What is Ossining Communities That Care (OCTC)?

Ossining Communities That Care is a community-based coalition dedicated to fostering wellbeing among Ossining’s young people and their families.

We collaborate with a group of community partners to offer Ossining teens opportunities for substance use prevention and social, academic, and personal growth through innovative, youth-oriented programs.

What is the Communities That Care program model?

Ossining Communities That Care is based on the “Communities That Care” model, which promotes a science-based approach to substance use prevention.

These methods have been proven to be successful in promoting healthy behaviors and preventing substance use. The Communities That Care model has been adopted in communities like ours across the country, helping communities prevent problems before they develop.

There are five phases to the Communities That Care program:

1. Get Started: Communities get ready to introduce CTC by activating a small group of catalysts, assessing community readiness, identifying key community leaders to guide the process, and inviting community stakeholders to get involved.
2. Get Organized: Communities form a coalition. After recruiting Community Partners, they educate partners about prevention science, create a vision statement, organize workgroups, and develop a timeline for implementing the CTC model.
3. Develop a Community Profile: Communities assess community risks and strengths while identifying existing resources. They will review data from the community’s youth survey, identify priority risk and protective factors, assess community resources to address said factors, and identify any resource gaps that need to be filled.
4. Create a Community Action Plan: The coalition will create a plan for prevention work in the community to reduce widespread risk, strengthen protection, define measurable outcomes using the assessment data, and select and expand effective policies and programs.
5. Implement & Evaluate: Finally, communities will implement selected programs and policies, monitor/evaluate them, measure the results, and track progress.

How can I become a Community Partner?

OCTC currently works with over 100 active Community Partners to prevent teen substance use in Ossining. Our Community Partners boast a range of skills and expertise that serve our mission: to build a bright, healthy future for Ossining’s youth.

Our Community Partners are made up of law enforcement, local/county government, schools, healthcare, business, parents, youth, youth-serving organizations, faith-based and civic groups, and substance use prevention agencies.

If you’re interested in getting involved and/or joining the coalition, visit our Get Involved page to learn more.

Why is community support important?

Community support is incredibly important for both participating organizations and the community as a whole.

There are a range of ways you can support your community—including joining community organizations like Ossining Communities that Care. By getting involved with OCTC, you can help create a happy, healthy future for our youth and the Ossining community as a whole.

Since 2004, we’ve created real, positive change for Ossining youth with the help of our Community Partners. Here’s how community support through OCTC has positively impacted our youth:

• 78% of Ossining teens don’t drink (up from 62% in 2011)
• 85% of Ossining teens don’t binge drink (up from 75% in 2011)
• 91% of Ossining teen’s don’t smoke marijuana (up from 85% in 2011)
• The majority of Ossining teens don’t drink, smoke marijuana, or smoke cigarettes.
• Binge drinking rates have dropped at all levels at Ossining High School.

How can you prevent drug abuse in a community?

Ossining Communities That Care is dedicated to preventing drug use among Ossining teens. There are a number of expert-driven efforts organizations can take to prevent drug abuse in our community.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse provides the following guidelines for communities to develop a plan for research-based prevention:

• Assess the type of drug problem in the community. Determining the types of drugs and contributing risk factors is key to preventing drug abuse in the community. With this knowledge, we can raise awareness around the community’s drug problems and determine the best prevention programs for our youth.
• Assess the community’s readiness for prevention. Reviewing existing programs, resources, and gaps in addressing community needs is critical to identifying any necessary additional resources. With organizations like OCTC, Ossining is actively involved in preventing drug abuse in the community.
• Collaborate with community organizations. Organizations like OCTC are built to foster collaboration between all areas of expertise between our Community Partners. By bringing together law enforcement, local/county governments, schools, healthcare, businesses, parents, youth, youth-serving organizations, faith-based and civic groups, and substance use prevention agencies, we work to prevent drug abuse in the community.