ABOUT US
Who Are We?
Watauga Substance Abuse Prevention is a data-driven, evidence-based, multi-sector coalition with a goal to reduce youth substance use and abuse in Watauga County, North Carolina. WSAP utilizes the Seven Strategies for Effective Community Change and the Drug-Free Communities Model
ABOUT Watauga Substance Abuse Prevention (WSAP)
Our Mission
To partner with the community to prevent and reduce the misuse of alcohol, marijuana, and prescription medication by youth through awareness, advocacy, and action.
OUR HISTORY
The first meeting of the Watauga County Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative (WCSAPC) was in March of 2009. The mission of the collaborative was, and still is, very straightforward: “To partner with the community to prevent and reduce the misuse of alcohol, marijuana, and prescription medication by youth through awareness, advocacy and action.” The inaugural meeting of the WCSAPC was the culmination of a wide variety of substance abuse prevention efforts dating back to the inception of the Alcohol Drug Council in 1994.
Other prevention efforts include the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SAPTBG) administered by the Western Youth Network in five counties for approximately 10 years, and the Strategic Prevention Framework-State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG) or Preventing Alcohol Related Crashes (PARC) project, which concluded in 2011. These coalitions, projects, and grants made great strides in implementing various environmental strategies aimed at reducing alcohol related crashes and addressing community and youth substance use and abuse.
In order to demonstrate continued success in population-level change through adequate data collection and focus on evidence-based youth prevention efforts, WSAP was formed; to create a data-driven, evidence-based, multi-sector coalition or collaborative to truly move the needle reduce youth substance use and abuse.