Products and Resources Catalog

Addressing Emerging Prevention Issues: Building Strategic Partnerships to Improve Health Equity: Peer Sharing  Date  August 13, 2020    Description  An integral part of prevention work is ensuring behavioral health equity, meaning that all members of a community have access to the same opportunities. Engaging partners who have relationships with under-represented groups is key to understanding and addressing prevention needs of these marginalized groups and therefore promoting health equity. This peer sharing call explores how to cultivate and sustain strategic partnerships and the overall role of partnership development in health equity.    Key Webinar Features   Participants will have the opportunity to share challenges and strategies for retaining diverse partners and building partner capacity to address emerging issues with a health equity approach.    Presenters  Ivy Jones Turner - For over 20 years, Ivy has provided organizational capacity assistance on health promotion and prevention in substance abuse, suicide, violence, injury, and mental health with nonprofit and community-based organizations, state and faith-based agencies, and school districts. Her capacity building skills include program evaluation, training and technical assistance in program design and implementation, organizational development, partnerships/collaborations, and grant management. Ms. Jones Turner is a Certified Prevention Specialist and holds an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  Debra Morris – Debra Gardner Morris, an expert in advanced training and technical assistance, is a lead training and technical assistance specialist for Prevention Solutions@EDC. She brings extensive experience in evidence-based prevention strategies, effective methods to address health promotion through an equity lens, school-based prevention, management of large national public health centers, and systems change. Nationwide, she provides coaching to engage and mobilize communities to implement environmental prevention strategies. Morris holds an MPH from Emory University focused on Behavioral Sciences and Health Education. She is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES).      Supplemental Materials  Tips for Ensuring a Culturally Competent Collaboration? Worksheet: Taking a Health Equity Approach to Identifying New Partners? Are Members Satisfied? Tips for Successful Recruitment?  Worksheet: Analyzing Existing Partnerships through a Health Equity Lens? Session Slides Session Transcript Webinar Flyer

Resource Summary: This tip sheet is designed to help prevention practitioners incorporate culturally competent practices, policies, and strategies that increase the effectiveness of their coalition’s interventions and collaborative efforts. This resource was developed for prevention practitioners and community coalition members by the Northeast and Caribbean Prevention Technology Transfer Center to accompany the webinar series Addressing Emerging Prevention Priorities with a Health Equity Lens. Click here to download resource

Llevando a cabo un estudio de necesidades para guiar los esfuerzos de prevención   Clara McCurdy-Kirlis y Lourdes Vázquez-Matienzo discuten la realización e uso de evaluación de necesidades para apoyar el labor de Prevención del Uso Indebido de Sustancias en la Comunidad.   Presenters Lourdes Vázquez-Matienzo es una profesional con más de 30 años de experiencia en el campo de la prevención y la salud conductual. Lourdes fue directora de proyectos del Centro para la Aplicación de Tecnología de Prevención (CAPT) de SAMHSA, y los servicios de adiestramiento y asistencia técnica para los organismos estatales y jurisdiccionales de los Fondos del Bloque de Prevención y Tratamiento del Abuso de Sustancias (SAPST) financiados por SAMHSA en la región sureste de los Estados Unidos y el Caribe. Anteriormente, Lourdes también se desempeñó como gerente de proyecto para la subvención de Incentivo Estatal de SAMHSA en Puerto Rico, fue directora ejecutiva de Centros de Prevención al Uso de Drogas y Alcohol en Puerto Rico y fungió coordinadora estatal del Centro Regional del Sureste para Escuelas y Comunidades Libres de Drogas, donde facilitó y apoyó el establecimiento de coaliciones de prevención en áreas rurales y urbanas, logrando expandir los servicios, y la satisfacción y ejecución de las comunidades y distritos escolares participantes. Su compromiso mayor es con la atención de las disparidades en salud y la búsqueda de la equidad en salud con poblaciones marginadas.    Clara McCurdy-Kirlis tiene más de diez años de experiencia en gerencia de proyectos en los campos de la salud y la educación a nivel estatal, tribal, comunitario e internacional. En su rol como coordinadora de servicios de asistencia técnica con el PTTC, Clara juega un rol principal en el diseño instruccional para participantes adultos, en el diseño y ofrecimiento de aprendizaje virtual, a través del diseño de materiales de entrenamientos virtuales y presenciales, y creando documentos educativos. Clara es apasionada sobre el rol de la educación en la transformación de la sociedad y en lograr un cambio positivo a través de la colaboración y el compromiso   Resources Podcast transcript  

