The Cortland Area Communities That Care Coalition was started in 2001. A group of concerned community leaders decided to organize and create a coalition to address local youth alcohol and drug abuse. The coalition uses a long-term process of mobilizing a community to promote positive youth development. This Communities That Care (CTC) process is one used nationwide. It has been proven to be effective because it addresses risk and protective factors that exist in the community. Risk factors are elements in the environment. They increase the likelihood that young people will make unhealthy behavior choices. Protective factors, by contrast, are elements that support young people and encourage them to instead make healthy behavior choices.

In the beginning, much time and energy was spent training and organizing for effective group action. Information about the communities in the county was collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Next, the Coalition chose five priorities to address. Ten validated (or “proven to work every time”) programs were selected as a sort of “prescription” to cure the ailments of the community and to prevent future problems.

All of this work was built into the Five-Year Comprehensive Youth Development Plan in March 2003.

Since then the Cortland Area CTC Coalition has been hard at work. It has been finding partners and funding to translate the Plan into action. At this time the implementation consists of:

Project Northland:
This school program is being taught to 6th, 7th and 8th graders in the Homer, McGraw, and Marathon school districts. Thanks to a grant from Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, 10 teachers in the Cortland district have also recently been trained to implement the same curriculum.

Majority Rules:
SUNY Cortland has obtained grant funding to challenge the stereotypes of excessive campus and college-age drinking.

Strengthening Families:
A series of parent/child workshops offered by the Seven Valleys Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse that improves family communication and management.

The Incredible Years:
A Headstart program offered to little ones and their parents.

Community Policing:
A strategy that had been taking place in the East End of Cortland, and was recently expanded to the South End. Through this program, city police officers are making an effort to get to know the citizens in the different parts of our community.

Step by step, the work continues. If all goes according to plan, there will be significant, measurable drops in the usage of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs by children and youth in our community. We will have healthier families. There will be stronger attachments between our children and their neighborhoods. And those neighborhoods will be attractive, and safe. The impact of these changes will be huge. Children do better in school when they are not impaired by drugs or alcohol. These young people will go on to have better jobs, more fulfilling relationships, and happier families while living in stronger neighborhoods when neighbors really care about each other.