May Newsletter
Strategic Prevention Framework
Step 3: Planning
Why is Planning Important?

Thoughtful planning that leads to sustainable positive outcomes requires collaboration from diverse community groups and sectors. This should include involvement from members of the focus population who will participate in or receive the intervention.

Sometimes community members want to use specific strategies because they are already being used in the community or they are “favorites” even though they don’t specifically address the identified problem. Herein lies the beauty of the planning process. When prevention leaders follow a data driven planning process with coalition members or other stakeholders, the process itself leads the community toward the selection of effective interventions.
 
Once the planning criteria is established, the value and benefits of the process are easily recognized. Each stakeholder will surely appreciate that their time and energy are being well spent and that everyone is working toward the same goals. Below are additional benefits to consider and share with your stakeholders:
 
  • Saves time and money
  • Ensures sustainability
  • Creates buy-in from community members, especially the target population
  • Ensures the interventions chosen will be the most likely to reduce the priority problem(s) and that the outcomes will be achieved.
  • Helps allocate resources needed for the implementation
  • Establishes the organizational structure necessary to maintain program activities over time
  • Helps your organization and other organizations in the community secure funding
  • Enables your coalition to develop an evaluation plan from the beginning
  • Addresses the need to work toward health equity from the beginning of the project
Resources

Partnerships for Success (PFS) Academy 2020:
Making the Steps of the Strategic Prevention Framework Work for You
This website provides training, tools and example resources for each step of the Strategic Prevention Framework. Recordings, PowerPoint slides and additional tools for the Partnerships for Success Academy series are available on this site once the training has been completed.

The Coalition Impact: Environmental Prevention Strategies
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America
This publication provides an overview of the environmental strategies aimed at preventing and reducing community problems related to alcohol and other drugs.
 
Prescription Abuse Prevention Toolkit
Kansas Prevention Collaborative
This toolkit includes strategies to help coalitions formulate, modify, and implement prevention and intervention strategies that target prescription drug misuse.
 
Choosing Strategies: Why Scare Tactics Should NOT Be Used
DCCCA
Scare tactics are ineffective, can backfire, and can have damaging effects. This toolkit covers reasons why scare tactics should not be utilized .
 
Video: Exploring Program Logic
New South Wales Health
This brief animation provides an introduction to developing a program logic model.
 
Developing Your Logic Model Worksheet
Prevention Solutions at Education Development Center (EDC)
This worksheet presents a set of questions that practitioners can use to inform the development of their programmatic logic models.
What's Happening Around the Region?
Training and Events
Webinar Series: PFS Academy 2020: Making the Steps of the Strategic Prevention Framework Work for You

Each webinar will begin 8:00 PT / 9:00 MT / 10:00 CT / 11:00 ET

The Mid America PTTC, in collaboration with the South Southwest PTTC, will be offering a seven-part webinar series on the SPF beginning in February.

SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) provides practitioners with comprehensive guidance to more effectively address substance misuse and related behavioral health problems in their communities. This seven-part webinar series will explore this five-step, data-driven process to identify genuine prevention needs, build capacity and plans to address those needs, implement effective programs and interventions, and evaluate and continually improve prevention efforts.

At each step of the SPF, and in separate sessions, practitioners will learn to incorporate the guiding principles of cultural competence and sustainability to help support the implementation of SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF). 

Prevention contact hours available to those who register and complete this webinar.

  • May 19, Part 4: Implementation, will provide participants with the tools needed to implement prevention programs, policies, and practices with fidelity and effectiveness.
 
  • June 23, Part 5: Evaluation, will offer helpful guides for the collection and analysis of prevention strategies and teach participants how to modify programming for future enhanced results.
 
  • July 21, Part 6: Sustainability, will provide participants with the elements of a sustainable prevention program and how to integrate sustainability into each step of the SPF.


Recordings of previous events in the series can be found here .
Webinar Training: Planning Comprehensive Strategies to Address Opioid Misuse Among Older Adult Populations 

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, National Coalition Institute (CADCA)

May 27, 2020 
12-1:30 pm CDT  
    
This session will explore the issue of opioid use and misuse among older adult populations and discuss ways to assess this issue locally. The webinar will explore how to develop a logic model and strategies using CADCA’s 7 Strategies for Community Change, as well as getting key stakeholders to engage in the work.
Identifying Drug Endangered Children: A Collaborative Approach

Date: May 19

Who Should Attend : Child Welfare, Law Enforcement, District Attorneys, Probation/Parole, Treatment, Ongoing Service Providers, Education, Fire, EMS, Judges, Community members, and other First Responders who have a job which impacts children and families.
 
