1996 · Study · English
Empowering communities to prevent adolescent substance abuse: Process evaluation results from a risk- and protection-focused community mobilization effort
Harachi, T. W., Ayers, C. D., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Cushing, J.
Harachi, T. W., Ayers, C. D., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Cushing, J. (1996). Empowering communities to prevent adolescent substance abuse: Process evaluation results from a risk- and protection-focused community mobilization effort. Journal of Primary Prevention, 16(3), 233–254. doi.org/10.1007/bf02407424
Summary
Process evaluation of TOGETHER! Communities for Drug-Free Youth, an early state-wide demonstration of the Communities That Care mobilisation strategy in Oregon. Thirty-five communities were mobilised to carry out quantitative assessments of local risk factors and protective resources, to write comprehensive prevention plans that matched promising approaches to their priority risk factors, and to put those plans into practice. At the end of the four-year demonstration 31 of the 35 communities were still active, and the state of Oregon institutionalised the project. The article describes the strategy, the process results and several case examples, and discusses implications for comprehensive prevention of adolescent substance abuse and related problem behaviours. It reports no youth outcomes. Its significance for European readers is historical: it documents CTC in its original form, before the later emphasis on tested programmes, and shows that most communities could complete a risk-focused planning cycle and stay engaged.