To Establish and strengthen collaboration among Hardee County Drug Prevention Coalition’s partner organizations in support of the community’s  effort to prevent and reduce substance use among youth; and (2) Reduce  substance use among youth in  Hardee County, FL, and over time  reduce substance abuse among adults by addressing the community issues that  increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize  the risk of substance abuse.

The Coalition will achieve its  goals through the following objectives:

(1) Identify underutilized stakeholders and recruit targeted  grassroots leaders using individualized planning worksheets designed to attract  each potential member by stating: how the sector can benefit from coalition  efforts, how the coalition can benefit from the sector’s involvement and what  opportunities for collaboration exist. (2) Strengthen organizational structure  and increase key skills among coalition members with an emphasis on assessment,  implementation and evaluation. (3) Recruit new coalition members by increasing  access and eliminating barriers in order to more accurately reflect the  cultural and ethnic diversity of our County. (4) Mobilize coalition partners to  improve practices for the collection, organization and maintenance of local  substance use related data in order to identify trends as well as monitor and  evaluate initiatives on reducing substance use. (5) Mobilize and organize  coalition partners to increase community access to literature, support  materials and other prevention resources. (6) Implement social marketing and  media campaign among youth directed at correcting misperceptions about youth  substance use. (7) Decreasing favorable parental attitudes toward underage  drinking and marijuana use among youth by increasing education and awareness of  the health, social, economic and legal consequences. (8) Decrease youth access  to alcohol and marijuana by working with law enforcement to address policies  and practices identified as primary risk.