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3rd Q March 2015

Base Grant I #GRK%63619

Introduction Fiscal year 14-15 is the 2nd year of a two-year grant that runs through June 30, 2015. This report covers the 3rd fiscal quarter from January 1 through March 31, 2015. Some deliverables originally represented in this grant have been moved to grant II (noted below). Fiscal reports at the end of each quarter are provided via Northstar’s accounting firm Sannerud and Savarese and entered into the state’s electronic grants management system.

FY 14-15 Grant Deliverables and Results

Grantee Duties:

Continue efforts to provide statewide public awareness, prevention, professional training and advocacy on the topic of problem gambling while maintaining a gambling neutral approach. These efforts compliment and do not duplicate public awareness activities managed through the Minnesota Dept of Human Services Compulsive Gambling Program. GRANTEE will continue and enhance the following programs to achieve specific objectives. Measurement activities will be tied to each and results will be reported to the STATE on a quarterly basis. Duties are as follows:

A. Operate an information website as a base of knowledge on the topic of problem gambling serving the information needs of the public, the professional treatment community, the gambling industry, public policy makers and researchers. The website will serve as a collective resource and link with other state and national sites to provide a strong web of information serving multiple constituencies. The site will be updated to provide new information and professional news, and provide a calendar of events and activities related to problem gambling throughout the state.

Goals:

Increase visits to the website

Continue upward trend in the percentage of new visitors to the site

Increase amount of information available and keep information fresh through more frequent updates

Explore ways to establish interactive tools and implement as available

Develop goals for increasing readership by targeted audiences and implement approaches to achieve goals

3Q Website hits hit an all time high this quarter. Monthly hits for the quarter were: January 1106, February 1159, and March 1855, thanks in part to the Awareness Month campaign. We continue to average about 82% new visitors. We will update all the charts from previous quarters at the end of the year and report on the overall year’s activities at that time. 2Q The website is continually being fine-tuned and new content, especially in the blog area, is added frequently. It is apparent that online advertising plays a significant role in driving traffic to NPG website. The website link is promoted through many channels, including events, print materials, email news, Facebook and others. We are looking into budget options to establish a more consistent online presence to drive traffic. The first significant ad campaign online will be during National Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March 2015. Data is shown in the following charts.

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1Q Website traffic dropped significantly after the advertising campaign on WCCO Radio (and online) was completed. The dramatic results reinforce the need for additional advertising options to drive traffic to the website. However percentage of new visitors to the site continues to improve, from 74% average for the first six months of the FY to 84% for the last six months.

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B. Provide a monthly email newsletter to provide frequent information on important topics, events, research and online links, continually growing the distribution reach and serving as a frequent and visible resource.

Goals:

Grow the email list for this newsletter

Use the email newsletter to launch surveys or other interactive tools to generate topic discussions among readers and to drive readers to the website

Maintain timeliness of announcements and insure value to the links provided 3Q. Email newsletter. Northern Light enews is published during the first week of each month. The distribution list in March was 1,694. We are seeing approximately a 15% open rate which is considered positive in the industry but we would like to see that open rate improve. There were 69 “click throughs” this quarter, meaning that 69 times someone clicked on an enews story to follow the link that was discussed. We are continuing to analyze readership interests to determine what sort of content is gaining the most interest. We also renamed the “Subject” heading so that when people receive the enewsletter it has a topic name, rather than News from Northstar Alliance. Our hope is to draw more readers into this content. 2Q Monthly email newsletters were sent in Oct, Nov and Dec 2014. The distribution list has grown slightly as new subscribers are added on an ongoing basis. We implemented deeper analysis this quarter on what content seemed to appeal most based on numbers of clicks. Continuing this analysis over time should help identify a range of items that offer the most appeal tour readers, to guide content decisions. We are still working on ways to increase the “opens” for this vehicle. Beginning next quarter we will experiment with a new headline to appear in people’s email listing for each enews, as opposed to referring only to an “Update from Northstar”. Content interest for the last quarter is shown below.

