, there is no stigma attached or fear of being judged or labeled for participating in a program for ‘at-risk’ families. Parents do not feel any embarrassment or sense of failure. In fact, it gives participating parents a sense of pride and fulfillment for being an ‘involved’ parent and engaging with their children. What they learn through the program also helps them feel empowered as parents and instills a sense of accomplishment as parents.
❏ Privacy and Consequences: There is no loss of privacy or consequences for signing up, i.e. immigration or citizenship concerns. Families can participate without ever providing any identifiable information if that’s important to them.
❏ Parent’s Choice: Since the program is not mandated there is no sense of being required or being punitive. Parents participate because they want to be good parents, and therefore they get to feel good about their participation and experience a personal victory as a parent.
Statement of the Problem:
The SHARP survey, a tool used to measure risk and protective factors in our youth, provide detailed information about youth behavior in our communities across the state.
While each community differs in the challenges their youth are facing, at the core of all of these statistics is the problem that we have not fully tapped into our greatest and most effective resource: PARENTS! If research shows that the key to prevention is to provide opportunities for and rewards for prosocial behavior in the home, we must find a way to engage parents in the process. In order to do this, they need to be aware of the different components of the social development strategy, they need to be supported in their role, they need to be given opportunities and resources, and they need to be taught how to turn the everyday experiences they already have with their children into social development opportunities. Furthermore, they need to be reminded on a regular basis of what they already know and what they have learned.
We must keep in mind that most parents are not immersed in prevention talk and strategies on a daily basis like we are. Just as we sometimes get so focused on our prevention work that we may forget other things going on around us, parents are immersed in their work and challenges and parenting, and sometimes they get so busy being parents that they ‘forget’ what they already know. We must create regular reminders for them in a way that is helpful, supportive, and encouraging. It is important to teach parents what they don’t know about the social development strategy, but it is equally important to REMIND them what they DO know and support their efforts, whether big or small, to implement it in their homes.
Imagine what our communities would be like if every parent were a prevention specialist in their own home. Imagine a world where every child was provided with opportunities and rewards for prosocial development in the home and the community. We can’t make parents become prevention specialists, but we can certainly provide every parent with an opportunity to become one, reward them for making the effort, and provide ongoing, regular reminders and opportunities to do more of what they have learned.
Risk/Protective Factors Addressed:
Our coalition members will work together with each other and key stakeholders in the community to increase protective factors throughout the community by delivering the Discovery Family program and its complementing components to any family in the area that chooses to participate. The Discovery Family Program directly addresses the following risk/protective factors:
❏ Parent Attitudes and Youth Perceptions. Utilizing local Facebook communities, we will implement strategies to address parent attitudes and youth perceptions through a prevention messaging campaign.
❏ Family Bonding, Opportunities & Rewards for Prosocial behavior in the home and community. Utilizing the Discovery Family Program, which incorporates the social development strategy from the Communities that Care program we will increase family bonding and provide opportunities and rewards for prosocial behavior at home and in the community.
❏ Family Attachment. Every aspect of the program is intentionally designed to create attachment to parents, family and the young person’s community.
Following is a breakdown of how various components of the program directly address the chosen risk/protective factors:
→ Family Attachment (Discovery Family Adventures/Summer Passport, Discover Family Fun communities)
→ Opportunities for prosocial behaviors at home (Discovery Family Adventures/Summer Passport)
→ Rewards for prosocial behaviors at home (TIPS section and Family Reward Events)
→ Opportunities for prosocial behaviors in the community (Community Engagement level of each Adventure, Service Projects and Youth Conversations)
→ Rewards for prosocial behavior in the community (Family Reward Events)
→ Low neighborhood attachment (Community Engagement level of each Adventure and Service projects)
→ Parent Attitudes (Prevention Messaging Campaign, Discovery Family Adventures, Parent Conversations)
→ Youth Perceptions (Discovery Family Adventures and Youth Conversations)
→ Low commitment to school (Youth Conversations and Home2School Connection)
Most importantly, this program targets and supports the most important stakeholder in a child’s life, and the one with the most power to bring about change–Parents! At the core foundation of the Discovery Family program, each Discovery Family adventure involves providing parents with
❏ Activity ideas and outlines for the family to participate in together, leading to bonding and attachment
❏ Opportunities for learning key life skills and developing personal character
❏ No or low-cost reward and recognition ideas the parent can provide in the home
❏ Ideas for taking the new skill learned to engage with and connect to the community
❏ A service component
❏ Community supported rewards for families that spend quality time together completing Adventures.
This comprehensive approach combines education with family engagement and proven social strategies. Research has shown greater effectiveness with multi-component efforts that integrate individual components working together to produce synergistic effects of community wide efforts. Written and Verbal Feedback from participants shows that the program:
→ increases both the amount and quality of time participating families spend together, resulting in strengthening the protective factors social competence, family bonds and even academic achievement
→ increases father involvement with the family
→ reaches families from every socioeconomic level and is particularly effective at reaching families most in need of this type of program, including low-income families and parents that may not otherwise have access to parenting support and training they need to implement strong parenting strategies at home.
Family Discovery Adventures, combined with rewards both in and outside of the home, enriches the context in which developing youth are supported and encouraged by parents and key adults in their lives to develop competencies, take on leadership responsibilities, and be equipped to integrate into positive peer groups.
