What is the Walton County Prevention Coalition?

The WCPC is the Walton County Prevention Coalition, an organization dedicated to giving members of the Walton County community support and resources necessary for helping children make good decisions when it comes to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The WCPC’s mission is prevention through communication and information. 

About the WCPC

Established in 2003, the Walton County Prevention Coalition’s mission has been to ensure the health and safety of the community’s youth. The WCPC’s motto is “Working together as one to improve a community for all.” 


The WCPC is comprised of concerned Walton County citizens who work with parents, local leaders, and youth to provide prevention services to youth and families and improve and to strengthen the community. Specifically, currently, coalition partners are:
•    15 youth members
•    8 parent members
•    6 school representative members
•    6 government agency members
•    5 other agencies reducing substances members
•    2 business community members
•    6 youth-serving agency members
•    3 civic / volunteer members
•    8 law enforcement members
•    2 media representative members
•    4 healthcare professional members
•    4 religious community members

More specific details about team members and sector representatives are on the WCPC About Us webpage. Team members’ collective professional expertise and experience comes from areas including counseling, education, law enforcement, public service, and more.

The Mission of the WCPC

The WCPC’s mission is “to reduce substance abuse for youth and families by developing an anti-drug coalition, which will be a cross-section collaboration of community entities. The coalition is tasked to strengthen efforts among public and private agencies so as to address environmental factors by identifying and maximizing resources and public awareness to reduce substance abuse among youth and families.” 

Thus, the WCPC focuses the majority of its outreach on educating parents, adults, and teachers on how to speak to youth and on the importance and value of communicating with youth on the dangers of:
•    Underage drinking
•    Underage drug use
•    Underage smoking

Information, support, and resources pertain to the short and long-term effects of such behaviors as well as the life-long damages engaging in these behaviors is proven to result in. The coalition also educates parents and families on how influential they are in the lives of youth and children and how they can use that influence to reduce and to prevent substance abuse among young people.

WCPC Strategies & Outreach

In the WCPC’s six-month review conducted between February and July 2016, the coalition reportedly:
•    Provided services to 2,258 adults
•    Provided services to 1,789 youth

Additionally, the Walton County Prevention Coalition:
•    Provided information through:
o    4 community events
o    4 speaking engagements
o    159 Facebook posts reaching 36,252 people

•    Enhanced skills through:
o    2 youth educational sessions
o    3 community educational sessions
o    3 business educational sessions

•    Provided support through:
o    1 alcohol and drug free events for youth
o    4 recreational programs
o    32 community involvement activities

•    Enhanced access / reduced barriers with 10 compliance checks

•    Changed physical design through:
o    90 environmental scans
o    15 business sight surveys

•    Modified / changed policies by passing 10 workplace policies

The coalition seeks community support in the form of volunteers, donations, and taking the abstinence pledge to stay away from smoking, drugs, and alcohol.

The Walton County Prevention Coalition is dedicated to its mission, message, and outreach. The coalition aims to strengthen the decisions made by members of the Walton community “one youth at a time.” To learn more about the WCPC or how you can help the organization grow in size and strength, visit the WCPC website and become a force for positive change in Walton County.

What Works? Components of a Successful Substance Abuse Prevention Program

Substance abuse prevention is imperative to the success of our younger generations. Preventing drug use in our youth today makes for brighter futures tomorrow. Kids who begin using drugs and alcohol during their adolescent years are more likely to drop out of high school and struggle with substance abuse addiction in the future. Substance abuse prevention programs have been proven to be successful in lowering the statistics of drug and alcohol use in our youth. Here are some key components that make up a successful substance abuse prevention program.

8 Components of a Successful Substance Abuse Prevention Program

1.       Speak Directly to the Youth

A successful substance abuse prevention program must provide information that will effectively influence its target audience – the youth. Studies have shown that children and adolescents are most influenced by the present. Information that will likely have the greatest impact on them would be –

·         The negative consequences that drug and alcohol use will have on their life right now

·         For example, smoking causes bad breath and yellowing teeth vs. smoking can cause lung cancer later in life

2.       Teach Kids How to Resist Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is one of the biggest hurdles of a child’s adolescent years. There are so many pressures coming from all angles during the middle school and high school years – it is crucial for kids to be prepared for handling themselves in these difficult situations, so peer pressure is a very important component to a successful substance abuse prevention program.

3.       Focus on the Big Picture of Adolescent Life

There are so many outside factors that can contribute to teenagers using drugs and alcohol, so in order for a substance abuse prevention program to be effective, you have to also include a broader-base of skills training and health education, such as –

·         Stress management

·         Communication skills

·         Maintaining healthy self-esteem and self-confidence

·         Importance of exercise and maintaining your health

·         Importance of healthy relationships between family, friends and significant others

4.       Reverse the Normality of Drug Use in our Society

It is important to come up with methods that teach our youth that drug use is NOT normal. A good way to do this is to show examples of what happens to people who ‘normally’ abuse drugs and alcohol –

·         Mug shots

·         Before and after shots of people addicted to drugs

·         News articles of drug and alcohol related deaths

5.       Research and Address Community Specific Issues

What are the most common substance abuse issues in your community? It is important to educate our youth about the pressures that are most common in their community. These are the pressures that they are most likely to be faced with.

6.       Promote Healthy Parent-Child Relationships

Substance abuse prevention truly does start in a child’s home. The relationship that a teenager has with their parents can directly influence their likelihood of becoming involved with alcohol and drugs. Some key factors of a healthy parent-child relationship can include –

·         Good, open communication about the issues surrounding substance abuse

·         The ability for parents to trust their teenagers to make smart decisions

·         The ability for teenagers to come to their parents for help in difficult situations

7.       Incorporate Parent Education into the Program

It is just as important to educate parents about substance abuse prevention as it is to educate our youth. Parents need the proper information and resources to help their teens make smart, healthy decisions regarding alcohol, tobacco and drug use.

The Walton County Prevention Coalition is a substance abuse prevention coalition that prides itself on educating the members of our community about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco and drug use in our youth. The first step to prevention is education, and the WCPC is dedicated to providing helpful information and resources to the parents and children of our community.