2023 Colorado Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit Released
Background of the Project
In 2022, OMNI Institute contracted with the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) to compile a toolkit of resources, best practices, and prevention strategies using equity, diversity, and Positive Youth Development frameworks. The CDPHE’s mission is to serve Coloradans through public health and environmental services. The Community Prevention and Early Intervention team spearheading the toolkit work is committed to promoting the health and safety of Colorado citizens by working with community partners to improve access to high-quality primary prevention of substance use programs.
The ultimate goal of the toolkit is to decrease injury and death in Colorado related to impaired driving. The toolkit aids communities, community-based organizations, and any other stakeholder invested in prevention in selecting and implementing interventions to prevent impaired driving among youth across Colorado.
This toolkit was developed with the insight and support of the Colorado Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit Steering Committee: a group of youth and adult partners from diverse areas of Colorado who are invested in the prevention of impaired driving in their communities. The committee convened monthly to discuss the development of the toolkit, the needs of their communities around impaired driving, and how to make this resource more accessible to community members, practitioners, and decision-makers.
Key Features
The 2023 Colorado Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit is a comprehensive tool that aids readers in selecting and implementing prevention strategies with instructional guidance, recommendations, and links to evidence-based, high-quality external resources. This toolkit is beneficial for use at multiple stages of intervention—from just beginning to plan an intervention to evaluating the effectiveness of an existing impaired driving strategy.
Key sections of the toolkit provide support to readers on these elements of prevention:
Understanding the problem of impaired driving in Colorado, including accessing various data sources.
Working with diverse stakeholders, including youth, law enforcement, and rural communities.
Selecting and funding prevention interventions that work to prevent impaired driving and avoiding those that do not work.
Assessing community readiness to engage in prevention.
Evaluating interventions, including those that are environmental in nature.
Using the Positive Youth Development framework.
Supporting prevention initiatives through policy advocacy.
The toolkit uses color schemes and in-text hyperlinks for internal navigation and connection to external resources.
The toolkit is available in both English and Spanish language versions.
Contact Information
For questions about the toolkit or the overall project please contact the OMNI Project Lead Jason Wheeler at jwheeler@omni.org.
For questions about the toolkit or the work of CDPHE please contact Bonnie Holladay, a Program Manager with CDPHE’s Community Prevention & Early Intervention Unit, at bonnie.holladay@state.co.us.
For a copy of the Colorado Impaired Driving Prevention Toolkit, please contact project lead Jason Wheeler (jwheeler@omni.org).