Over the past six months we have had the opportunity to work with Communities That Care coalitions in both Weber and Davis County. In Weber County we have worked on a pilot program funded by the Utah Department of Human Services for the purpose of having Bach-Harrison perform an evaluation of the program.
On our own we have also reached out to support all of the Davis County Coalitions and have worked directly with several Davis County cities and departments, media, NPOs and businesses. One thing we have learned through this is that the Discovery Family program is more efficiently delivered on a ‘city’ or ‘county' level that parents recognize they belong to rather than through ‘cones’ or sectors of the community that the population as a whole are not familiar with.
One challenge we have faced in the BCTC area is that most parents are not familiar with the ‘cone’ concept and do not realize that they are in the Bonneville cone. They do recognize that they belong to Weber County, Ogden Metropolitan Area, etc. Furthermore, when the full program is available in a geographical area there is no reason to limit it to just one ‘cone’ or city or neighborhood. It actually takes more work to try to serve a smaller area than to deliver the program to the larger geographic area of a city or a county.
Obviously it is also more cost-effective. Once the cost is covered to run the basic program in an area it can serve families in all cones rather than just one cone. We can easily support the work of all Communities That Care Coalitions as well as other coalitions in an area rather than limiting it to just one CTC or one smaller geographic area. All of the communities, and the coalitions, can benefit from the work of the community coordinators, the family reward events, the FB communities and the prevention messaging. Each participating area also benefits from other funding sources that cover general prevention messaging, program development, and general operating expenses.
Lastly, the Discovery Family program is designed to support and promote other evidence-based programs in the community including prevention coalitions, NPOs that focus on strengthening families, and the local Health Department areas. (You can see an example of this with our BRHD Coalition membership where this program was implemented under the 2021 round of this grant.) This creates significant value to all other coalitions located in an area. Nowhere else can a city or county experience such expansive, consistent, and ongoing application of the social development strategy and prevention messaging to every family in the area for such a small investment.
Selected Interventions:
Social Development Strategy:
The Discovery Family Program is built upon the evidence-based social development strategy developed by the University of Washington. The ‘Adventures’ that are the core of all of our programs are intentionally designed to provide opportunities for kids to learn new skills. The TIPS section teaches and reminds parents to provide recognition for the child’s efforts and accomplishments. Through the Adventures youth bond with their parents. Through the messaging campaign in the Discover Family Fun communities parents are taught the importance of setting boundaries. Through the community engagement level of each adventure the same process is provided on the community level . . . opportunities to engage with and connect to their community, key life skills developed in the process, and then recognition provided by parents and by the community through Family Reward Events.
Parent Conversations: We also have started Parent Conversations, which incorporates some elements of the PROSPER delivery system. Tim Keady, a Key Leader with our coalition, and other USU extension specialists trained in the PROSPER delivery system and currently providing those trainings statewide, would like to work with us to incorporate opportunities for parents to access valuable learning opportunities, similar to what they do in the PROSPER trainings.
Currently we hold weekly PARENT CONVERSATIONS online and cover topics selected by the participating parents themselves. We bring in experts and specialists as guest presenters to address the parent-selected topics. Specialists scheduled during the next few weeks include David Watkins, Taryn Hiatt, Dr. Christy Kane, and members of Tim Keady’s PROSPER team. To be clear, Parent Conversations is not a part of the CORE Discovery Family Adventures program. We will not be using the PROSPER curriculum during these weekly conversations, but will likely cover many of the same topics. In addition, Tim and his team would like to offer in-person parent workshops for interested parents. Tim has and will continue to work closely with PROSPER to ensure that we do not violate any copyright or professional boundaries, but that we are able to provide valuable information and access to industry experts on relevant topics to parents that are interested.
The proposal also includes the following best practices for comprehensive Tobacco control programs:
→ Community Intervention–programs that encourage and support families to make behavior choices consistent with tobacco-free norms. (This is the very definition of the Discovery Family Adventures.)
→ Mass-reach health communication interventions
Through the Discover Family Fun Facebook communities and Discovery App we have the ongoing attention of thousands of families on a regular, sometimes daily, basis. When we announced the Bach-Harrison survey we received 158 responses in the first 48 hours, which shows that our families stay connected to what we post. We often compare ourselves to the grocery store: We are to FUN and prevention what grocery stores are to mealtime and food. Families come on their own to stay updated about free opportunities available through the program as well as other opportunities available in the community. In the process of finding information about free family events, they are also exposed to our mass-reach health communication interventions that include such statewide campaigns as:
❏ Know Your Script
❏ LIVE On
❏ Parents Empowered messaging from a wide variety of previous projects across the state, and
❏ Our own campaigns (each campaign has as many as 25-30 graphics in the series):
→ ‘This Is Prevention’ campaign (featuring discovery family submissions, which they LOVE!)
→ Moments campaign
→ Prevention Tips
→ Prevention Quotes
→ There’s an Adventure for That
→ Service Campaign
→ Resilience Quotes
→ Parent Protective Factors
→ Protect Kids
→ Pandemic Life
→ Seasonal (i.e. to go with holidays or ‘seasons’; example below- New Year’s and March Madness)
→ General Prevention
Our many coalition partners also help with the mass reach campaign by sharing the messaging on their social media sites.
