Elizabethtown Area Communities That Care (EACTC) was founded in 1999 through a grant from
Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) to reduce adolescent behavioral problems (including drug and alcohol abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and violence).

We conducted one year of extensive research to assess Elizabethtown’s risk factors and protective factors, including a Communities That Care Survey conducted in the district’s schools and create a community profile.

We also inventoried existing community resources.

Community members were invited to review the information and data and help evaluate the
grant-approved programs to determine what would most benefit our community.

From a list of twenty established risk factors which can contribute to youth being more susceptible
to adolescent behavior problems, the community members identified the following as Elizabethtown’s
most significant risk factors:

• family management problems,
• early initiation of problem behaviors,
• the availability of drugs, and a lack of neighborhood attachment with many residents transitioning in and out of the community.

Grants received include:

• In 2000, we received a three-year Communities That Care grant.
• In 2000 and 2001, we were awarded two significant “blueprint” grants from PCCD.
• One of these grants allowed us to implement the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and the Olweus Bully Prevention Program within our school district.
• In 2002, we received another grant to run the Functional Family Therapy Program.
• We have also received mini-grants from Lancaster County Drug and Alcohol over the past three years to do a social norming project at the high school after an initial presentation by H. Wesley Perkins, Ph.D.
• In 2006, we received a grant to implement a Multi-Systemic Therapy program. Further details
  about this program will be coming soon.