Orange County On Track /  SPIRIT Coalition

Orange County On Track is the lead agency, on behalf of the Santa Ana SPIRIT Weed & Seed Coalition, for the Drug-Free Communities Support Program.  The Coalition project is a comprehensive, culturally sensitive, substance abuse prevention plan, which involves young people and includes community-wide prevention activities.

The Weed and Seed SPIRIT Coalition (“Southeast Partners In Revitalization Improvement Team”) represents a collaborative partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office of Weed and Seed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the City of Santa Ana.  The coalition includes Santa Ana residents, local businesses, schools, churches, community based organizations, law enforcement and governmental agencies and other interested community partners.  The Santa Ana Weed and Seed program encompasses a multi-agency strategy that “weeds out” drug use and trafficking, violent crime, and gang activity in the target neighborhood and then “seeds” the area through social and economic revitalization.  This strategy involves the linking of federal, state and local law enforcement and criminal justice efforts with local social services, the private sector and related community based programs in an effort to maximize existing resources.  Through community involvement, local residents are empowered to solve problems in their neighborhoods by working together as pivotal partners in the private sector and local government.

Through the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, the SPIRIT Coalition is carrying out multiple strategies to address the highest priority drug problems experienced by young people living in the most impoverished high-risk neighborhoods of Santa Ana. To reduce substance abuse among youth, and over a period of time among adults as well, there is an emphasis on increasing community collaboration to strengthen coalition efforts in the targeted, disadvantaged Weed and Seed Site 2 of Santa Ana.  Key methods and activities to address the problems are: 1) the On Track Youth-to-Youth Mentoring and Youth Asset Building Program with Conflict Resolution Training; 2) the Drug Education for Youth (DEFY) Camp; 3) Parent Education Seminars; 4) the multi-strategy and multi-component Coalition services, which include assessing community needs, creating baseline indicators, coordinating substance abuse prevention services and serving as a link between coalition and community agencies; 5) the leadership training and development of teen advocates for drug-free communities; and 6) an alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana prevention media campaign.  The above-cited methods and activities address multiple domains: individual, peer, family, school, community and society/environmental, as well as multiple risk factors that are taken into consideration in the proposed project design.

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