This messaging creates an effective county-wide, mass-reach health communication intervention that delivers strategic, culturally appropriate, seasonally appropriate and high-impact messages to families on a sustained (multiple times per week) and ongoing basis. In addition to our own prevention messaging campaigns, we are thrilled to be able to support comprehensive state prevention programs such as LiveOn and Know Your Script.
In fact, one key elements of the program that caught the attention of prevention leaders statewide includes the ‘mass reach’ ability to reach thousands of families on a regular and ongoing basis with a very small investment when compared to other programs.
Other characteristics of the program that make it unique, more far-reaching and significantly more effective than many of the prevention programs available are as follows:
❏ It is an ongoing process– repeated and consistent. The prevention messaging and other components of the program are delivered multiple times per week rather than being a ‘one-time hit’. The Discovery Family program is comprehensive, sustained and accountable.
❏ It is adaptable. The activities can be adapted to accommodate all family sizes and make-up as well as different ages, and even multiple age groups together.
❏ It has variety. There are a variety of ideas and resources to fit every interest, as well as a variety of options the family can use to implement it in a way that best fits their family situation.
❏ It is current and relevant. The local communities can deliver information and resources quickly and effectively. Today’s key issue can literally be incorporated into the program within a few hours and broadcast to large numbers of parents and key stakeholders to empower them with the skills and information needed to address the issue. For example, we were able to address the flooding and air quality issues families faced recently and provide support and resources through our messaging.
❏ It focuses on the most influential adults in a child’s life: Parents–in the home!
❏ It empowers parents with skills needed to incorporate key protective factors into the daily lives of their children and teaches them to implement the social development strategy at home
❏ It delivers the support in a natural, non-judgmental way with no stigma attached.
❏ It incorporates other proven resources and strategies. Existing programs and proven strategies can be easily incorporated into the program and become even more effective as they reach more youth and parents on a more consistent basis.
See the Action Plan for specific details on each program component and which protective factor it addresses.
Vetted Sources:
As mentioned previously, the Discovery Family Program is in the process of being evaluated by Bach-Harrison with funding provided by the Utah Department of Human Services. The survey received 158 submissions during the first 48 hours after being released, which shows the strong engagement we have with our families. While the official report will not be available until September, you can see preliminary feedback provided by participating families. I have received the survey data from the first 2 weeks and there is no question that the report will confirm the benefits and results outlined here and that it is highly effective and has had a powerful impact on families that have participated. One unexpected result of this program is a significant impact on anxiety and depression it has had on multiple youth as reported to us by their parents. Anything we can do to decrease anxiety and depression will decrease drug use.
In addition, there are several statewide sources and organizations that are familiar with the program and have validated it’s effectiveness:
❏ Uplift Families, the program of the former First Lady of Utah, recently asked us to partner with them as the ‘family experience’ component of their program.
❏ Utah Board of Education and the Utah Civic Learning Collaborative.
❏ Epik Deliberate Digital
12-Month Action Plan
This proposal brings the entire community together to focus on building resilient families!
We have completed the Action Plan Table for each of 14 key components of the program. Where applicable, we have also included recent outcomes from the Bear River Health District where this program has been implemented for the past 9 months. We have included links and pictures as examples to show what can be expected from the Activity. The results have been remarkable as you will see from the data and anecdotal feedback.
Discovery Family Adventures
Risk/Protective Factors:
❏ Family Attachment
❏ Opportunities & Rewards for prosocial involvement at home and community
❏ Neighborhood attachment
❏ Parent Attitudes and Youth Perception
❏ Knowledge and Skill
❏ Access, Barriers and Opportunity
Strategies for Change:
❏ Providing Information (1)
❏ (CADCA) Enhancing Skills (2)
❏ Providing Support (3)
❏ Enhancing Access and Reduce Barriers (4)
❏ Changing Consequences–incentives or disincentives (5)
❏ Physical Design (6)
Goal: Ongoing delivery of family experience opportunities to encourage families to spend more quality time together doing activities that will help them try new things, learn new skills, develop key life skills and bond as a family.
Staff will meet with coalition members and key stakeholders in the community that are focused on drug misuse prevention to identify key messaging and issues that are most critical to parents in the area. We will develop family ‘Adventures’ intentionally designed to address those issues and encourage families to spend time together in fun ways so that bonding can take place, relationships can become stronger, life skills can be learned, and key conversations can happen. The Adventures will also spotlight partners, community resources and other prevention programs. Sharilee Griffiths and other SDS experts will incorporate the evidence-based social development strategy into each adventure.
Key components of each Discovery Family Adventure include:
❏ Goal or Purpose of the Adventure, outlining the opportunity offered and/or skill to be developed
❏ TIPS Section (Teaching Important Parenting Strategies): Parent Tips for providing rewards and recognition
❏ Outline of the Adventure. Each Adventure will provide opportunities for prosocial behavior at home.
❏ Each Adventure will encourage increased family attachment and will provide opportunities for skill building, character building and development of other individual life skills.
❏ Supporting resources for parents to adapt each Adventure to their own family needs, structure and style. These resources will also inform and educate parents and impact parent attitudes and youth perceptions.
❏ Community Engagement Level - incorporates a service component or reaching out to the community to provide opportunities for prosocial behavior in the community and increase neighborhood attachment.
