Yakima Community Coalition Kick Off Meeting

Working in the beer and wine industry are how many families support themselves in the Yakima community. Alcohol use is a difficult topic to discuss, but it is important for our coalition to shed light on the long-term impact of alcohol use. Because alcohol is so prominent in our community, it is that much more important to teach youth about healthy boundaries and the illegality of alcohol use for those under 21, without denigrating a parent’s ability to provide for their family.

• Lack of interest from the community
• Particularly severe or resistant substance use issues in our community
• Unforeseen difficulties when planning our activity
• Lack of awareness of our event or organization

This event allowed us to gain momentum as a new coalition in our community. Our previous coalition went through years of trying to find common ground in terms of developing community initiatives and delegating tasks. During our Communities Talk planning process, we decided that the existing coalition would be split to form a new organization. Since then, we have grown our new coalition, expanded our partnerships and outreach within the schools, made stronger connections with healthcare agencies, and partnered with other community coalitions to widen the reach of our prevention efforts.

• StopAlcoholAbuse.gov website
• Communities Talk website

• Mobilized coalition members or other stakeholders

This event encouraged us to change from a traditional top-down prevention model to a bottom-up one. We found that our prevention strategies worked best when we focused on listening to our community members’ concerns rather than focusing on the goal of our agency.