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Issue Clicks Story Page

Dec. 9 UMD CE: Study in Gambling Addiction

6 Link to SAMSHA Advisory

5 Problem Gambling Institue of Ontario

3 Compulsive Gambling and College Students

1 Northstar Twitter page

Nov. 14 Counselor's Corner

End Radio and Online Campaign

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Monthly email newsletters continued July, Aug and Sept. The distribution list has gradually grown to about 1800. We continue to explore ways to increase the number of “opens” by our email newsletter recipients, and to build in additional interaction that would also link through with the website, Facebook and Twitter Channels. We plan to begin tracking the percentage of “opens” vs sent to better gauge the effectiveness of this tool.

E-newsletter Most Popular (Clicks)

July Treatment Works /Success Stories

August MN Post Article featuring Mike Schiks

Sept Video: Understanding the Devastation of a Gambling Addiction

C. Produce and distribute a high quality professional quarterly publication (Northern Light) that addresses topics on

treatment, recovery, public policy and research as part of the overall awareness and education campaign for Minnesotans

Goals:

Provide current, accurate and educational content addressing the needs of multiple audiences

Balance editorial content with a mix of news, interviews and personal recovery stories

Expand distribution of the newsletter by continually adding contacts to the in-house database

Offer readers the opportunity to receive a PDF version via email to help reduce costs.

Conduct a readership survey sometime this year to measure satisfaction, quality of information as seen by the readers, and generate additional topic options.

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rd Q: The spring 2015 edition of Northern Light was distributed on schedule in Mid March. Content included the

data compiled for Northstar by Dr. Randy Stinchfield on the Minnesota Student Survey relating to “out of mainstream” youth. Sheryl Anderson of Project Turnabout was the “Counselor’s Corner” contributor. Dawn Cronin of Lutheran Social Services was the Provider Profile this quarter.

9 Project Turnabout Educational Trainings

7 Treatment Works: Success Stories on Northstar Site

6 Crossroads

4 Northstar Youtube channel

3 Northstar GiveMN page

3 Project Turnabout Home Page

2 Compulsive Gambling and College Students

1 Northstar Blog

Oct. 15 Video from Maryland Public TV on devastation of gambling addiction

8 Hazelden event

7 Article in The Atlantic on Gambling Online Vs. in Casinos

3 Compulsive Gambling and College Students

1 NRC Webinar: How Health and Disability Laws Hurt Disordered Gamblers

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2Q The Winter edition of Northern Light was distributed the first week of December 2014

1Q The spring/summer issue of Northern Light was mailed in May 2014. The next issue is currently in production, with printing and distribution scheduled for early December.

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Counselor’s Corner is a new feature for Northern Light.

D. Leverage social media including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, blogs and various other components.

Goals:

Explore ways to expand the reach of Facebook and Twitter to increase audience reach

Explore possibility of developing a mobile application and implement if determined to be cost effective

Continue to track readership through online stats and focus on increasing reach

Monitor trends in social media to identify improvement opportunities and/or how to best expand into other social media channels. Determine value of these channels in the overall communication mix.

Make the Facebook page more focused and determine ways to provide interactive content to drive visitors such as online survey data, interactive quizzes and comment opportunities.

3Q: Facebook and Twitter provide an active, online presence for Northstar to distribute content and engage followers. Facebook “likes” are still the primary measurement of reach, though we are looking into some additional data points for tracking in the future. For this quarter Facebook “likes” went from 71 in January to 100 in February to 343 in March. This appears to be the result of some online Facebook advertising undertaken during the quarter. Below is a measure of the various articles that have drawn links. We also continue to distribute significant information and links through our Twitter account.

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2Q

Twitter has proven to be an important distribution channel for letting people know about events and connecting them with industry stories and resources from Northstar and other organizations. The largest percentage of our Twitter followers appears to be professionals. As for Facebook a wide range of content, much of it developed by Northstar, is continuously being shared via Facebook. We also use frequent mentions of the state problem gambling helpline and the “getgamblinghelp” website and facebook outlets. Will update the following trend charts a June 30, 2015 for a complete look at the entire FY.