❏ Automatic creation of an Adventure Photo Journal provides a fun reward, reminder, and keepsake.
❏ Point system, tracked digitally, provides rewards for prosocial behavior in the community through Family Reward events, activities, and incentives.
Who is Responsible?
❏ Program Director: responsible for development in coordination with coalition members.
❏ Community/Site Coordinators: Responsible for delivering the Adventures to families
By When? Developing new Adventures will continue throughout the term of the grant.
Process Objective: Develop a minimum of 1-2 Discovery Family Adventures each week of the grant
Evaluation Plan: The website and App track the number of Registrations & Adventures completed
RECENT OUTCOME: As of the date the application was submitted, 641 families had registered for the WEBHub and 511 have registered on the APPHub for the Summer Passport (the summer version of the Discovery Family Adventures) since June 1st. The response and feedback received has been overwhelmingly positive and the submissions make it clear that we are reaching families that need and value the support.
TIPS Section- Teaching Important Parenting Strategies
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Parent Attitudes
❏ Rewards for prosocial involvement at home
❏ Knowledge and Skill
❏ Support and Services
❏ Access, Barriers and Opportunity
Strategies for Change:
❏ Providing Information (for parents)
❏ (CADCA) Enhancing Skills (for parents)
❏ Providing Support (for parents)
❏ Enhancing Access/Reducing barriers (for youth)
❏ Changing Consequences–incentives or disincentives (for youth)
Goal: Help parents become social development strategy experts in their home by learning to set clear standards, provide opportunities for youth to take the lead and learn new skills, and by providing recognition and intrinsic rewards for their efforts.
Each Discovery Family Adventure will include a TIPS section that provides parents with a variety of ideas and strategies to reduce risk factors and implement key protective factors, including how to use the ‘Adventure’ to provide opportunity, skills, and recognition for each child.
The power of the TIPS section is that it teaches parents to implement environmental changes that reduce risk factors and increase protective factors in a natural and non-threatening way. Since this program is available to all families and does not target ‘at-risk’ or ‘low-income’ families, there is no stigma attached and families are more inclined to choose to participate. The role of the TIPS Section is to:
❏ Remind parents on an ongoing basis to be intentional in their interactions with their children
❏ Provide information about evidence-based strategies for building resilience in kids
❏ Teach parents new skills to help them utilize family time and daily activities to build resilience
❏ Remind parents on a regular and consistent basis of the skills they have learned
Of course, the hope and expectation is that as parents learn new strategies and become comfortable using them they will naturally incorporate the strategies into other areas of their parenting and expand the overall impact. In essence we are teaching parents what they don’t know and reminding them what they already know on a regular basis.
Who is Responsible? Program Director & Assistant in coordination with prevention specialists
By When? Ongoing with each new Discovery Family Adventure released.
Process Objective: Include a TIPS Section in every Discovery Family Adventure
Short-term Objective: Parents learn important parenting strategies for implementing environmental
changes at home that reduce risk factors and increase protective factors in a way that is natural and duplicatable for them.
Evaluation Plan: Website tracks # of Adventures completed & gathers feedback on the TIPS section
RECENT FEEDBACK:
“I especially appreciate the TIPS that are given. I personally think these are some of the most invaluable pieces of the whole program and they’ve helped make our adventures as a family a lot more meaningful. I find that I am more intentional in my planning and interactions with my kids.” ~Lindsay L
Community Engagement Level Adventures
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Opportunities for prosocial involvement in the community
❏ Rewards for prosocial involvement in the community
Strategies for Change:
❏ Enhancing Skills
❏ (CADCA) Providing Support
❏ Changing Consequences (incentives or disincentives)
❏ Physical Design
Goal: Provide a community engagement level with each adventure to provide opportunities for youth to develop key life skills and engage with their community.
Who is Responsible? Program Director & Assistant in coordination with key coalition members & specialists
By When? Ongoing with each new Discovery Family Adventure released.
Process Objective: Include a Community Engagement Level Adventure in every Discovery Family Adventure that incorporates utilizing the new skills learned in the BASIC level adventure to serve others, teach others, or plan a community event around it.
Short-term Objective: Families participate in service and community engagement on a regular basis, providing natural opportunities for youth to develop key life skills (communication, planning, time management, etc.), strong character, and experience self-confidence and the satisfaction that comes from serving others.
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of community engagement level Adventures that are completed and Anecdotal feedback from the pictures uploaded and comments on the completion form.
RECENT FEEDBACK/OUTCOME:
“I love how the community engagement level of each adventure encourages the kids to serve and get out in the community. The best way to remember something is to turn around and teach it to someone else. This is an ingenious way to help the kids remember and use what they have learned. I also love how my kids are developing better social skills by interacting with people in the neighborhood. They get to learn and practice skills like communication, organization, planning and time management without even realizing they are doing it. They get to experience the rewards of doing something that impacts our entire neighborhood, and they get to learn from things that don’t go as planned now while the stakes are low so they will be better prepared later when the stakes are higher. It’s absolutely ingenious how this is designed to build resilience in kids naturally.” ~Amanda T
Family Reward Events and other family focused incentives
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Rewards for prosocial involvement in the community
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ Changing Consequences (incentives or disincentives)
Goal: Incentivize families to participate in the program regularly so that they learn to make time for family interaction regularly and set a habit of doing things together as a family and being more intentional in their parenting.
