Addressing youth substance misuse prevention with the HOPE framework
When HOPE Champion Jason McCoy first learned about the HOPE framework, he realized it was the perfect approach to youth substance prevention. McCoy is the Positive Community Norms Coordinator for Clay County Public Health in Minnesota and works primarily with schools. He learned about the HOPE framework because of its overlap with positive norms, which, like the HOPE framework, promotes protective factors and increases healthy norms.
In his county, one challenge around substance prevention had been getting youth to understand that using substances wasn’t the only path. McCoy said that the first step was showing young people that far fewer of them used drugs than they thought.
“I was working with kids who thought 80-90% of their peers were vaping or drinking or or using marijuana. And when I was able to show them the reality that the truth was that only 10-15% of them actually were vaping, it made a powerful difference,” he said.
Creating a culture of trust through the Four Building Blocks of HOPE
The HOPE framework, that centers on promoting positive childhood experiences (PCEs), allowed him to build on this positive. He helped the youth form a group called RISE, Responsible Individuals Striving for Excellence. This group exemplified the Four Building Blocks of HOPE that are the four key types of PCEs: relationships, environment, engagement, and emotional growth.
For one, it created healthy relationships between students. The group also helped parents understand that most kids were making healthy choices, thus creating an environment of trust. It led to civic engagement: Youth showed up to rallies and even testified in support of an ordinance that would ban the sale of vaping devices in their county. And the students who stayed in the group year after year experienced emotional growth.
“HOPE stepped in and allowed us to then have the conversation that if we know that most kids are making healthy choices, how do we then change our perception…[and provide] those positive experiences that would build more resilience in kids?”
Reforming discipline policies to support youth by promoting PCEs
Developing an environment of trust was a central theme in McCoy’s final project for his HOPE Champion certification. He worked on reforming the policy for substance violations in school so that it was less punitive. Historically, the punishment was suspension and taking an electronic course. But it wasn’t working.
“In the past…we had repeat violations happening all the time, and so we wanted something different,” he said.
McCoy thought, “What if we treated the kids like we would treat an adult that was addicted to a substance? We would provide them with those positive friends and role models…What if they had those adults in their life who could help mentor them around ways to quit, to reach sobriety?”
He knew that the HOPE Building Block of relationships was critical to designing a new approach. Under the new policy, youth are paired up with a counselor who’s trained in motivational interviewing and can help them set their own quit dates. And their family is included in the process as well.
“If a 13-year-old wakes up this morning and thinks, ‘My peers support me and I am loved’ and, ‘There’s at least two people, two adults outside of this household who care if I show up at school, and care how I live my life’…They want to go that way,” he said.
“[The] very spirit of hope is to help restore these kids to a place where they can have that emotional growth and where they can realize that they don’t have to just think, ‘I’m just going to be a vapor for life.’”
McCoy hopes that this approach will spread.
“My hope is that more of these communities will begin to see prevention not just as stopping problems but as intentionally building environments where young people can thrive, and so HOPE helps those communities recognize that every adult interaction with a young person matters.”
Spreading PCEs as a HOPE Champion
In addition to using the HOPE framework in the school system, McCoy is bringing it to the staff at the YMCA right across the border in North Dakota, hoping to make it the first HOPE-Informed organization in that state.
“I was able to provide education to all of the staff on the introduction to the HOPE framework, and kind of bring that forward and show them how they could use that in interacting with each other and how they can create positive childhood experiences through their work,” he said.
