About Our Coalition
Who We Are
Established in January 2019, Tumwater HOPES is one of 100 Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative (CPWI) coalitions in the State of Washington. Tumwater HOPES is a local, community-based coalition using community-based strategies to determine root social and emotional factors that predict problem behaviors. Tumwater HOPES believes a comprehensive, collaborative approach involving youth, parents, educators, and other caring adults is best for solving the problems facing youth. We tackle critical issues with a variety of programs to promote health and prevent youth substance use.
Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much
Erin Dafoe, former Coalition Vice-Chair 2019/2020
What We Do
Meeting monthly, the Coalition works to learn about, share knowledge and resources, and problem-solve the challenges of youth substance use and youth mental health concerns. The Coalition recognizes youth substance use as a symptom of larger issues and works to impact the root causes contributing to kids using drugs and alcohol.
How We Do It
We recognize that teen substance use shares many of the same risk factors as other serious concerns like violence or depression. Our work is shaped by the four-level Social-Ecological Model for Prevention which addresses those risk factors and targets increasing protective factors to improve the health of children, youth, teens, families, and our community as a whole.
We use the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services prevention framework to guide the development of our strategic plan, our community prevention efforts, and the formal prevention programs we support.
Data
The Healthy Youth Survey provides important survey results about the health of adolescents in Washington and is used to guide policy and programs that serve youth.
Community
We participate in a variety of community outreach events throughout the year to increase awareness of risks to healthy youth development and support healthy children, youth, teens, and families.
Tumwater HOPES conducts an annual Tumwater Community Survey to provide adult residents the chance to share feedback and insight about critical concerns relating to teen alcohol and other drug use and mental health and well-being. The data collected helps identify positive changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as identify areas for renewed or intensified preventive or health promotion efforts.
Programs
Tumwater HOPES uses a strategic action plan to deliver a variety of programs that promote health for individuals, families, schools, and our Tumwater community. Coalition members make decisions guided by an understanding of the science of the positive, youth development, and prevention research to have the greatest effect for the greatest number of people over the greatest period of time.
Learn more about the Social Development Strategy that guides our strategic action plan.