Coalition members will work together to reward families for making an effort to spend time doing things that will bring their families together, create resiliency and provide the key protective factors for their children in their home. Rewards include family reward events, family games, outings to local family entertainment businesses and other prizes that focus on bringing families together in positive ways.
Family games and rewards provided to individual families for achieving established levels of participation.
❏ Family Reward Nights will be held monthly to reward all participating families. These reward events will consist of a variety of family events i.e. free night at Boondocks, RUSH Funplex or the Classic Fun Center, magic show, lasertag, Princess/Hero parties, FOAMtacular party, and other events that the family can enjoy together. Participation for qualification purposes can be easily tracked using the website or app.
❏ Families will also have the option to create an Adventure Photo Journal that can later be turned into a printed hard cover book.
Who is Responsible? Community Coordinators work closely with existing or new coalition partners
By When? Monthly
Process Objective: One Family Reward Event will be held each month in each community
Short-term Objective: Families will be incentivized to complete the Discovery Family Adventures, resulting in spending quality time together and parents learning new ways to instill the protective factors at home.
Evaluation Plan: We will track
→ the number of families that qualify for these events
→ the number of families that attend the events
→ Anecdotal feedback provided during the registration process for the events
RECENT OUTCOME:
Our most recent Family Reward Event had over 300 people in attendance. Families were able to enjoy laser tag, bounce houses, a photobooth and treats. It was clear from the photo booth photos, and from knowing the families in attendance, that we are reaching families of all ages, sizes, and socioeconomic status. Also, many parents in the community that need it the most are participating in the program and through doing so are learning new parenting skills and spending more time with their kids than they would be without the program!
Discover Family Fun Online Communities
Risk/Protective Factors:
❏ Parent Attitudes, Knowledge and Skill, Support and Services
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ Providing Information
❏ Providing Support
Goal: Create an online community where parents will come on their own to find free events happening locally, prevention messaging, relevant announcements and resources.
This space is the online equivalent of the local grocery store-–families go to the local grocery store regularly without having to be reminded because they want what they get there (food). Parents come to the local communities regularly without having to be reminded because they want what’s there–free family fun, support and resources. In between these ‘staple’ announcements we can include prevention messaging and other key information parents may not seek out on their own.
Who is Responsible? Community/Site Coordinators
By When? Begin immediately and continue throughout the grant
Process Objective: Manage and Maintain safe online communities with a local flavor
Evaluation Plan:
→ Track the number of participants in the online communities
→ Track the number and type of posts
Prevention Messaging Campaign
Risk/Protective Factors:
❏ Parent Attitudes and Youth Perceptions
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ Providing Information
Goal:
The Coalition will create and implement a prevention messaging campaign that will consist of a combination of:
❏ Graphics with prevention messaging for social media
❏ Articles for coalition member websites, and prevention resources from coalition members
❏ Relevant information from key stakeholders.
As appropriate, it can also incorporate other statewide messaging campaigns such as:
❏ Parents Empowered messaging
❏ Know Your Script campaign
❏ LIVE On campaign
This messaging campaign will be delivered to families via 4 MyDD! communities in Davis County. In addition, the messaging will be promoted via other MyDD! social media sites i.e. Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and coalition members’ social media sites. We will also reach thousands with the prevention messaging directly to their phones via the My Discovery Destination! App (text ‘family’ to 888-403-4140).
Who is Responsible?
Program Director & Assistant: Responsible for working with key partners and graphic designers.
Community/Site Coordinators- Responsible for ongoing posting in the communities and social media sites.
By When? Begin immediately and continue throughout the grant
Process Objective: Post 2-3 prevention messaging posts per week in all communities
Evaluation Plan:
→ Track the number of prevention messaging posts that post weekly/monthly
→ Track the engagement and views of the prevention messaging
RECENT OUTCOME: See links above for examples of the prevention messaging campaigns
The Discovery Hunt App (Goosechase) and
website (DiscoveryFamilyAdventures.com)
Risk/Protective Factors:
❏ All Risk/Protective Factors listed under the Risk/Protective Factors Section
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ Enhance Access/Reducing Barriers
Goal: Providing the program on both the website and the App (built on the Goosechase platform) will give families options to choose a platform that best meets their families’ needs and situation.
Both programs make it easy and fun for families to access the program and to track participation. Both platforms have advantages and disadvantages depending on the needs of the participating families. The scavenger hunt-based app is easy to use, engaging for families and available on both android and ios. Families that do not have access to the app, or want benefits the website offers, can access the program and track participation via the website. Families that do not have internet access at home can request a printed list of the Discovery Family Adventures.
Who is Responsible? Program Director & Assistant Director
By When? Both the website and the app are already available and the basic program is set up. Developing new Adventures, content and updates will be ongoing throughout 12 months.
Process Objective: The Discovery Family Adventures will be available on both the website and the App
Short-term Objective: A large number of families will have access to participate, resulting in spending quality time together and parents learning new ways to instill the protective factors with their children and other youth in their neighborhoods, school, church, and community.
