Promoting wellness for healthier communities.
The East Valley Community Coalition (EVCC) is a group of people living and working in the East Valley school district who are concerned about youth substance use. Coalition members include adults and youth who attend East Valley schools and work in a variety of East Valley and Spokane Valley businesses, agencies and community organizations who are interested in promoting health and wellness locally.
What do we do?
The East Valley Community Coalition empowers our community through education and substance abuse prevention to promote safe and healthy individuals in all families and neighborhoods.
Building a Stronger Community
Youth substance use can hurt the health and safety of our communities. Prevention services and strategies are essential. When we prevent early use of alcohol, prescription drugs, marijuana, etc. we can also prevent the costs of substance abuse and addiction, family violence, poverty and crime.
Bias-free Support for Underserved Populations
Working within the many contexts of our community, we strive to offer services that are free of barriers and stigma. Our coalition also seeks to leverage the work of other available resources in our community, addressing any gaps where and when we can.
Interrupting Cycles of Trauma and Poverty
As a coalition we work to identify factors that exist within our community that have strong correlations to substance abuse, trauma, violence, etc. By identifying these “risk” factors, we can help amplify or introduce more prevention strategies that will buffer and help reduce negative effects and impact.
Promoting Resiliency and Wellness
As a coalition, we strive to help create foundations for resilient communities that can work together to survive the hard stuff and come out better on the other side. Working together to promote prevention and health in our community only makes it better!
What exactly is a coalition?
Empowering their community through education
A coalition works to help empower their community through education and substance use prevention strategies that support a safe and healthy environment. It aims to have representation from a variety of different sectors such as parents, youth, businesses, media, schools, law enforcement, religious organizations, volunteer groups, local government, healthcare, and behavioral treatment agencies, among a few others.
Coalitions use a variety of strategies to promote prevention in their communities based on the current needs and ability to leverage resources available. This includes programs like Strengthening Families or Guiding Good Choices parenting classes, youth prevention activities at local high schools, and large public awareness campaigns including prescription drug takeback events.
As a Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative (CPWI) Coalition, the East Valley Community is funded through the Washington State Healthcare Authority.
How do we do it?
The Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative is a community- and school-based model for delivering prevention programs and strategies to reduce underage use of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other drugs. This model uses a data-informed, community-level decision making process to determine root social and emotional causes to identify gaps in the system. Each coalition prioritizes collaboration and partnership with its community members to promote positive change in the community.
Priorities of CPWI coalitions include reducing underage drinking, marijuana, and opioid misuse and abuse among youth.
Alcohol
Tobacco
Marijuana
Vaping
Prescription Drugs
Mental Health
Services we provide
Educating parents and students
- Engaging community members and organizing community prevention activities
- Reducing availability and promotion of substances
- Engaging in policy work to support enforcement efforts
- Reduce favorable attitudes toward substances among youth and adults
- Encourage parents to talk to their kids and set family guidelines
- Encourage youth to commit to school and provide them with opportunities and activities to be substance free
- Increasing the perception of harm associated with all substances