CAYA Media Project participants

The CAYA Media Project: "Better Choices for a Better Future"

Substance Abuse & HIV Risk Protection for the Youth of St. Croix, Virgin Islands

The mission of the CAYA Media Project is to build a drug-free, healthy, and safe community for a Coalition of Adolescents and Young Adults (CAYA) by designing and developing prevention strategies integrated into traditional Crucian cultural art, games and storytelling.

Goals of the Project | Project Description | Background of the Project

Goals of the Project

• Increase positive youth development using cultural skills.
  
  
• Impact all at-risk behaviors in youth through interventions addressing substance use, abuse of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and other drugs and unsafe sexual activities.
  
  
• Educate and raise awareness of parents and other community stakeholders about Substance Abuse and HIV issues.
  
  
• Strengthen community based organizations through collective coordination, cooperation, and collaboration.
  
  
• Disseminate information on Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention education and resources.
  
  
• Reduce substance use and early sexual activity.
  
  
• Increase family interactions.
  
  
• Build social and personal skills.
  
  
• Increase constructive recreational activity.
  
  
• Support parent training.
  
  
• Conduct parent-child activities to support joint parent-child participation.
  
  
• Support community service activities as a positive alternative activity.
  
  
• Promote leadership development for pro-health decisions and skill use.

CAYA Media Project graduates on a celebration boat ride

Project Description

We know that traditional prevention strategies, especially for today’s youth, must be supplemented by tools that are focused on their world-view. One of the greatest challenges for Crucian youth is respecting and preserving the value of their historic culture.

Substance use, HIV infection, and violence are increasing throughout the Islands. Behaviors appear to be changing as the traditional cultural values and activities are being replaced by the greater American urban and hip-hop culture.

To successfully engage youth in choosing healthy lifestyles and preventing Substance Abuse and HIV disease, we have to balance urban culture with Crucian pride. The CAYA Media Project uses Crucian culture as the frame for the integration of substance abuse and HIV prevention, including Crucian art, games, storytelling, and field trips.

The intervention integrated two model programs to create the CAYA Media Project: Project Alert from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Focus on Kids from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background of the Project

In June 2003, ARCH completed a strategic plan to establish substance abuse prevention (SAP) and HIV prevention in St. Croix -- The Coalition of Adolescents and Young Adults Initiative (CAYA) Project. The CSAP funded CAYA Planning Grant for Fiscal Year 2003 completed A Community Needs Assessment: Substance Abuse Prevention and HIV Prevention Services for Adolescents and Young Adults in St. Croix, Virgin Islands (PDF), and published it in June, 2003.

St. Croix has the lowest median household income ($32,085) in the United States Virgin Islands, which are located approximately 90 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. St. Croix also has the highest poverty rate in the Virgin Islands, with 26.6 percent for families and 30.7 percent for individuals. The unemployment rate nationally is 5.4 percent; in the Virgin Islands the rate is 10 percent, while St. Croix the rate is 13 percent. Joblessness has risen steadily since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The ARCH Institute CAYA Project was initiated by a Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP)/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)/Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) one-year planning grant from October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003. The purpose of the grant was to develop a community-based service provider infrastructure in St. Croix to implement an effective integrated Substance Abuse Prevention and HIV Prevention Services project for minority adolescents to have healthy and safer lifestyles.

The planning grant identified culturally specific prevention services needs to reduce the use and abuse of drugs and prevent HIV invention among adolescents and young people.

A Task Force of dedicated community leaders, many of whom also represent various agencies or organizations, guided and participated in the development of the CAYA Media grants implementation plan.

The CAYA Project's data collection efforts included focus groups, questionnaires, and interviews with key community leaders and youth. This report provides those results.

More information:

Read the report A Community Needs Assessment: Substance Abuse Prevention and HIV Prevention Services for Adolescents and Young Adults in St. Croix, Virgin Islands (PDF)