Evaluation Plan: Both platforms track the number of participants and the number of Adventures completed
RECENT OUTCOME:
We had over 3,500 submissions from a recent hunt. You can access feedback from participating families HERE
Discovery App
Risk/Protective Factors:
❏ Parent Attitudes and Youth Perceptions
❏ Contributes indirectly to all Risk and Protective Factors
Strategies for Change:
❏ Providing Information
❏ (CADCA) Enhancing Access/Reducing Barriers
Goal: The powerful My Discovery Destination! App will make it easy for families to receive updated information on what is happening in their communities.
This powerful app, provided by national partner Let’s All Do Good, allows us to send information to specific groups (i.e. families of teens, young families, etc.) Parents choose which notifications (by area, age, topic, etc.) they will receive and allows them to choose specific ‘feeds’ to follow to ensure they get information that is relevant to them. Lastly, the App will allow us to collaborate with coalition member organizations to share and distribute information to each other’s audiences with a simple swipe right.
Who is Responsible? Program Director
By When? The My Discovery Destination! App is available and ready for use
Process Objective: We will send out notifications via the My Discovery Destination! App on a daily basis
Short-term Objective: Thousands of families receive notifications straight to their phone about opportunities to enjoy free events and resources in their community, resulting in spending more quality time together.
Evaluation Plan:
→ The App tracks a number of metrics including the # of messages sent, engagement, etc.
Developing Community Collaborations/Partnerships/Coalition Members
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ All Risk/Protective Factors listed under the Risk/Protective Factors Section
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ CADCA Strategies 1-6
Goal: Staff will coordinate with other coalition members and DCHD coalitions and departments to promote their resources and messaging, to expand the reach of the prevention messaging, and to provide free family fun, including family reward events.
We will work closely with local health department personnel and other prevention coalitions to be aware of their events and resources and will post at appropriate times. A strength of the Discovery Family Coalition is that coalition members contribute what they can when they can without being required to attend unnecessary meetings that do not apply to them. Staff coordinates the program and members’ contributions. Coordination meetings are organized more frequently as needed with only the coalition members involved.
Who is Responsible? Program Director, Assistant and the Community/Site Coordinators
By When? Beginning immediately and continuing throughout the term of the grant
Process Objective: Post collaborative messaging a minimum of once per week
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of collaborations developed in each community
RECENT OUTCOME: During the 9-months of the 2021 BRHD grant period we formed 102 partnerships working together to deliver a strong program available to all families in the BRHD
Supporting Evidence-based Programming and Organizations
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ All Risk/Protective Factors listed under the Risk/Protective Factors Section
Strategies for Change (CADCA):
❏ CADCA Strategies 1-6
Goal: Support other programs that focus on strengthening families
One of the many unique aspects of the Discovery Family Coalition is its ability to support and promote other evidence-based programming available in the community. We do this by:
❏ Publicizing events and information to the community via the online communities and social media
❏ Highlighting important information into a Discovery Family Adventure and letting families earn points toward the Family Reward events for learning about and participating in other programs
❏ Turning powerful articles into experiential Adventures so that families have an opportunity to LIVE the experience in a hands-on format, and together as a family.
Who is Responsible? Program Director, Assistant Director and Community/Site Coordinators
By When? Beginning immediately and continuing throughout the grant period
Process Objective: Promote and support:
❏ Other evidence-based programs available in the community
❏ Other prevention coalitions and their programs
Evaluation Plan:
→ Track the programs and coalitions we work with
→ Evaluate effectiveness through the Bach-Harrison survey
RECENT OUTCOME: Over the past 3 months we have made significant contributions to 19 prevention coalitions statewide: BESSC, NUSAPT, 14 CTCs and 3 suicide prevention coalitions
Parent Conversations and Trainings
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Parent Attitudes
Strategies for Change:
❏ Providing Information
❏ (CADCA) Enhancing Skills
❏ Providing Support
❏ Enhancing Access/Reducing Barriers
Goal: Invite Guest Speakers to address topics selected by participating parents
Provide an opportunity for parents to learn from experts, ask them questions, and learn from and share ideas with each other. Incorporate the PROSPER training method and make these discussions available to all parents in the DCHD boundaries.
Who is Responsible? Assistant Director
By When? Start immediately, continue through the term of the grant
Process Objective: Schedule and hold weekly online Parent Conversations discussions, with replay available for parents that can not attend the live event.
Short-term Objective: Engage parents in conversations around topics that are selected for them, by them.
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of participants that join and the number that listen to the replay.
RECENT OUTCOME: We created a Frozen Fun Summer Treats recipe book to go with the discussion on Mealtime. In addition to the recipes it is chock full of subtle, and not-so-subtle prevention messaging and prevention TIPS mixed in.
Youth Conversations
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Youth Perceptions
Strategies for Change:
❏ Providing Information
❏ (CADCA) Enhancing Skills
❏ Providing Support
Goal: Provide generational insight, encourage youth to bring new perspectives and innovative ideas along with energy and enthusiasm as they mobilize their peers to project a powerful voice and become the next generation of tobacco control leaders.
The youth perspective is critical to a comprehensive and effective approach. Youth Conversations will be held online. Through these conversations participants will also develop key life skills.
Who is Responsible? Youth Coordinators supported by the Assistant Director
By When? Quarterly throughout the grant period
Process Objective: Hold TEEN scavenger hunts and quarterly online Youth Conversations discussions
Short-term Objective: Engage youth in the conversation and the process, help them learn and develop key life and leadership skills, and have a voice in issues and legislation that directly impacts their daily experience.
