Drug Free Communities

Drug Free Communities - Drug Free Communities (DFC) is a federal grant program funded through the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as a subgroup of the Broome Opioid Awareness Council (BOAC).  The purpose of the DFC Initiative is to target youth and families with effective strategies in prevention to reduce overall substance use within the community.  This is done through coalition building, collaboration with local prevention providers and community partners, educating the community about substance use and addiction, and to increase protective factors by providing alternative activities throughout the community that are void of substances.  The DFC Coalition, Prevention Coalition of Broome County (on Facebook) is comprised of 12 sectors of the community as each bring a unique perspective of the prevention needs of the community.  The 12 sectors include parents, youth, schools, religious organizations, healthcare professionals, media, and business.  Using SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework Model, the coalition focuses on planning, implementing and evaluating prevention practices and programs.  DFC uses data from Broome County's biyearly Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA) survey to decide which substances to focus its prevention efforts on.  In 2018, DFC focused on four substances which were guided by the 2016 PNA Survey results.  The three substances of focus were alcohol, marijuana and tobacco since they were the top reported substances used by 7-12 graders as defined by the 2016 PNA results.  Opioids were also a focus to stay in conjunction with BOAC's focus of opioid awareness.

  • As part of its community collaboration efforts, DFC held a Prevention Night with the local professional sport team, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.  This Prevention night recognized the winner of the Underage Drinking Prevention Poster Contest.  The Underage Drinking Prevention Post Contest was open to all Broome County High School Students and aimed at creating a forum for students to raise awareness about the dangers of underage drinking. 
  • Broome County's 2018 PNA Survey was administered to 9 out of 12 school districts plus BOCES.  The information gathered from the survey will be disseminated to the community and partnering organizations, including school districts in 2019.  School and organizations use the PNA data to assess and decided what prevention strategies are needed within the confines of their districts and communities.

You may contact the DFC Coordinator at 607.778.1005.