This training provides a general overview of the process and importance of advocating for policy change on the community level. Topics of discussion include the importance of strategic planning, media advocacy, communicating with policymakers and community stakeholders, and other aspects of policy change efforts. Participants will learn how to best utilize their organization’s or agency’s resources to create community change to reduce substance misuse. This workshop offers the who, what, when, where, why, and how of successfully advocating for your cause with decision-makers.

Participants learn about the structure and workings of the Texas Legislature and how this decision-making body affects prevention efforts. The training covers how the often-confusing committee system works, as well as the process by which a bill becomes a law. Knowledge gained about the Texas legislative process will help participants educate policy-makers on important prevention issues.

Participants will learn about evidence-based prevention strategies as they relate to policies proposed by the Texas Legislature and existing law. The training includes information about preemption and prohibition, as well as the differences between state and federal laws that govern tobacco and alcohol use prevention strategies. Increased knowledge of the relationship between the Texas Legislature and prevention policy helps participants expand their capacity to advocate for evidence-based strategies.

This training helps participants develop advocacy skills to effectively communicate with decision-makers and stakeholders about substance misuse prevention issues. Participants will learn how to present information and practice delivering clear, concise, and coherent messages when advocating for prevention strategies and goals. The training will also cover what to expect when meeting with decision-makers and the difference between advocacy and lobbying.

This training focuses on methods that bring people together to achieve collective goals and provides a better understanding of how to build and sustain coalitions. Participants learn how to recruit and engage coalition members and organize effective meetings.

In order to achieve goals, strategic planning is essential for coalitions. Participants learn to develop strategic plans with timelines, goals, and job assignments. This training covers sustainability, fundraising, achieving goals, building capacity, recruiting and sustaining membership, identifying funding sources, and several other critical components for building a successful coalition.

This training helps coalitions develop messaging that clearly communicates the group’s vision, mission, and goals. Participants will create and practice “elevator speeches” that they can use when promoting their coalition to the community or speaking with a parent, pastor, elected official, potential donor, or the press.

This training focuses on sustainability, which is a key element of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) and a necessary component to all successful organizations and prevention efforts. Customized based on the needs and capacity of a particular coalition or organization, the training helps participants develop a plan for maintaining fiscal, human, physical, and social resources and creating positive community outcomes.

During this training, participants learn more about the scope of the youth substance use problem in Texas. The presentation covers key data points related to alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, and tobacco. Additionally, the training provides tools for communicating data in effective, engaging ways.

In this training, participants learn how to use social media data to strengthen community support for their prevention work. The training also discusses the importance of using social media ethically and responsibly. Participants gain knowledge that allows them to use social media in support of their efforts to reduce underage access to alcohol.

This e-learning course is available as a refresher course in Motivational Interviewing for those who have already received in-person training from Dr. Craig Field. This interactive course allows users to brush up on their motivational interviewing skills with videos and other instructional information, then test their knowledge with quizzes at the end of each section. Users will receive a downloadable certificate of completion once they have finished the course.

This interactive e-learning course is intended for individuals who are responsible for or interested in college campus and student safety, substance misuse prevention, and academic success and retention. In it, we cover facts about alcohol use on Texas college campuses, strategies that can improve campus outcomes, and an introduction to Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI). Users will receive a downloadable certificate of completion once they have finished the course.

This training is for groups/coalitions already committed to reducing youth social access in their community. It details the 10 policy action steps for passing a social host ordinance and includes analysis of how to best tailor the strategy to the targeted community. It is offered at both an introductory and an advanced level, depending on where your coalition is in the process.

Strategic planning is one of the most important stages of creating community change. This training focuses on how coalitions can assess a problem, develop clear goals, identify community stakeholders, and write an effective strategic plan. An interactive component helps participants set short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals that chart the path toward making a measurable difference in their communities.

In this training, participants learn the who, what, why and how of environmental prevention strategies. Additionally, the training shares information about the benefits of collaboration with other community members – including law enforcement, educators, and non-profit professionals – and ways to increase collaborative substance misuse prevention efforts. Participants walk away with resources to implement proven strategies that have a lasting impact on the health and safety of their communities.