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of youth participants
RECENT OUTCOME: We have recently added 2 Youth Coordinators on the BRHD team with extremely positive results for both the youth coordinators and the program.
Monthly Reports to Policy Makers
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Policies and Living Conditions
Strategies for Change:
❏ Support modification to policies or the implementation of new policies (CADCA)
Goal: We recognize the importance of building a relationship with legislators so that when we approach them with an ‘Ask’ the relationship already exists. Just as we receive periodic updates from them, we will send periodic updates to them. Our team, including the youth community coordinators, will periodically send brief reports to update local legislators on prevention measures taken in the community.
Who is Responsible? Assistant Director
By When? Quarterly throughout the grant period
Process Objective: Provide regular updates to local Legislators to make them aware of prevention work happening in the community. These updates/reports will include all prevention efforts we are aware of, not just our efforts. This should be easy as we will be partnering with the other entities doing prevention work.
Short-term Objective: Develop strong relationships with local legislators
Long-term Objective: Local legislators will support prevention work and value and trust our perspective.
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of updates/reports sent and to whom; Record responses
Home2School Connection*
Risk/Protective Factor:
❏ Low Commitment to School
❏ Opportunities for and Rewards for prosocial behavior at School
Strategies for Change:
❏ CADCA Strategies 1-5
Goal: Create a connection between home and the child’s school that allows parents and teachers to support the efforts of each other in teaching resilience skills to youth and using the social development strategy both at home and at school.
Who is Responsible? Director and Assistant Director
By When? Q1 2022
Process Objective: Create a common focus that parents and teachers alike can use to support youth both at home and at school.
Short-term Objective: Create a school-based component that enhances the home-based components
Evaluation Plan: Track the number of schools that participate as well as the number of participating families/students, teachers, etc.
*If funding is not available in an area, there will be no home-based program to enhance so it will not be available to schools in the area. This is not a stand alone program.
Evaluation Plan:
The Utah Department of Human Services, after a preliminary review of the Discovery Family program, organized and is funding a pilot program to have Bach Harrison evaluate and gather data specifically on the Discovery Family program. The Phase I evaluation report and findings are expected to be available in September 2021. Meanwhile, you can review preliminary feedback and reviews from participants HERE or hear a small sampling directly from participating parents HERE.
Bach Harrison will also be contracted to complete Phase II of the evaluation of this project for the purpose of ongoing data gathering to measure the effectiveness of the program overall and outcomes for families and youth that participate in the program.
BUDGET
Budget Narrative:
Having a Community/Site Coordinator (CC) for each local community/site is the very foundation of providing the various components of the Discovery Family Adventures and other coalition programs in DCHD communities effectively. Community Coordinators:
❏ Maintain the local Facebook communities and App in order to provide families with the information and resources specific to the neighborhood where they live. Each CC manages two (2) FB communities. Emily will cover the Northern communities and Angela will cover the Southern communities.
❏ Personalize all Discovery Family Coalition programs to be effective in the local community.
❏ Organize and implement monthly family reward events- Emily will schedule one in the North end of the county and Angela will schedule one in the South end.
❏ Communicate and coordinate with local schools, cities, and other prevention coalitions to support these prevention partners in their prevention efforts.
❏ Develop partnerships with local organizations and businesses to engage them in prevention efforts.
❏ Coordinate with local businesses to provide free family experiences for families (these are separate from the Family Reward events which are for qualifying families only).
❏ Work with local partners so that the CCs can understand and be aware of local resources available in the area and can share the information with families via the FB communities and the App.
❏ Expand the coalition locally by engaging new organizations and businesses in prevention work in both traditional and non-traditional ways.
❏ Manage all aspects of the coalition programs for their local community/site.
Without the local Coordinators the program can not be delivered effectively to a community. For the 2021-2022 year our ability to continue the program as outlined in the Davis County Health District is contingent upon this funding.
In order to best serve our Spanish speaking families it is important that we have a Spanish Coordinator to reach out to the Latino population here in the Davis County Health District and ensure that the program is accessible to them and serves their needs effectively. We believe this addition to the program will have a significant impact on a number of families that could benefit most from the program. The main responsibilities of the Spanish Coordinator will include:
❏ Translation - translate the local posts in the Davis County communities into Spanish
❏ Outreach efforts to the Latino communities and neighborhoods
❏ Represent the cultural needs of Spanish speaking families
❏ Coordinate with Spanish Coordinators in other counties as appropriate and helpful.
❏ The Spanish Coordinator will not manage a specific FB community, but will serve the entire county, will work with both CCs, and will oversee outreach efforts in all 4 FB communities.
The Director and Assistant Director are key to coordinating the development of the overall program. Just as the program can not be delivered effectively in a community/county without Community Coordinators, without the Director and Assistant Director there would be no program to deliver. Specifically, they
❏ Provide the general program for the CCs to deliver to their communities with a ‘local’ twist
❏ Provide the basic framework of the program including the website, the Discovery Family Adventures, the seasonal programs, etc.
❏ Manage all aspects of accounting and grant compliance
❏ Provide marketing tools and resources
❏ Provide staff training and support
❏ Coordinate all aspects of the program statewide
❏ Assist the CCs with developing local partnerships
❏ Meet 1-1 with coalition members and inviting new coalition members
❏ Coordinate development of the prevention messaging campaign and creation of the Discovery Family Adventures.
