Helpful Resources Alcohol Abuse Tools and Resources AIHA Split, Croatia / New Jersey Partnership (external link)

After conducting a needs assessment and agreeing on program priorities, the Split, Croatia/New Jersey partnership decided to focus its activities on alcohol use and abuse among adolescents between the ages of 12-17 in Split. The partners selected the Youth Behavior Risk Survey (YRBS) created by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the tool to establish baseline data on the problem of alcoholism among youth. The YRBS was adapted to be culturally appropriate and translated into Croatian.

After receiving approval from the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Split partners administered the survey to 1,000 students in the target age range in 17 schools in the Split community. With the help of the director of the Croatian Healthy Cities Network and a professor at the University of Zagreb’s "Andrija Stampar" School of Public Health, the data collected from the YRBS was analyzed and partners concluded that youth alcohol use would be the community issue addressed through the partnership.

The partners jointly selected Project Northland as the intervention for use in Split. Project Northland is a multi-tiered, community-based alcohol intervention that was launched in 1990 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health. The intervention, which was pilot-tested in Minnesota and implemented in Russia, incorporates behavioral curricula for use in schools, parental involvement programs, extracurricular peer leadership and community-wide efforts for adolescents in sixth through eighth grades. The intervention was evaluated using a randomized community trial.

The US partners applied for and received the rights to use the Project Northland curriculum in Split. The first year of the intervention focused on students in grade 6, the second year on students in grade 7, and the third year on those in grade 8. Project Northland materials were adapted to be culturally appropriate, translated, and reproduced in Split.

Upon participating in a training-of-trainers session on the use of Project Northland, the US partners trained 10 6th grade teachers in Split. The Croatian partners received approvals from the Ministries of Health and Education to implement the Project Northland initiative in Split schools. A dozen schools were selected to receive the intervention and 12 others were selected to serve as controls. Two schools were selected as alternates. Approximately 1,300 students participated in the intervention.

• Youth Risk Behavior Survey (English / Croatian)
• Project Northland Brochure (Croatian)
• Project Northland 6th Grade Program Activity Books (Croatian):
       Book 1 / Book 2 / Book 3 / Book 4

Additional Reading:

• Project Northland in Croatia: A Community-Based Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Intervention (PowerPoint presentation, also in PDF format)
• “Project Northland” in Split, Croatia: Community Action to Prevent Youth Alcohol Use (PowerPoint presentation, also in PDF format)
• Study Assesses Risky Behaviors of Slovak Teens (AIHA CommonHealth, Spring 1997)
• Community Health Center Opens in Turcianske Teplice (AIHA CommonHealth, Winter 1998)
• AIHA Partners Work in Schools to Curb Adolescent Drinking and Smoking (AIHA Connections, January 2003)
• Healthy Cities Start from Healthy Communities: AIHA Partners Share Experience in Empowering Health Promotion and Social Safety (AIHA Connections, December 2003)