How Does the SPF Contribute to Sustainability?

Assessment

• Communities begin making decisions based on a clear understanding of local prevention needs. They also begin building relationships with data keepers and stakeholders who can play important roles in supporting and sustaining local prevention efforts over time.

Capacity

• By increasing the ability to respond to changing issues with innovative solutions, by promoting public awareness and support for evidence-based prevention, and by engaging partners and cultivating champions, communities ensure that successful programs are sustained within a larger community context, and therefore less vulnerable to local budgetary and political fluctuations.

Planning

• When developing a comprehensive approach to preventing substance misuse, communities consider the degree to which prevention interventions fit with local needs, capacity, and culture: the better the fit, the more likely interventions are to be both successful and sustainable.

Implementation

• By working closely with partners to deliver evidence-based programs and practices as intended, closely monitoring and improving their delivery, and celebrating “small wins” along the way, communities help to ensure intervention effectiveness and begin to weave prevention into the fabric of the community.

Evaluation

• Through process and outcome evaluation, communities can make important mid-course corrections to prevention efforts, identify which practices are worth expanding and/or sustaining, and examine ongoing plans for—and progress toward—sustaining those practices that work. By sharing evaluation findings, planners can also help build the support needed to expand and sustain effective interventions.¹

Cultural Competence

• To ensure that prevention practices produce positive outcomes for members of diverse population groups, communities must engage in an inclusive and culturally appropriate approach to identifying and addressing their substance misuse problems. Prevention infused with health equity is the only type of prevention worth doing—and sustaining.