Recognize When Local Problems Need Local Solutions
Nebraska’s statewide consortium is highly respected among Nebraska colleges and universities for its successful efforts to reduce high-risk drinking. The NCC boasts membership from 26 of the state’s 31 colleges and universities and has dedicated full-time staff members who manage the day-to-day efforts of the collaborative. Megan Hopkins, Project Manager of the NCC, explains that a key function of the NCC is to provide all institutions with access to the same resources and information. In working with Omaha’s colleges and their surrounding communities, however, it soon became clear that a more localized approach was in order—one that enabled the schools to identify and connect to city-specific resources, that reduced duplication of efforts, and that put a local “face” on the area’s prevention efforts. As Nebraska’s largest and most-college-dense city, Hopkins recognized that having the Omaha schools advocating for prevention efforts as a city-specific collaborative, rather than working from the statewide NCC, would ensure a strong negotiating position when working with local business owners, landlords, and college students to reduce high-risk drinking. (A similar city-wide effort was also started in Lincoln, the state capital and second-largest city.)
Generate Action from Commiseration
When Hopkins first brought the Omaha group together, the schools shared the challenges of addressing student drinking on their campuses and reflected on the seemingly enormous task of tackling their problems. Undaunted, the NCC nurtured the OCC into existence by focusing on goals and action, working closely with the coalition to assess the substance-related needs of the city’s colleges, secure external funding through SAMHSA’s Partnership for Success (PFS) grant, staff their collaborative, and develop an Omaha-focused strategic plan of action.
Use Shared Requirements to Jumpstart Your Efforts
In 2013, the federal Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act required colleges to not only accurately report incidents of sexual assault, violence, stalking and hazing, but to also implement programming to address these issues. For the OCC, the SaVE Act was the catalyst for its first joint effort: a climate survey to be administered at each of the city’s eight schools. Working on the survey forced the schools to openly acknowledge the shared burden of high-risk drinking by their college students. According to Debrenee Grajeda, Prevention Lead for the OCC, a key part of this first joint project was highlighting the importance of complying with the federal mandate. “Several of the smaller schools were reluctant to collect this kind of information but there was power in the policy,” says Grajeda. “It gave the smaller schools the impetus to buy-in to the survey.” In February of 2016, all eight schools will complete the climate survey.
Acknowledge and Validate Concerns
Collaborating to create the climate survey also helped the schools understand that their students’ behaviors were in line with larger national and statewide trends in college student drinking. Grajeda explained that she worked hard to prepare the schools for this probable finding, meeting with them individually during the survey’s creation in an effort to “normalize the behavior” that the surveys would likely reveal. The firm insistence on meeting federal reporting requirements, coupled with a sensitive understanding of why schools might be resistant to doing so, helped to establish a tone of collaboration and respect among the members of the OCC.
Honor Differences in Readiness
The eight schools in the OCC are diverse, comprising one large research-based university, several private liberal arts colleges and religious institutions, and a small, women-only college. These schools represent an array of student issues, differing guiding philosophies, and unequal access to resources and funding. Grajeda describes her role on the OCC as fostering a welcoming atmosphere that acknowledges that not all members are equally ready to approach their substance-related problems in the same way, but that respects members for where they are in the process.
To that end, new projects, such as the implementation of an online early intervention program for all entering freshmen, were rolled out incrementally, with some schools taking the lead and other schools following when they were ready--either philosophically or financially. Grajeda explains that implementing in stages allows schools to refine their programs and offer targeted advice to schools just beginning their intervention efforts. Members also spend a dedicated portion of each monthly meeting sharing stories of their efforts and offering guidance and resources to one another.
Make Collaboration Worth Their While
Beyond functioning as the administrative driver of the OCC, Grajeda also provides member institutions with technical assistance to support their prevention efforts. She actively connects schools with resources small and large, from advising them on low-cost printing services to finding a technically proficient evaluator for their prevention efforts. She supports the development of prevention programming, from social norms campaigns to informational websites. She also manages the OCC’s compilation of each school’s data into an aggregate report on the state of college drinking in Omaha. This report provides the OCC schools with a benchmark to assess their own prevention efforts and highlights future areas of collaboration.
In addition to TA and data compilation, Grajeda also recognizes that OCC’s member schools receive different levels of support for their prevention efforts. She therefore works hard to ensure that all shared project undertaken by the group are low-cost. The climate survey, for example, was derived entirely from a survey done at UNL and utilized the same format, design, and web team. The use of an already established instrument from a local Nebraska partner kept the cost of administering the survey low for each of the Omaha schools.