OMNI TA Newsletter June 2021

Volume 30 | June 15, 2021

Block Grant FY2020-21 End-of-Year Recap

The 2020-21 Block Grant fiscal year is coming to a close on June 30th! We want to send a huge THANK YOU from the OMNI team for all of your hard work this year. We are excited to close out the fiscal year and want to make sure CSBs have the following dates in mind to wrap up data entry and resolve rejections before the 2021-22 fiscal year begins:

Wednesday, June 30th: Last day of the 2020-21 fiscal year
Thursday, July 15th: All BG data must be recorded in PBPS
Thursday, July 16th-Friday July 31st: OMNI will conduct a final review of BG data in PBPS
Ongoing through July 31st: CSBs are to prioritize correcting any rejected BG activities; outstanding rejected activities will not be included in annual reporting
Monday, August 2nd: All 2020-21 campaigns and cohorts will be locked. No further revisions or additional activities will be permitted in PBPS.

It's is important to ensure all activities have been recorded correctly in PBPS to tell a more complete story of your prevention accomplishments and ensure accurate federal data reporting. Thank you for taking the time to enter and correct your data in PBPS by these deadlines to help us reach these goals!

We also note that we sure did spend a lot of quality time together this past FY!

We started with our July 2020 BG Kick-off meeting, where we outlined the new statewide logic model, required strategies, and the Evaluation Roadmap processes.
We then offered trainings on the Coalition Readiness & Effectiveness Assessment tool, Coalition Sustainability, and Pulling Reports in PBPS.
We hosted a DBHDS-OMNI Q&A session, and three CSB Community Forums: OTC Prevention, Evaluation Planning, and Alcohol Merchant Education.

Recordings and slides from all of these trainings and meetings are available in Box.com in the OMNI TA Resources >> Trainings & Webinar folder, should you want to revisit them.

Thank you all for participating and partnering in the Block Grant evaluation this past fiscal year, and for your amazing work in planning and implementing your strategies. We look forward to rolling out the Evaluation Roadmap planning process soon, for FY 2021-21!

June 10th CSB Community Forum

Thank you everyone for participating in our CSB Community Forum on Environmental Alcohol Prevention Strategies! We heard from Elizabeth Gerndt from Counter Tools, who demoed the Counter Tools Store Mapper Tool. Erin Sandow from Crossroads, and Lori from Cumberland Mountain presented valuable information on implementing environmental strategies in their catchment areas. OMNI reviewed some basics and best practices on Alcohol Merchant Education. We then concluded the forum with a large group discussion and Padlet activity on possibilities for implementing environmental strategies in our CSBs, and reviewed some upcoming important dates for CSBs.

You can view learnings from our large group discussion on this Padlet. Feel free to join in on the conversation and add to the Padlet if you visit! If you missed the forum- the slides from the presentation are on Box.com, as is the OMNI Review of Basic and Best Practices on Merchant Education.

News You Can Use

Recording media impressions in PBPS

In PBPS, media impressions, which are sometimes different than the demographics that are recorded, are only able to entered for Information Dissemination campaigns that had "Any" selected as the media type in the Plan Channel.

You will not be able to record media impressions for social marketing campaigns.

Virginia COVID-19 Impacts Report

The Virginia State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW) recently published the Virginia COVID-19 Impacts Report. This report provides a summary of preliminary trends in data around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), school closures, behavioral health, substance use and overdoses, and the criminal justice system in Virginia since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020.

Check out the materials at https://www.virginiaseow.org/our-work and reach out to the SEOW if you have any questions (VirginiaSEOW@omni.org).

Counter Tools Alcohol Environmental Strategies Webinar

For more information on environmental approaches to alcohol prevention, please register for the upcoming "Healthy POS Webinar Series," hosted by Counter Tools. The hour training will discuss merchant education with alcohol retailers, effective policy efforts, and a review of research on environmental strategies. Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vz5yi701R9u3u5pmt-jYig

Community Spotlight

Region Ten Lock and Talk & Rapid REVIVE Outreach Efforts

Region Ten and The Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition have coordinated with Lock and Talk Virginia to host free safe storage device drive-thru events in partnership the local sheriff's department, the department of social services, and multiple other community partners. Free Rapid REVIVE Opioid Overdose Reversal trainings and Narcan are also offered at these events. Along with the safe storage drive-thru events, community members can request pickup of devices at Region Ten's Charlottesville office and Nelson County office. Region Ten continues to offer virtual REVIVE Opioid Overdose Reversal training and free Narcan to increase their outreach in community-based settings while setting up delivery services in rural counties and a local 'train the trainer' training!