Overview of the Evaluation of “Fighting Back” and Introduction to This Issue

Abstract

During the last few decades, community coalitions have increasingly emerged as program vehicles for coping with alcohol and other drug problems. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported “Fighting Back,” a community coalition program between 1992 and 2002 that was developed at each community and operated at 15 sites in 11 states. The program's goal was the reduction of alcohol abuse and illegal drug use through coalitions. An outside interdisciplinary evaluation of the Fighting Back and matched comparison sites concluded that the program had no significant effect on substance abuse. Various aspects of the evaluation are discussed. For the last 15 years, the federal government has supported hundreds of anti-substance abuse coalitions. In the articles that follow, different features of the evaluation dealing with results, treatment of substance abusers, community structure, correlative factors, research methodology, bibliography, and a funder's perspective are set forth.