The Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties received a grant from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) to design and implement a strategic prevention framework. The goal of the project is:

To create a coalition of public, private and citizen stakeholders charged with influencing policies and developing programs and services which will reduce substance abuse by the residents of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties.

Developing a strategic prevention framework requires cross-system, community-wide collaboration. It should build upon the strengths and successes that organizations and systems have established in the community and it must focus on shared goals and measurable outcomes. Early conversations about the project explored the options of conducting a shared two-county process which would bring Carroll and Tuscarawas stakeholders together in a single approach or maintaining separate county identities by running parallel and independent processes. It was recommended that separate planning processes, strategic prevention frameworks and community coalitions be established for each county.