Our Mission
Engaged community. Healthy youth. Bright futures.
We were established in 2011 as a part of the Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative. We are focused on reducing alcohol and marijuana use among youth in west Vancouver.
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We build community in order to promote healthy choices and reduce youth substance use so our young people can grow into resilient and healthy adults.
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We are a community coalition of interested individuals, public and private agencies, and students in west Vancouver working together to reduce underage alcohol and marijuana use.
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Background
To understand community needs, we form data workgroups review local data from west Vancouver. We review location-specific data from the Annual Community Survey distributed to west Vancouver adults and the Healthy Youth Survey data distributed to middle and high school students in Washington, and relevant archival data. Topics reviewed related to the following:
Based on our review of the available data, the data workgroup recommended we focus our efforts on the following Risk and Protective Factors
These priorities are supported by the quantitative findings. According to the 2018 Healthy Youth Survey, alcohol and marijuana are the most prevalent substances used among youth within the focus population. Therefore, we will continue efforts focused on reducing underage drinking in west Vancouver and additionally focus on reducing youth marijuana use.
West Van for Youth is funded by Washington State Health Care Authority.
- Consequences – behaviors known to be associated with substance use
- Consumption – measure of the number of youth using/consuming alcohol and other substances
- Intervening Variables – characteristics that are strongly predictive or protective of underage drinking and substance use
Based on our review of the available data, the data workgroup recommended we focus our efforts on the following Risk and Protective Factors
- Availability – Youth say alcohol and marijuana are easy to get
- Community Norms
- Friends use alcohol and marijuana
- Perception that the community doesn’t think it is wrong for youth to drink alcohol
- Youth don’t think drinking is wrong
- Perception of Risk – Youth don’t think that regular alcohol use is risky
- Parental attitudes tolerant of substance use
- Early initiation of drugs
These priorities are supported by the quantitative findings. According to the 2018 Healthy Youth Survey, alcohol and marijuana are the most prevalent substances used among youth within the focus population. Therefore, we will continue efforts focused on reducing underage drinking in west Vancouver and additionally focus on reducing youth marijuana use.
West Van for Youth is funded by Washington State Health Care Authority.