Twitter Followers 2014

189 198

228 239

250 260 269 278 287

297 315

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3/5/2014 Here's how to start a conversation with a gambler 603

3/5/2015 An appropriate clue for Gambling Awareness Month on Jeopardy 109

3/4/2015 Why Dianne will never forget the Vikings-Cowboys game in 1983 102

3/4/2015 Can you guess the addiction? 485

3/3/2015 It's estimated that approximately 160,000 to 240,000 Minnesotans struggle with addictive gambling 565

3/2/2015 March means March madness but also problem gambling awareness month. Learn about problem gambling. 91

1/29/2015 Northstar offers information for people struggling with gambling disorder 89

1/15/2015

Our own version of TBT -- a look at how Eddie's rite of passage on his 18th birthday took him down the path of compulsive gambling 78

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Select Popular Facebook Posts "Total Reached" Per Facebook Insights Post reach is the number of people who have seen your post. Your post counts as reaching someone when it's shown in News Feed. Figures are for the first 28 days after a post was created and include people viewing your post on desktop and mobile Date Posted Link # Reached 11/28/2014 Gambling for longer periods of time than originally planned is one sign of problem gambling. Do you know the others? 401 11/24/2014 Were you more interested in the point spread than the Packers-Vikings outcome? Sports gambler? 56 10/31/2014 New Jersey to conduct first study of Internet gambling. 389

1Q We have seen growth in our Twitter feed followers and last quarter’s addition of a YouTube channel is allowing for more distribution of content through multiple channels. We need to initiate a stronger online advertising presence to drive traffic to all of our online content.

E. Serve as the Minnesota affiliate to the National Council on Problem Gambling, linking Minnesota with the national resources and efforts of problem gambling prevention, education, treatment and recovery from across the country, and leveraging those resources and ideas for maximum impact in this state.

Goals:

Participate in all affiliate phone conferences schedule permitting

Continue executive director participation in social media and nominations committees

Conduct problem gambling awareness month campaign in March coinciding with National efforts. (this effort was switched to Grant II in March 2014).

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Participate with the Minnesota Lottery in the national council holiday campaign message of “do not give children lottery tickets” for Christmas/holidays.

Use state affiliates to conduct training and/or speak at conferences when possible

Better promote membership of both Northstar and the National Council with Minnesotans

Conduct community awareness campaign in conjunction with National Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March 2014. (Previously NPG Awareness Week is now being extended to the full month, see grant II report)

3Q

Northstar Executive Director Cathie Perrault is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Council on

Problem Gambling. She serves as chair of the National Council elections committee and the Midwest regional affiliates committee. The National Council sponsors a campaign at the holidays on the theme of “Don’t give lottery tickets to kids for the holidays.” In cooperation with the MN Lottery, NPGA co-sponsored an advertisement on this topic in Dec. The largest annual awareness event from the National Council is the National Problem Gambling Awareness Month each March. Budgeting for NPGAM has moved to Grant II and the results of Awareness Month will be reported in the Grant II Narrative. 2Q Cathie Perrault, Board Member of the National Council, attended a planning retreat with the Board in November in Baltimore at the site of the 2015 National Conference. We took part in the National campaign with the Minnesota Lottery to remind people not to give lottery tickets as gifts to children and teens. In Dec 2014 we began work on planning the activities for Problem Gambling Awareness Month 2015. 1Q Executive Director Cathie Perrault attended the National Conference on Problem Gambling in Orlando during July 2014. Cathie is also serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Problem Gambling and is the Minnesota Affiliate member of the Affiliates Committee. She is currently involved in working with a team of Affiliates to develop recommended standards and principles for training staff in the Native American Casinos with hopes to present such information to the tribes in Minnesota for their use should they wish to do so.

