2015 · Article · English
Community Mobilization and Readiness: Planning Flaws which Challenge Effective Implementation of ‘Communities that Care’ (CTC) Prevention System
Bašić, J.
Bašić, J. (2015). Community Mobilization and Readiness: Planning Flaws which Challenge Effective Implementation of ‘Communities that Care’ (CTC) Prevention System. Substance Use & Misuse, 50(8–9), 1083–1088. doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2015.1007655
Summary
Short reflective article by the leader of the Istrian CTC project, published in a Substance Use & Misuse special section. It reviews the experience of implementing a community approach to drug use and youth delinquency prevention based on the Communities That Care system in one Croatian county with 12 communities between 2002 and 2013 and singles out planning issues that are often neglected in the planning, implementation and process and outcome assessment of community substance-use interventions: mobilising an adequately representative group of people; involving the relevant individual and organisational stakeholders and knowing whether they are willing to take part; stakeholders' knowledge and perceptions of the drug and delinquency problems and of the target populations; community members who block change, and the need for enablers and bridges; community readiness to change; and a realistic assessment of the resources available to start and sustain change. All of these are described as potentially related to intervention success. The article closes with perspectives from prevention scientists and practitioners and lessons from Croatian community-readiness research and practice. It is an experience-based overview without new empirical data.