You will gain  awareness about drug endangered children and the risks they face and understand the many opportunities (often missed) to identify children living in dangerous drug environments. Learn the benefits of intervention at the earliest possible point to reduce physical and psychological harm to children. Learn what a multidisciplinary collaborative response looks like and how it incorporates the unique resources within a community and applies them in a manner that provides better care for drug endangered children .
Drug Endangered Children: June Peer Sharing Call

Date: June 11

Please join us for our quarterly drug endangered children's peer sharing call. We will be joined by Eric Nation and Stacee Read from the  National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.
Drug Endangered Children: September Peer Sharing Call

Date: September 3

Please join us for our quarterly drug endangered children's peer sharing call. We will be joined by Eric Nation and Stacee Read from the  National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.
Listen to our most recent podcasts!

Podcast Episode 29: Adapting to the New Normal

Chrissy Mayer, Chief Community-Based Services Officer for DCCCA discusses how she and her team have adapted to the new virtual working environment by transitioning an entire youth conference to a new virtual format and launching a weekly virtual prevention training series.
Podcast Episode 28: Transitioning to Virtual Services

This podcast will discuss what can we do  right now  to ensure that rich training opportunities continue and how we can maintain momentum and plan for the transition back to in-person services.  
Watch the Most Recent Videos From Our Virtual Facilitation Lab

Virtual Meetings 101: Getting Things Started Right

We’ve partnered with HueLife to offer a series of virtual facilitation labs to the region. This is an excerpt from the first session, Virtual Meetings 101. This section is about orienting to the platform, the stacking method for introductions, and the role of producer. All of our participants loved this information and found it valuable. In this video, you will see the instructional portions of the virtual lab, but because of time constraints, we have edited out the practice and small group activities.
Virtual Meetings 101: Zoom Engagement Tools
In partnership with HueLife

This video is an excerpt from the first session in a series of virtual facilitation labs called Virtual Meetings 101. This section will give you informationa on Zoom tools and strategies to increase engagement in your virtual meetings. In this video, you will be seeing the instructional portions of the virtual lab, but because of time constraints, we have edited out the practice and small group activities.
NEW Self-guided Learning Courses
 
Informing Prevention: Adolescent 6-part Webinar series
  • Informing Prevention: Understanding Adolescent Development (1 of 6)
  • Informing Prevention: Effectively Engaging Adolescents in Interventions (Part 2 of 6)
  • Informing Prevention: Effective Use of Epidemiological Data (Part 3 of 6)
  • Informing Prevention: Effectively Using Technology for School-Based Prevention (Part 4 of 6)
  • Informing Prevention: The Effects of Drug Use on Adolescent Brain Development (Part 5 of 6)
  • Informing Prevention: Vaping Among Adolescents (Part 6 of 6)

Today’s Marijuana: Stronger, More Edibles, Confusing Information about Driving

Early Childhood Development: Toxic Stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences

Online Courses
All online courses can be accessed at: healtheknowledge.org/courses
 
If you are new to HealtheKnowledge, please log in or set up an account here: healtheknowledge.org/new-user
Check out the Mid America Prevention Technology Transfer Center website for additional resources and training!
Mid-America PTTC
The Mid-America Prevention Technology Transfer Center (Mid-America PTTC) is designed to serve as a prevention catalyst, empowering individuals and fostering partnerships to promote safe, healthy, and drug-free communities across Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Our services are evidence-based, culturally competent, and locally focused. We provide intensive technical assistance to support organizations' and systems' efforts to implement evidence-based prevention strategies. The Mid-America PTTC also forms partnerships with local and regional stakeholders to ensure that the training needs of the region are identified and met.

The Mid-America PTTC goals are to:
  • Accelerate the adoption and implementation of evidence-based and promising substance misuse prevention strategies.
  • Heighten the awareness, knowledge, and skills of the workforce that addresses substance misuse prevention.
  • Foster regional and national alliances among culturally diverse practitioners, researchers, policymakers, funders, and the local communities.