In this training, participants discuss several evidence-based environmental prevention strategies, focusing mostly on the strategy to raise the state alcohol excise tax. A dime a drink increase of the excise tax would raise $708 million for the state and save 402 lives every year. Learn more about the results from TST’s statewide survey and how most Texans are in favor of an increase in the excise tax to support public health and safety. Participants walk away with concrete next steps they can take to help advance the excise tax strategy in their community.

In this first of three media trainings, participants learn how to analyze the underlying messages of commercial advertisements, enabling them to spot easy-to-miss aspects of advertising that are not always in the consumer's best interest. The training utilizes alcohol advertising as a case study for analysis. Participants expand their critical thinking skills, understanding of advertising techniques, and ability to see the true message in an ad.

In this second of three media trainings, participants learn many aspects of media advocacy during this interactive workshop. Participants also gain skills needed to work effectively with the media, including: developing strategic media messages and sound bites, writing letters to the editor, writing op-eds, holding press conferences, and creating effective PSAs. During the training, participants draft a media plan to advance their prevention strategies and goals. Participants also learn how to create effective counter-marketing campaigns to provide a contrasting voice to the industry’s enormous marketing efforts.

In the third and final media training, participants develop a comprehensive media strategy for their coalition. Participants work independently and collaboratively, applying knowledge gained from previous media trainings to develop materials such as letters to the editor, op-eds, and press kits. This training is hands on and requires participants to think strategically about how to advance their coalition’s goals, taking abstract ideas and converting them into action that creates community-level change.

Using underage alcohol use as a prevention case study, this training educates participants on how social media relates to their advocacy efforts. Participants learn how to use social networking sites, blogs, and Twitter to improve their community-based prevention efforts and advance their prevention goals.

As part of our training efforts, Texans Standing Tall provides consultation to determine the depth of training your organization or coalition needs.

Depending on how much training is needed, Texans Standing Tall can provide support services aimed at streamlining your coalition’s strategic goals, creating efficient and effective collaboration, and membership planning.

• Assessment of local/state issues
• Policy advocate training
• Recruiting members
• Sustaining membership
• Community participation strategies

During this training, participants learn how to conduct a needs assessment – the foundation for all of the following SPF steps - and how to develop a consequence-based logic model. The training covers basic components of a community needs assessment, the purpose of forming and using workgroups, and how to identify key milestones and outputs of an effective assessment process. Content addresses intervening variables, collecting state and local data, and the importance using data to tell a story.

Wonder if you’re actually looking at the bigger picture? Strategic framework trainings help organizations develop the necessary components for sustainable success. Training can include high-level program overviews or methodic, strategy planning requiring key organization stakeholders.

Wonder if you’re actually looking at the bigger picture? Strategic framework trainings help organizations develop the necessary components for sustainable success. Training can include high-level program overviews or methodic, strategy planning requiring key organization stakeholders.

During this training, participants build a strategic plan based on their data-driven logic model. Hands on instruction includes how to prioritize intervening variables, identify a data-driven measurable goal for each intervening variable, and determine evidence-based strategies to reach their goals. Note: This training requires a minimum of one full day.

Effective youth-adult partnerships are a critical component for community change. This training provides a description of positive group characteristics and methods for improving youth engagement. Using TST’s Youth Leadership Council as an example, participants learn how to set group expectations, hold each other accountable, and hold effective meetings with youth members.

While many factors contribute to youth drinking, a growing body of research has found that exposure to alcohol marketing has significant effects on youth drinking behavior. This presentation examines the alcohol industry’s self-regulatory marketing practices, the effects of alcohol marketing on youth, the extent of youth exposure to alcohol ads, and what is happening at federal, state and local levels to address this issue.

This training educates participants about the effects of alcohol on the still-developing adolescent brain. Participants learn to communicate this important information with different community members, from parents to policy-makers. As a result, they can better promote sound public policy and evidence-based strategies to reduce underage alcohol use.