ICAN’s Partners With CCYSA To Provide Community Programs

August 30, 2013

To provide community programs, ICAN partners with the Chandler Coalition on Youth Substance Abuse (CCYSA). CCYSA strives to prevent youth substance abuse in Chandler through a variety of evidence-based programs designed to increase knowledge of youth substance abuse, promote social responsibility, and spur community action. Serving the 85225 zip code in Chandler, CCYSA has made great strides in bringing out positive results within the community. The vision is that Chandler will be a safe and healthy, drug-free community where opportunities exist for youth to achieve their full potential.

The need is great for community awareness programs like those CCYSA provides in ICAN’s service area. The annual ICAN Community Needs Assessment and the most recent Arizona Youth Survey identified parties as the number 1 source of alcohol for underage youth in the 85225 zip code. Because of the harmful effects underage drinking has on our community, CCYSA, in collaboration with the Chandler Police Department, has a strategy known as Party Patrol to stop the problem at the source.

CCYSA provides resources to the Chandler Police Department to execute Party Patrols on strategic dates (based on intelligence data and reports). These are often times when underage drinking may be more likely to happen, like holidays, football games, etc. With the resources provided by CCYSA, the Police Department focuses on enforcing underage drinking laws and shutting down parties where there is underage drinking. The police make citations to youth and adults in violation of the law as well—consequences that will deter underage drinking laws from being broken in the future.

This is just one initiative that the CCYSA has in place; to learn more and get involved in helping prevent youth substance abuse in the Chandler community, visit the CCYSA website at ccysachandler.org – Join our Peer Leadership program as a youth or adult, attend a monthly CCYSA meeting and many more opportunities are available!

Guest blog post by Billy Hood, ICAN’s Community Programs Coordinator – Contact him at 480.821.4207 (x414) or william@icanaz.org