❏ Provide training and support for coalition members
❏ Ensure that the necessary partnerships are identified and established
❏ Ensure all grant requirements are fulfilled, including reports.
The main marketing/promotional source to deliver information to our families is the Discover Family Fun communities. Each CC will manage 2 ‘communities’ for a total of 4 communities in the Davis County Health District: 2 in the North (Layton and Kaysville) and 2 in the South (Bountiful and South SL). Each CC will also manage the Discovery App for their areas to include families that are not on Facebook. These tools provide us with a wide variety of marketing tools and platforms, extensive community reach, and unlimited access for the full term of the grant. The coalition will also use other paid and unpaid advertising and promotional avenues as necessary and appropriate including city celebrations, Facebook, etc. The cost for all of these tools and resources combined is $2,000/community.
Family Reward Events - Each month a Family Reward Event will be held in each community to reward families that achieve set levels of participation in the program. This will incentivize families to participate, thus spending quality time with their children and enjoying the benefits that come from this simple, yet powerful action.
Parent Conversations expenses will include offering in-person and online training for parents and staff training. These parent sessions will be done in coordination with Tim Keady and his staff and will cover topics selected by the parents participating. The funding will provide $2,000 per community to cover the cost of the in-person and/or on-line training series. These expenses will include the following:
❏ Food, supplies and rental fees (if needed) for in-person trainings (6-8 week courses)
❏ Gift Cards or small gifts for instructors/guest speakers
❏ Incentives for attendees to encourage participation
❏ Any other miscellaneous Parent Conversations expenses
Supplies & Tools includes the tools listed below that can be shared between the 4 Discover Family Fun communities in the Davis County Health District. Some of these tools will also be shared with coalition partners and other prevention coalitions in the area:
❏ Photobooth set-up including an ipad, the backdrop and the software
❏ Goosechase App
❏ Canopy and table for community events
❏ Banners, tablecloth and other materials for booths at community events and materials for parades
❏ Event fees and event-specific supplies
❏ Family team building materials to be used at community events and family events
❏ SalesForce for CCs
❏ Expenses for the WEBHub and APPHub for the Discovery Family Adventures
Graphics & Adventure Design. For clarification, this is an existing program available in communities where we have funding for staff to deliver the program. The Adventures created for those communities are available online and can be utilized by any family with an internet connection. However, families in these communities only have a small, albeit powerful, piece of the program. In order to provide the full benefit of what we offer all of the components need to work in tandem with adequate staff and resources to do so. As mentioned previously, one unique benefit of this program is that as long as these basic expenses are funded, the program can serve 100,000 families in an area as easily as it serves 100. In fact, in some ways, the more families participating the easier it is to provide the full program.
More specifically, In communities where we have active community coordinators there are a wide variety of graphics that need to be created for the local area. This includes graphics to announce Family Reward events, community specific events, local announcements and prevention messaging that is specific to the local area.
Communities with active Community Coordinators are also able to create community-specific Discovery Hunts. These hunts engage families with their local community, businesses and organizations, helping to connect youth to the community in which they live. This line item in the budget helps to cover the graphics, design and creation for those.
In addition, there is a need for graphics design and development work associated with the Adventures that are specific to an area. The basic Discovery Family Adventures were created through donated time, and in part, from a grant received from BRHD in September 2020. Once the Adventures were created for the BRHD communities they were online and available for any family who has the internet to access them. From the Bach-Harrison survey we are seeing that there are families all over the United States that are using the program to bring their families closer.
Obviously there will need to be continued funding in order for us to continue to create additional new Adventures to keep families engaged. The Adventures will be created specifically for the communities that fund them, and then made available to other families to adapt to their situation. However, the families in the communities the Adventures are specifically designed for will experience the greatest benefit. For example, Bountiful City has already expressed interest in having an ‘Adventure’ associated with their parks and trails system. We also worked with the Chalk Festival to a small degree this year and would love to do more with them next year if funding is available. With this funding we will be able to identify a variety of family experiences unique to the local area to better serve local families.
Having active Community Coordinators will also put the community in a position to benefit from other prevention messaging campaigns we develop and other Discovery Family Adventures created, including those that are paid for using other funding. Having a local Community Coordinator will open the doors to ‘personalizing’ and ‘localizing’ all aspects of the program, including those components that are funded through other sources, which doubles or even triples the value you receive for these funds.
Youth Coordinators and Youth Conversations.
Under the BRHD grant we have added 2 Youth Coordinators (high school students), one representing Cache County schools and one representing Box Elder County schools. They receive a small stipend for assisting with the youth programs and helping connect other youth. Additional funding is needed to cover the cost for monthly events designed specifically for teens.
We have evidence from the recent statewide annual youth leadership summit that we have a tool that could be extremely effective in bringing youth ‘together’ while keeping them physically ‘apart’ if needed. Having a representative from each school to connect students could be a very effective choice for the time being.
The role of these Youth Coordinators would include:
❏ Provide youth voice and insights for implementing programs in their area.
❏ Work with each other to plan joint events, friendly competitions between schools, etc.
❏ Connect students at their school to the Discovery Family youth programs.
Mileage will be paid to staff members for program-related travel at the rate of .45 cents per mile.
Bach Harrison will provide the evaluation of the program.
______________________