County organizations that are working together to create and sustain healthy, safe, and economically viable communities  celebrate the 20^th anniversary of their statewide efforts during Community Mobilization Week, Oct. 11-17. The Board of Yakima County Commissioners and Governor Christine Gregoire have both signed proclamations honoring the positive impact Community Mobilization programs have had locally and throughout all of Washington’s counties during the past two decades.

Community Mobilization programs exist throughout all of Washington’s counties to address the problems of substance abuse, violence, and gangs.  In Yakima County, Community Mobilization programs include trainings to help parents and others become involved in local coalitions, learn risk and protective factors, and implement initiatives on youth development and goal setting.  Community Mobilization also supports neighborhood block watch groups, the Yakima County Meth Action Team, and the National Night Out events held at numerous towns each summer.

Yakima County has nine active Community Mobilization groups, which are located in Buena, Grandview, Granger, Naches, Selah, Sunnyside, Toppenish, White Swan, and Yakima.  Local projects include the Los Niños parenting classes held at Buena in conjunction with Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, gang prevention programs in Sunnyside and Toppenish, alcohol prevention programs in Naches, the annual Spring Jam in White Swan, and the Citizens for Safe Yakima Valley Communities programs based from Yakima.

The statewide Community Mobilization efforts had their beginnings with community developers in the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse that led to the 1989 Omnibus Controlled Substances and Alcohol Abuse Act signed by Governor Booth Gardner, which established Community Mobilization Against Substance Abuse.  This was the first effort at a statewide system of community mobilization that reflected program development and a system of collecting and evaluating data related to programs and outcomes that could provide statistical evidence of program effectiveness.  Since its initiation, the concept of community mobilization has been accepted as a national model that has been adopted by other states.

In September of 1990, Yakima County was awarded a $45,000 Community Service Block Grant to begin county-wide community mobilizing efforts against drug and alcohol abuse.  This grant led to the creation of the Yakima County Substance Abuse Coalition, which, through the coordination of Ester Huey and others, spurred involvement by 40 appointed and elected officials, businesses owners, law officers, and other concerned citizens dedicated to developing strategies to reverse the negative image of Yakima County and to stop the distribution of drugs and alcohol. 

Later, the local coalition received a five-year grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental health services Administration totaling $2.5 million that allowed for the hiring of five staff members and provided for an after-school partnership with the Salvation Army in Grandview, the Sunnyside’s Promise program in Sunnyside, the Safe Haven program in Toppenish, and the Selah NOW program in Selah.  Additional funding helped form the Gant Prevention/Intervention Coalition in 1994.  Later in the 1990s, the group supported the start of Yakima’s East Side Sports Organization, which promoted activities and school attendance for children living in poverty.

When the Grant Prevention/Intervention Coalition first formed, local police departments had identified 37 known gangs across the county.  Within a year of the coalition’s founding, the number of gangs had shrunk to 18.  The coalition also worked collaboratively with city courts, city councils, police departments, county commissioners, and public works officials to develop “Drug-Free Zones”, areas within 100 feet of schools where sentences would be doubled for selling drugs.

In 2004, Education Service District 105 became the first (and still only) ESD contractor in the state to serve as a county coordinator for one of Washington’s Community Mobilization programs.  ESD 105 assumed this role following Ester Huey’s retirement, and now coordinates the funding of Community Mobilization programs through the ESD 105 Learning Support department.

Members of Yakima County Community Mobilization: Back – Brian Hunt (Community Mobilization Policy Board member, Yakima County Alcohol/Drug coordinator), Heather Elmore (Northwest Community Action Council’s Friends of Buena Library Coalition member), Lisa Fairbairn (Sunnyside’s Promise director), Donna Garner (Selah Community Action Network coalition coordinator), Lori Febus (Granger coalition coordinator), Kim Gunvaldson (Community Mobilization Policy Board member representing Yakima Chamber of Commerce), Dan Smith (Community Mobilization Policy Board member representing American Lung Association), Carolyn Schlax (Grandview coalition member); Seated – Ann Allen (ESD 105 Learning Support Department director), Diane Sampson (Community Mobilization Policy Board member and Toppenish Safety Network coordinator), Nancy Fiander (White Swan Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant coordinator), Anna Marie Dufault (ESD 105 Community Mobilization coordinator), Carol Holden (Citizens for Safe Yakima Valley Communities executive director)