SPIFFY Coalition Mission

The SPIFFY Coalition works to collaboratively engage in data-driven prevention efforts to reduce youth substance use and build healthy communities in Hampshire County.

 

Equity Statement

The SPIFFY Coalition believes that equity and an active undoing of injustice are fundamental to meaningful youth substance use prevention efforts. This means using prevention strategies that benefit all populations throughout Hampshire County, with special attention to those who have faced historical and continuous systemic oppression. We are committed to working with and for young people with the goal of improving their current lives and future health outcomes.

As a coalition, we center equity in our work by:

  • Intentionally developing relationships and striving to engage all populations in strategic planning and the work of the coalition 
  • Working with consultants and seeking out technical assistance from professionals whose identities reflect the diversity of our region
  • Including socio-demographic measures (e.g., race, sexual identity, gender identity) in our assessment questions and disaggregating data related to these groups 
  • Integrating new models of prevention, such as targeted universalism and restorative prevention, into our work

Values

SPIFFY’s work will be guided by these core values:

COLLABORATION: We work together with the community, build relationships, foster connections, and share resources because we believe a sense of connectedness and a humane process are as important as the end result. We use a collective impact approach, which includes a common understanding, coordination, a shared vision for change, consistent and open communication, and mobilization of formal and informal community leaders. All of our current partners are listed on our partner page.

INCLUSIVITY: We especially value the perspectives and contributions of people from historically marginalized groups, including youth, those with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, those from LGB and trans and non-binary communities, BIPOC people, and individuals living with disabilities, to name a few. By seeking out these voices, we strive to lift the needs of these, and other, disenfranchised groups into the design and implementation of our strategies. We embrace an intersectional approach, and will focus on the unique challenges of those who hold multiple identities within different systems of discrimination. We utilize the Positive Youth Development framework that centers youth participation and a strengths-based approach in our decision-making processes.

COMPASSION: We believe that caring adults, families, and youth themselves help support the health and wellbeing of youth. We work to use a person/community-centered, trauma-informed approach, with the understanding that many people have experienced, witnessed, or been otherwise impacted by trauma and we need to be flexible and responsive in the ways we approach the work to build trust and promote healing.

EVIDENCE: We embrace data in all its forms (both quantitative and qualitative) and science as the foundation for everything we do, planning data-driven strategies and actions that promote positive outcomes and collective impact. Throughout the data collection and analysis process, we incorporate research strategies that promote equity, justice, and community strengths, and when possible, take an intersectionality perspective.

TRUTH & TRANSPARENCY: We pledge to report our data in a truthful manner and to be transparent in the methods we use to gather data. We work to identify and explicitly acknowledge when our practices unwittingly support white supremacy, and commit to addressing these shortcomings in subsequent work that we do.

SOCIAL JUSTICE: We will embark on every piece of work we do with a commitment to dismantling systemic racism and promoting equity and social justice. At its foundation, the work of social justice is the work of systemic transformation. This includes practicing cultural humility to understand our limitations and to shift as we encounter new perspectives and acquire new information. We strive to establish partnerships with community-based organizations that enhance their ability to meet the needs of people of color and their families, and engage individuals and communities of color in the leadership, planning and implementation of strategies. Using a social justice lens to do our work also means incorporating restorative justice as a pillar of substance misuse prevention work.

Vision Statement

All Hampshire County youth and families are connected, valued, feel a sense of belonging and purpose, and have the skills, support and resources needed to live full and healthy lives.

About SPIFFY

SPIFFY, founded in 2002, is a broad, countywide coalition that helps local communities reduce risk factors that make it more likely youth will engage in unhealthy behaviors, while increasing protective factors that encourage youth to make healthy choices. This approach collects and uses data to identify strategies, policies and evidence-based programs that reduce unhealthy behaviors. SPIFFY is housed within the Collaborative for Educational Services.

 What we do: 

  • Identify Risk and Protective Factors
  • Design/Implement Strategic Plans
  • Engage Community Partners/Building Coalitions
  • Policy Development
  • Oversee Surveys and Survey Analysis
  • Training and Education
  • Develop/Implement Media Campaigns
  • Support Implementation of Best Practices/Evidenced-Informed Curricula
  • Media Campaigns

To learn more about our past projects and work, visit out Project Archives folder on our SPIFFY Google Drive.

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