The History of One Voice for Volusia: One Voice for Volusia coalition began in 1997 as a juvenile justice initiative to bring together multiple sectors of the community to implement strategies to reduce juvenile delinquency. As the coalition grew its focus expanded to include not just delinquency, but four other adolescent problem behaviors: substance abuse, violence, school dropout and teen pregnancy. Utilizing the Community that Care® model for community mobilization, One Voice members developed and implemented strategies across many sectors to decrease community risk factors and increase protective factors.
In 2001, as a result of the increased focus and mission, One Voice for Volusia formed its own non-profit corporation. One Voice has continued to grow and react to the needs of the community and has become known as a community leader in research as well as the premier source for community data. As an established and trusted resource, the coalition now mentors other neighboring initiatives and groups and leads the way in studying the process of local funding and planning decisions. By examining best practices and models from throughout the country, One Voice has implemented community efforts to establish a shared vision for local health and human services, which will result in long-term positive changes for the community as a whole.