SIG - Program Overview

SIG Program Overview

Summary

On October 1, 2001, Wisconsin became one of 11 states to receive a Federal "State Incentive Grant" to prevent substance abuse among 12 - 17 year old youth. Under a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) “State Incentive Cooperative Agreements for Community-Based Action (State Incentive Grant - SIG), Wisconsin received three years of Federal funding totaling $9 million over the three-year period. Photo of kids

The SIG program calls upon governors to develop and implement a comprehensive statewide substance abuse prevention strategy to optimize the use of all State and Federal substance abuse prevention funding streams and resources including:

The 20 percent primary prevention set-aside from the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SAPT) (Est. $5.6 million annually),
Funds from this SIG program (Est. $3 million annually), and
Additional financial support from Federal agencies, the State and communities. (Est. $16 million annually).

Goals & Objectives

The SIG program outlines three goals:

Identify and review the use of substance abuse prevention funding in order to develop and implement a sound strategy to coordinate, leverage, and redirect funding streams;
Develop a comprehensive and long-range plan to enhance and improve prevention service delivery by ensuring prevention resources fill identified statewide gaps with science-based strategies and programs; and
In conjunction with the Department of Health & Human Services, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, establish performance targets to measure the State's progress based on measures included in the National Household Survey on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

As specified in the application guidelines the Governor will use these dollars to further the state’s efforts to reduce the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) among Wisconsin’s 12 to 17 year old youth population. In addition the guidelines require the State to establish a SIG Advisory Committee. As Chairperson of the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, the Governor will appoint members to the SIG Advisory Committee by the end of CY 2001. This Committee will play a significant role in reviewing and recommending improvements in statewide prevention services, funding, and service delivery mechanisms and will be charged with developing a Comprehensive Prevention Plan to be presented to the Governor by November 1, 2003.

The SIG Advisory Committee will have three primary functions:

Set the criteria and guide the mechanism for awarding subrecipient grants during Year 1, based on the application guidelines;
Develop short-term (1 to 3 years) and long-term (4 to 10 years) goals for improving and institutionalizing an effective statewide prevention service delivery system; and
Develop and support a comprehensive state prevention plan that recommends how prevention funds can be systematically disseminated to support the most effective, science-based prevention programs within the state.

To address these objectives the Advisory Committee will:

Create a shared vision for reducing ATOD use and abuse among 12-17 year-old youth in Wisconsin.
Create a statewide prevention strategy.
Maximize all available ATOD prevention resources.
Remove state barriers to enhance the delivery of effective local services.
Develop shared responsibility among state and local governmental units.
Define government’s role as a leader, resource, and partner.

[more on Goals & Objectives]

Need

Progress towards achieving the goals of this project will in part be measured by meeting targets established through data collected in the National Institute on Drug Abuses’ (NIDA) National Household Survey, which is updated biennially. Projected Wisconsin targets are defined in the chart below using 1999 benchmark data. Data showing "perception of risk" will be available in NIDA's published 2001National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

_{Percent Of 12 To 17 Year-Olds
Using Substance In The Past Month And SIG Targets}

	Illicit drugs	Marijuana	Binge drinking	Perception of risk
National mean	5.3%	7.9%	10.9%	Not available at time of summary
Wisconsin rates	11.8%	9.0%	14.7%
Wis. ranking among 23 non-SIG states	tied for #6	4th	5th
Targeted levels by 2004/5 NHSDA	Reduce 10% to 10.6%	Reduce to Nat Ave 7.9%	Reduce 10 % to 13.2 %	10% increase from 2001 NHSDA level

National Institute on Drug Abuses' 1999 National Household Survey indicates 6.4 percent of Wisconsin youth, age 12-17 (31,000), are substance dependent. Wisconsin ranks 15th among the 50 states with the national average at 5.8 percent.

Wisconsin has had extremely high rates of binge drinking (24%), the second highest in the country (NHSDA 1999). In addition, Wisconsin also has high binge rates among its 12-17 year old youth (14.7%, 7th in the nation).

Evaluation

The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) has been identified as the project evaluator. PIRE is a California-chartered, not-for-profit corporation with offices in Calverton, MD, Madison, WI, Berkeley, CA, Chapel Hill, NC, Louisville, KY and Providence, RI. PIRE's experience in evaluating SIG grants in Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina and Vermont and their national affiliation and close partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, makes them a leader in science-based prevention research, evaluation and implementation.

Funding Distribution

The Wisconsin plan distributes $2,550,000 annually in SIG dollars funding 17 counties and tribes that submitted successful proposals, beginning January 1, 2003. Due to the population size and more severe ATOD problems in Milwaukee County, a service provider capable of administrating the grant to the whole county will be funded.

All applications were considered based on the county's willingness to change the way prevention services are provided. In particular:

A commitment to implement science-based programs and strategies and
A commitment to redirect prevention funds to fill gaps and reduce service duplication. Counties also will agree to fund necessary outcome and process evaluations of the SIG-funded programs.

Successful rural, suburban and urban counties were awarded funds in proportion to their populations of children under 17. It is the intention that SIG funds applied for will be used to replace less effective prevention programs thus replacing non-effective services with effective science-based prevention models. This transition should be completed over the 3-year funding period.

Wisconsin Regional Grant Awared Table

Wisconsin Region	Maximum Budget Available	Wisconsin SIG County	Agency	Size Ranking (Youth Pop.)	Youth Pop.(0-17)
A- represents 1 county	$475,424	Milwaukee	Community Advocates, Inc.	1st	247,825
B- represents 3 counties	$237,712	Dane	Dane Co. Dept. of Human Services	2nd	96,255
B	$237,712	Racine	Racine Co. Human Services Dept.	5th	50,951
C- represents 5 counties	$118,856	Kenosha	Kenosha Co. Div. Of Children & Family Services	7th	40,502
C	$118,856	Rock	Rock Co. Human Services Dept.	8th	40,366
C	$118,856	Washington	Council on AODA of Washington Co., Inc.	11th	31,330
C	$118,856	Sheboygan	The Family Resource Centers of Sheboygan Co.	12th	28,775
D- represents 8 counties	$118,856	Eau Claire	Eau Claire City-County Health Dept.	17th	21,820
D	$118,856	Dodge	Dodge-Jefferson Healthier Community Partnership	18th	21,263
D	$118,856	Jefferson	Opportunities, Inc.	21st	18,657
D	$118,856	Columbia	Coop. Educational Service Agency (CESA) 5	27th	13,221
E- represents 51 counties	$118,856	Dunn	Arbor Place, Inc.	37th	9,305
E	$118,856	Crawford	Prairie du Chien School District	54th	4,512
E	$118,856	Vilas	Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Inc.	57th	4,345
E	$118,856	Marquette	Hope Haven-Rebos United, Inc.	67th	3,335

* each of the five Wisconsin Regional Groups (A-E) represent 20% of the state's youth population.

Tribal Competition Group Index

Competition Group

Maximum Budget Available

Wisconsin Tribe

Agency

Youth Population

(0-17)

$86,440

Menominee

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin

1,420

$86,440

Bad River

Bad River Family Preservation

563

(Source of population data: U.S. Census Bureau’s Profiles of General Demographic Characteristics – 2000.)