To learn more about our services:  Mid-America PTTC
Epi Corner
Iris E. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Prevention Planning for Effectiveness and Sustainability

Each of the 5 steps in the SPF process rely heavily on data, and data collection and analysis are ongoing throughout the process. Steps 1 (Assessment) and 2 (Capacity Building) help to identify the scope and severity of the community substance abuse problems, the readiness of the community to move forward with prevention planning and the risk and protective factors which might become the focus of the community prevention plan. In Step 3, there are some important decisions that must made based on the information gathering in the first 2 steps of the process. The primary tasks during Planning are:

  • Decide which risk and protective factors should be the focus of the community strategy based on their importance in reducing the identified problems and community capacity to influence these factors (changeability).
  • Determine the community sectors or populations that will be the focus of the strategy.
  • Select one or more evidence-based prevention strategies that are likely to be effective in addressing the prioritized risk and protective factors (conceptual fit). In addition to demonstrated effectiveness, selected strategies should also be a practical fit for the community (feasible, culturally appropriate and acceptable to community stakeholders and potential participants)
  • Develop a comprehensive, logical, and data-driven plan that includes a logic model (see figure 1), strategies for addressing resource and readiness gaps, anticipated evaluation activities, and a roadmap for how health disparities have, and will be, addressed. 
 
Figure 1. Outcomes-based, Data Driven Approach to Prevention  
The important thing to keep in mind is that there should be a conceptual relationship between the strategy that is selected and the problems or behaviors that the community wants to change. In other words, the selected strategy must be supported by evidence that it can influence the priority risk and protective factors AND that those risk/protective factors influence the problems/behaviors that the community would like to address. A logic model can be useful as you think through the relationships between the planned intervention and the behaviors/problems you hope to influence. As you move forward with planning, you also want to be sure that the program can realistically be implemented on a sufficient scale. It is a good idea to estimate the required sample size (number of participants) needed to demonstrate reasonable effect size. This information can often be obtained from the original program developer or from a review of the research literature.
 
Partnering with community stakeholders is a good way to ensure that the intervention is acceptable and culturally appropriate for the intended focus populations. The acceptability and buy-in from the community will be enhanced if those groups who will be most impacted by the intervention are involved in selection and implementation of the strategy. Key informant interviews with cultural brokers (individuals or organizations knowledgeable about cultural norms, beliefs, or language differences) can be helpful.
 
Data collected as part of the initial needs assessment can help community stakeholders identify and assess the scope and severity of salient community risk factors as well as potential protective factors that can be augmented as part of a coordinated community strategy. Collaborative problem analysis using local data can be an effective way to engage stakeholders and increase overall community readiness to support prevention strategies. Ross and Arsenault (2018) describe an effective approach for engaging community stakeholders in problem analysis that helped stakeholders identify the relationship between early childhood trauma and gang violence using local data. The “real time” actionable research approach helped to mobilize community stakeholders around youth violence. The research team also benefited from the community perspective, knowledge and resources brought by the new partners. 1
 
Last but not least, don’t forget to plan for evaluation as well as implementation. An evaluation plan is an important part of program planning, although it is often regarded as an afterthought. Thinking through the kind of information that will need to be collected to monitor the quality and fidelity of program implementation and measure outcomes during program planning will help ensure a useful and accurate evaluation. 

Resources
 
Preskill, H & Jones N (2009) A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Series.  This publication is available for downloading from the Foundation’s Web site at: https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2009/12/a-practical-guide-for-engaging-stakeholders-in-developing-evalua.html
 
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (2019). Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda.  Washington, DC. The National Academies Pres, PDF available at http://nap.edu/25201 .
 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Focus on Prevention . HHS Publication No. (SMA) 10–4120. Rockville, MD: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Revised 2017. This publication may be downloaded or ordered at http://www.store.samhsa.gov . Or by calling SAMHSA at 1-877-SAMHSA-7 (1-877-726-4727) (English and Español).
 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2019). A Guide to SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework. Rockville, MD: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. An electronic copy of this publication can be downloaded from   https://www.samhsa.gov/ebp-resource-center
 
Shapiro VB, Hawkins JD, Oesterle S (2015). Building Local Infrastructure for Community Adoption of Science-Based Prevention: The Role of Coalition Functioning.  Prevention Science 16 ; pg.1136-1146


1 Ross L & Arsenault S (2017). Problem analysis in Community Violence Assessment: Revealing Early Childhood Trauma as a Driver of Youth and Gang Violence.  Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol 62(9); pg. 2726-2741.
Iris E. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Iris Smith is Associate Professor Emeritus of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health where she has taught graduate courses in Program Evaluation, Substance Abuse, Social Determinants of Health, and the Mental Health Capstone course. In addition to teaching Iris also served as principal or co-investigator for numerous studies on the prenatal effects of alcohol and other drugs and treatment and interventions with substance abusing women, including a treatment demonstration grant for pregnant and parenting addicted women and their children (1979-1999). From 2004-2011 she was Co-investigator for the Emory Prevention Research Center and from 2007 to 2010 she served as the lead evaluator for the Atlanta Clinical Translational Science Institute.