Draft – last updated 11/21/2015

DRAFT – last updated 11/21/2015

2016 Sammamish Mentoring Grant Community Overview

The mentee community service area is the same as the city of Sammamish boundaries. Incorporated in 1999, the city of Sammamish has grown to 51,229 residents (2014 estimated census), making it the 16th largest city in Washington State. Located 20 miles from Seattle, this bedroom community plays a significant part in the high-tech corridor that stretches along the east side of Lake Washington. The largest employer is Microsoft with its main headquarters located in adjacent Redmond, Washington. According to the 2010 census, 74% of area residents are Caucasian. The largest minority group is Asian/Pacific Islander (19%), followed by multi-racial residents (about 4%). Median household is $135,085.

The prime feature of the city of Sammamish is the 228^th Avenue corridor, Sammamish’s “main street.” Along this two-and-a-half mile corridor, starting in the west, are located Pine Lake Middle School (enrollment 857), Discovery Elementary School (588), Skyline High School (2120), Eastside Catholic Middle and High School (1200), Eastlake High School (1606) and, within a mile, Inglewood Middle School (1160) at the east end of the corridor.

These schools are split between the Issaquah School District on the west (Pine Lake, Discovery and Skyline) and the Lake Washington School District on the east (Eastlake and Inglewood) with Eastside Catholic in the middle (a private school operated by the Seattle Diocese).

In addition, the city of Sammamish recently purchased xxx acres of land and buildings on the eastern end of 228^th NE dedicated to the establishment of a satellite co-op college run by Bellevue College, Cascadia College (University of Washington) and the Lake Washington Technical College. This educational facility is slated to open in xxxx.

Another aspect of geography plays a significant role in youth culture. Located on the “Pine Lake Plateau” that rises above surrounding valley communities like Issaquah, Redmond and Snoqualmie Valley, the city of Sammamish is isolated. Residents are highly dependent upon cars for transportation, thus burdening the roadways and creating frequent traffic back-ups. Youths complain of boredom and lack of recreational outlets near home.

Community and school populations are rapidly changing. In 2014, for example, Skyline High School became a “minority-majority” school. A high percentage of minority students come from immigrant families recruited by Microsoft and other companies from western and eastern Europe, Asia, Mexico and Canada, South America and Africa. A multiplicity of languages, generational differences between immigrant parents and Americanized youth, and differing cultural norms make it difficult to craft messages that reach wide audiences. In addition, a booming economy and growth have created schools with burgeoning populations, cramped facilities and stretched faculties and administration.
Influence The Choice – Drug Prevention Alliance for Youth, the mentor organization, currently serves an area which is the same as the area bounded by the 110 square mile Issaquah School District, located approximately 25 miles east of Seattle, Washington, and encompassing five municipalities and unincorporated King County. The service area is a significant part of the Eastside (i.e., east of Lake Washington) high-tech corridor. Major employers include Microsoft and Boeing. Approximately 98,600 people reside within this geographical area. According to the 2010 census, area residents are 74% white. The largest minority group is Asian/Pacific Islander (18%), followed by Hispanics (nearly 5%). Seventy-seven languages are spoken by Issaquah School District families and students. Median household incomes range from $87,000 to $135,000. Despite this affluence, poverty exists in all parts of the service area; 8.3% of the Issaquah School District’s 20,000 students are enrolled in free and reduced lunch programs.

This service area is divided into three hubs. The fastest growing hub is the northern city of Sammamish. The central hub includes the rapidly growing city of Issaquah, slated for over 25,000 additional residents in the next 15 years, and part of the city of Bellevue. The southern hub includes rural unincorporated King County, the city of Newcastle and part of the city of Renton.

The Issaquah School District binds this vast and diverse area into a community. Here, education is highly valued. District levy elections receive regular voter approval. Schools serve as busy community centers. Residents also participate in numerous youth and family activities through city-sponsored community centers, independent sports leagues, arts organizations, and churches.

On either side of the Issaquah School District are the Lake Washington School District in the north, bisecting the city of Sammamish, and the Renton School District in the south, bisecting the city of Newcastle. Students from these three districts grow up together, play on sports teams together, socialize together, and often live in the same neighborhoods divided along district boundary lines.

Similar communities, similar problems

In our extended community, alcohol and other drugs are readily accessible and attractive to young people for a variety of reasons: disposable income, mobility, the perception that “we don’t have a problem,” youth stress and anxiety related to high expectations for academic and social success, and an adult culture that in many instances enables alcohol, marijuana and prescription drug abuse.

In addition, local norms and the wider culture send mixed messages. For example, in November 2011 Washington State voters approved the transfer of alcohol sales from state-owned stores to private businesses, effectively increasing the number of outlets four-fold. The state-wide initiative included prohibitions against reporting retail losses related to liquor thefts. In Issaquah and Sammamish, law enforcement notes a high percent of youth DUIs arrests in comparison to other municipalities, and numerous anecdotal incidents of youth alcohol thefts from large retail grocery outlets.

In 2006, Washington voters legalized medical marijuana; in 2012, Washington became one of two states legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Again, incidents of youth driving under the influence of marijuana have escalated both locally and state-wide. On the 2014 Healthy Youth Survey, Issaquah students reported a much lower “perception of harm” rate related to marijuana (from xx% in 2012 to xx% in 2014). Teens tell local counselors that marijuana is “legal” (although it is not for people under 21), “natural,” “safer than alcohol,” “easy to obtain,” and even “healthy.”

Twenty years ago, the state adopted no-fault laws for doctors prescribing opiate pain killers, greatly increasing the availability of prescription drugs. Our state now ranks among the highest in the nation for deaths attributable to prescription drug abuse. As a result, Issaquah and Sammamish, like many other communities, has experienced deaths due to opioid prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse.

Since the 2008 recession, alcohol and other drug abuse prevention efforts have been significantly curtailed. School districts lost federal funding for Safe & Drug Free Schools Committees and state funding for prevention/intervention counselors. Law enforcement can no longer afford to “party patrol.” Youth counseling services through agencies like Friends of Youth, Y.E.S., and Crosspath Counseling have been severely reduced by federal, state, county and United Way cutbacks. Personnel reductions have decreased inter-agency cooperation and communication.

As a result, Influence The Choice – Drug Prevention Alliance for Youth was established in 2011 and received a federal Drug Free Communities grant in 2013. The Alliance has worked successfully with the cities of Issaquah, Sammamish and Newcastle to gather community input and provide focus to youth substance abuse prevention efforts. In 2014, Influence the Choice successfully passed a federal site visit with no adverse findings, but with the suggestion that the service area could be re-defined by a special focus on Sammamish through a mentoring grant. Subsequent discussions and activities created a Sammamish Mentoring Grant Exploratory Group with a rationale for extending the service area to encompass the entire city of Sammamish area, including schools within the Lake Washington School District.

Influence the Choice and the Sammamish Mentoring Grant Exploratory Group have a proven track record of working collegially to focus community attention on youth substance abuse prevention efforts. That said, it is apparent to both groups that effective organization and outreach to youths attending school in two different school districts, a private Catholic school, and a newly formed community college, within an environment of rapid and multicultural growth, will require a larger organizational effort.

Clearly, the Sammamish community needs tools and support to permanently change an environment in which youth alcohol, marijuana and prescription drug abuse has become a community norm. Influence the Choice – Drug Prevention Alliance for Youth stands ready to mentor this group with an ultimate goal of improving the health and well-being of youth within our mutual corridor.