Partners in Prevention (PIP) is Missouri’s higher education substance misuse consortium dedicated to creating healthy and safe college campuses. The coalition is comprised of 26 public and private college and university campuses across the state that work to lower high-risk behaviors among college students by implementing strategic plans for prevention using evidence-based strategies. Partners in Prevention collaborates with member campuses to provide training and technical assistance, networking opportunities, data collection and analysis on students’ health behaviors, and direct funding to advance the campus’s strategic plan for prevention and health promotion efforts.

Members of the MWSU coalition are from a variety of departments across campus. Interested students and staff are encouraged to help develop and participate in PIP activities. Contact Katie Miron (Director of Counseling, 816-271-4327, kmiron@missouriwestern.edu) for more information.

Each year in the spring, PIP implements the Missouri Assessment of College Health Behaviors survey (MACHB) online to undergraduate students at the 26 PIP campuses. First implemented in 2007, the MACHB survey is designed to understand the roles that alcohol, tobacco, drugs (illegal and prescription), mental health, suicidality, and interpersonal violence have on students’ health and well-being. The MACHB also collects demographic information and assesses students’ attitudes towards campus policies, perception of other students’ behaviors, and willingness to engage in bystander intervention behaviors.

^{*Binge-drinking is defined as consuming 5 or more drinks in a two-hour period.}

The above table shows data from the 2022, 2023 and 2024 MACHB surveys. The percentage of students that indicate consumption of alcohol in the past year has gone down by 3% from 2023, students who reported binge-drinking at least once in the past two weeks has gone down by 4% from 2023, and students who drove at least one time after consuming alcohol has gone down by 5.6% from 2023.