During this recorded virtual session, participants will explore elements of the Strategic Prevention Framework while engaging in investigative problem analysis. Through this investigation, participants will learn how to transfer the problem analysis brainstorm into a logic model to guide activities.

During this virtual session, participants will review data from their community that describes problems, root causes, and behaviors seen in their community. Participants will investigate techniques in how to make data-driven decisions and prioritize behaviors they seek to improve or change among their population(s) of focus. Participants will also explore the Institute of Medicine’s Continuum of Care and identify community resources across the continuum.

There are no two ways about it: well-designed evaluations cost money. Just how much money depends on the experience and education of your evaluator, the type of evaluation required, and the geographic location of your program or practice. But there are ways to save money without compromising the validity of your findings.

Use this rubric to evaluate various areas of your coalition, including: community ownership, organizational effectiveness, comprehensive prevention approach, commitment to results orientation, and linkage relationship between coalitions and communities.

Evaluation results are used to improve programs and practices, sustain positive outcomes, and improve the community’s overall plan for addressing substance misuse and promoting wellness. But they can be used for other reasons as well, such as to help obtain funding and to build community awareness and support for prevention. Therefore, evaluation results need to get into the hands of the people who can use them. Keep in mind that organizations don’t use evaluation results, people do. The Department of Health, for example, isn’t going to use the results of an evaluation, but “Cathy Smith” in the Department of Health may. So, unless you get the results of the program evaluation into her hands and explain how she can use them, they will sit on a shelf somewhere in the Department of Health.

This primer provides anti-drug coalitions with a basic understanding of cultural competence and its importance in achieving substance abuse reduction that is effective and sustainable. If you know how to include all major sectors of your community in your efforts to develop a plan to create population-level change in community rates of substance abuse, then you likely will increase your chances of success.

The Handbook for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions provides an overview of resources for and about community coalitions. It helps educate, inform and empower local coalitions and provides some of the basic tools needed to become effective and sustainable.

This primer provides the basic tools each coalition needs to develop a comprehensive evaluation plan. In addition, it will help your coalition create and implement a local evaluation.

This primer provides clear guidelines for assisting your coalition to develop the products that you need to carry out a comprehensive community plan to reduce substance abuse rates. It also helps you understand the dynamic planning process needed for coalition work.

This primer provides anti-drug coalitions clear guidelines for defining their communities and assessing the real needs within the community. This information will enable your coalition to minimize duplication of effort, understand existing resources and implement practices and policies to reduce substance abuse within the community.

“Sustainability” is a term that we hear more and more often in relation to coalition work. Whether in discussions about our natural environment or a new community program, the questions on the minds of many funders, leaders and community stakeholders are… “Does what we are doing make sense as a long-term strategy? and…can we keep this up?”

This primer assists your coalition in the implementation of comprehensive strategies designed to achieve population-level reductions of substance abuse rates. It describes the importance of community mobilization and the necessity of seeking meaningful environmental change—two strategies that research indicates can influence substance abuse rates in an entire community.