Needs Assessment

I CARE maintains a needs assessment for Hanover County to better identify the unique strengths and challenges facing our young people. One of the components of the needs assessment is a survey of a sample of 8th, 10th and 12th-grade students. This survey is being conducted throughout Virginia. Students completed the survey in October and results will be available in March 2006.

What do we hope to learn?
The survey will help us understand the choices teens make about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. It will also help identify the factors that help buffer or protect Hanover teens from problem behaviors. Results from the survey will help our community use its limited resources more effectively by targeting the areas of most concern.

What does the survey involve?
The survey asks teens about their attitudes and behaviors related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. Specifically, questions focus on perceptions of bonding to school and family, skills for resisting peer pressure, availability of drugs, community support, and personal substance use.

All information collected is ANONYMOUS and CONFIDENTIAL. Student names do not appear on the surveys. Only students whose parents gave permission participated in the survey.

Click on the following link to see a sample of the survey: http://crimson.srl.vcu.edu/VCYSC/

State and national statistics

Listed below are links to other sites that provide state and national statistics on alcohol/drug use.

• Social Indicators Project
• Crime in Virginia The Virginia State Police provides statewide and local statistics relating to alcohol and other drug violations as part of its annual Crime in Virginia report.
• Monitoring the Future The Monitoring the Future survey is the nation's longest running survey of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use of middle and high school students.
• PRIDE (Parents Resource Information for Drug Education) PRIDE surveys of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students' alcohol and drug use have been conducted since 1982.
• National Household Survey on Drug Abuse This annual survey is conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey has been the primary source of estimates of the prevalence and incidence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in the general population since 1971.

Return to Top