F. This item was moved to Grant II G. Plan and host a training program for problem gambling treatment providers on a topic to be determined in consult with the

DHS problem gambling program and the MN advisory committee on problem gambling. Goals:

Expand attendance

Bring in new speakers from out of town to broaden knowledge base for attendees

Continue promotion efforts for allied social service professionals such as Marriage and Family Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists and LADCs.

Use feedback from participants to help plan 2014 event.

Consider incorporating this conference with the MARRCH conference held in November each year 3Q Planning started for a webcast training for MN Problem Gambling Counselors to be held June 25. Dr. Ken Winters from the University of Minnesota will be presenting a discussion on SBIRT - Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment. This model is being considered as a way to help professionals be more systematic in how they assess and refer patients. The event will be free to all attendees who may join in at the live presentation or view the event on the internet. 2Q This quarter we explored training options to offer in 2015 in lieu of a statewide conference. The main options appear to be a half-day or full day of advanced training for existing counselors, and/or a webinar series with both introductory material for LADCs and other counselors, and a webinar for advanced counselors. May and June 2015 or the most likely periods to offer training in some format. 1Q: The last statewide conference was held in Sept 2013, after having been held in May for several years prior. We had hoped that the move to September would increase attendance, but that was not successful. For the year 2014-15 we are trying to develop some alternative form of training that will reach both existing problem gambling counselos with

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material that is new and appealing to them, as well as basic fundamental training for non-problem gambling counselors. To date there still has not been a final decision as to what this training should look like or when it should be held.

H. Facilitate a statewide Speaker’s Network to enhance awareness by providing no-cost presenters to do programs for

community groups (animal groups, church groups, schools, etc), professional groups such as health care facility staff, to display at professional conferences and present to gambling counselors and adjunct professionals.

Goals:

To respond to requests for presenters and provide speakers whenever possible

To actively promote the Speaker’s Network in order to target LADCs and social service professionals

Identify and train additional speakers to add to the current network

Assess the current situation and value of the speaker’s network program and make planning decisions about its structure, operation and effectiveness. Design a revised program as determined by this assessment effort.

3Q Third quarter events are shown below:

Date Activity or Group Type Location Attendees Presenter

Professional Presentations

3/26/2015 MSSA Conference Mpls 2800 Kordonowy & Rundquist

3/25/2015 Two Wolves Treatment Center (discussion) St. Louis Pk 2 John Von Eschen

2/2/2015 Metro State St. Paul 20 Kevin Spading

1/29/2015 Century College Class - Presentation on Gambling White Bear Lake, MN 18 Kevin Spading

1/20/2015 Rice County Probation Faribault, MN 20 Mike Downey

1/13/2015 Minnesota Continuing Legal Education - Webinar - Minneapolis, MN 65 Joan Bibelhausen

1/7/2015 Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge resident training Rochester, MN 60 Mike Downey

Community Presentations

1/20/2015 Rice County Community Corrections-Rule 82 Training for Probation Officers Faribault, MN 17 Mike Downey

1/7/2015 Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge (8:00 a.m.) Rochester, MN 60 Mike Downey

1/6/2015 Progress Valley Treatment Center-Men's Program Mpls 20 John Von Eschen

Vendor Events - Professional

3/26/2015 MN Social Services Conference Mpls 2800 John VonEschen

Vendor Events - Community

2/11/2015 North Hennepin Community College - Health and Wellness Resource Fair Brooklyn Park 200 John VonEschen

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2Q The presentation and events schedule for the 2nd

quarter is shown below. A significant training for alcohol and drug counselors was sponsored by Northstar at the annual MARRCH Conference in October 2014. John Rundquist and Nita Kordonowy, both nationally certified gambling counselors and board members of the Northstar Problem Gambling Alliance, presented at MARRCH. The event was extremely well received and resulted in an invitation to repeat their presentation in the spring at the Minnesota Social Services Conference.

