community assessment
Gathering information from our youth and taking their feedback is crucial to reducing alcohol and substance use. The community assessment helps us to determine how to focus our efforts. Our community matters to us, let’s work together to make a difference.
Dubois County CARES is supported in part by the Office of National Drug Control and Policy's Drug-Free Communities Support Program. The goals as a coalition are to:
Establish and strengthen the collaboration among communities, private nonprofit agencies, and federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions to prevent and reduce
substance abuse among youth.
Reduce substance abuse among youth and, over time, among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increases the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse.*
CARES utilizes community assessments to gather information for the purpose of identifying and addressing local substance use problems. We are happy to share the below information with you in the hopes that Dubois County can advance our efforts to combat youth substance abuse and prevention.
If you wish to receive more information regarding our Community Assessment results, please contact us at duboiscountycares@gmail.com.
the good news
43% decrease in overall alcohol usage since 2015
Usage across all substances and all grades factored together have decreased since 2015. As a whole usage has seen some significant drops which is fantastic.
tobacco usage has dropped in every grade since 2015
We are seeing a decrease in reported tobacco usage throughout all grades (6 -12) since 2015. Biggest decrease was from the 12th grade, from 12.4% in 2015 to 2.6% in 2024.
News of concern:
Younger usages
We are seeing a spike in some categories by younger grades(mainly 6th grade). These spikes are reported in Alcohol, Marijuana, Prescription Drug and Vapor usage.
*Grades 6 - 12 usage averaged and comparing 2015 to 2024. See full charts for details.
30 day Use ComparisoN
(Percentage of Students Who Said Yes | 2024 | 2023 | 2015)
High school ages have indicated a dramatic decrease in reported usage. In 2024, there was less of a decrease in 7th and 8th grades and grade 6 showed an increase.
Tobacco use reported has dropped in every grade level since 2015. This is a huge achievement. Largest drops have been reported in 11th and 12th grades.
Reported marijuana usage has dropped 48% across all grades since 2015. There is a spike seen at the 7th grade level.
Every grade has seen a dropped in reported prescription drug usage except 6th grade. Overall there has been a 65% decrease in combined grade usage since 2015.
46% decrease of reported vapors usage in combined grades since 2015. The 6th and 7th grade usage has increased in 2024.
Our Partners
Our partners are an integral part of our ability to bring programs and activities to our youth and communities. Dubois County is known for having a strong community spirit, our organization feels that every day. We would love to partner with you to help make a difference in the lives of our next generation of leaders.