Professional Presentations, Conference

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of Hours

Presentation Events - Professional

10/27/2014 Event Dates are 10/27 - 10/29/14 MARRCH Fall Conference (Nita Kordonowy is speaking for Northstar) Rivercentre, St. Paul 1,200 - 2 Hrs.

10/8/2014 Becker, Clay, Ottertail, Wilkin (BCOW) Mental Health Providers Moorhead, MN 200 - 2 Hrs.

Vendor Events - Professional

11/20/2014 Event Dates are 11/20 - 11/22 - Allied Charities Conference St. Cloud, MN 1,000 - 2 Days

10/27/2014 Event Dates are 10/27 - 10/29/14 MARRCH Fall Conference (Nita Kordonowy is speaking for Northstar, CP & John Exhibiting) St. Paul, MN

1,200 - 2-1/2 Days

10/22/2014 Event Dates are 10/22 - 10/23/14 MN Correction Association (MCA) Annual Training institute Grandview, Nisswa, MN 360 - 15 Hrs.

10/9/2014 Event Dates are 10/9 - 10/10/14. St. Louis County Health and Human Service Conference

DECC (Pioneer Hall), Duluth 2,500 - 2 Days

10/9/2014 MN Social Services Assoc. (MSSA) Metro District Conference DoubleTree Hotel-Bloomington, MN 50 - 8 Hrs.

10/9/2014 Event Dates are 10/9 - 10-10/14. St. Louis County Health and Human Service Conference ($500) DECC, Duluth, MN 2,500 - 2 Days

1Q - With the addition of a Speaker’s Network coordinator position in Grant II, some presentations and events were conducted under that budget and are reported in Grant II. The remainder rare shown here for the 1

th quarter.

Event Date Activity or Group Type Event Location ##

Professional Presentations

9/11/2014 Century College Class White Bear Lake, MN 14

9/8/2014 Metro State Class St. Paul 24

7/31/2014 The Retreat Wayzata 8 Staff

7/29/2014 (MAIIADS) Cloquet 15

7/29/2014 (MAIIADS) Cloquet 15

7/10/2014 Conceptual Counseling St Paul 5 Staff

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Community Events

8/28/2014 District Sobriety Fest Isle, MN 25

7/23/2014 Pride Institute Eden Prairie 12

7/14/2014 Riverplace Elk River, MN 55330 25

7/1/2014 Progress Valley Mpls 20

Conference or Event

8/25/2014 Criminal Justice Institute Seminar St. Paul 500

9/24/2014 Augsburg Health Fair Mpls 300

I. Report on research related to problem gambling in Minnesota and distribute national and international research as

appropriate.

Goals:

Conduct the Minnesota attitude and awareness survey in the fall of FY 2014-15.

Examine and approve Minnesota research that has been suggested by Board Member Randy Stinchfield.

Monitor national research reports and distribute through the print and email newsletters 3Q See Grant II 2Q Primary research on youth gambling data from the Minnesota Student Survey was conducted in the 4

th quarter.

This project was funded under grant two, and the data will be distributed via all Northstar channels as well as provided to the state and published in professional journals. The same will occur with another research project, again funded through grant II, on the gambling related to Older adults. That project has been pushed into the 3

rd quarter to allow

additional information to be researched beyond the initial scope. 1Q Links to online articles related to research are used within all the social media channels.

J. Provide training scholarship opportunities to broaden the availability of trained clinicians to work with problem gamblers in

Minnesota.

Goals:

Provide training scholarship opportunities to Northstar Members to participate in the National Conference on Problem Gambling each July.

Explore more funding through scholarships for clinicians seeking to gain first level training by way of the online course through North American Training institute or other potential opportunities.

Consider hosting more trainings at venues around the state 3Q Prepared to offer five, 500 scholarships in July 2015 to National Conference, budget under Grant II 2Q No action this quarter 1Q Allocated and paid for four people to attend the National Conference in July.

K. Provide quarterly reports and measures and meet with DHS staff quarterly to discuss processes and issues related to contract administration.

3Q Completed

2Q Completed 1Q Completed END