Identifying Emerging Drug Trends: The Importance of Using the Latest Data to Inform the Strategic Prevention Framework Josh Esrick, MPP, and Emily Patton, MSc, PgDip September 24, 2020, 1-2 PM EST COURSE DESCRIPTION The substance use landscape is ever changing, and it is vital for substance use preventionists and other stakeholders to have knowledge of the latest trends. This includes knowing which substances are undergoing rising or declining prevalence rates and which populations are experiencing increases or decreasing rates of use, misuse, and abuse. Knowing about these trends is necessary to ensuring that prevention efforts are as responsive and relevant as possible to the people and populations being served. This webinar seeks to provide preventionists with the latest national and state data on emerging drug trends. It will also provide examples of data sources that preventionists can use to verify that these trends are relevant to communities. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe what national and state emerging drug trend data sources exist Explore the latest emerging drug trends Explain how these trends could impact prevention programming decisions Walk through the local data sources that can verify national and state trends PRESENTERS Josh Esrick, MPP is a Senior Policy Analyst with Carnevale Associates. Josh has extensive experience in substance use prevention; researching, writing, and presenting on best practice and knowledge development publications, briefs, and reference guides; and developing and providing T/TA to numerous organizations. He developed numerous SAMHSA Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies’ (CAPT) products on strategies to prevent opioid misuse and overdose, risk and protective factors for substance use, youth substance use prevention strategies, youth substance use trends, emerging substance use trends, the potential regulations surrounding marijuana legalization, as well as numerous other topics. Emily Patton, MSc, PgDip holds a Masters of Science in Abnormal and Clinical Psychology from Swansea University and a Postgraduate Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Edinburgh. She offers significant professional experience in the fields of public policy development and analysis, criminal justice research, data collection and analysis, program development, and performance management.               

A two-part series produced by the PTTC Data-Informed Decisions network work-group, these webinars will demonstrate strategies to identify and fill gaps in needs assessments - step one in SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework. A case-study approach will show these strategies applied to a hypothetical county. Webinar Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this virtual learning experience, participants will be able to: 1. Identify data gaps in your needs assessment 2. Fill data gaps in your needs assessment 3. Determine strategies to obtain buy-in from key stakeholders to address data gaps over time.   (Download the PowerPoint Slides above) Watch the Webinar!    

Data are vital for defining your community's problems or needs (e.g., opioid misuse, underage drinking). Data also help us determine if there are specific populations who are disproportionately impacted by the problems or needs. Risk and protective factors help determine why a community may be experiencing a particular problem or need. Data help guide our decision making and action planning. The purpose of this guidance document is to provide a general overview on gathering and using risk and protective factor data to guide prevention efforts. This document will review strategies to gather and prioritize risk and protective factor data, as well as how to use these data in prevention planning. Also check out the annotated bibliography used to create the section on shared risk and protection included in this document.   

Understanding the Role of Policy in Preventing Substance Misuse Webinar  Dates  Part 1: September 19, 2019  Part 2: September 26, 2019  Description  Policy strategies can produce widespread adoption of behaviors and attitudes that promote health and reduce substance misuse. Yet, policy is one of the prevention strategies least utilized in the field. This two-part webinar series will help you get past barriers and misconceptions relative to policy by presenting clear steps for selecting and implementing policies that produce lasting change.  Key Webinar Features  Part 1 will examine specific policies to prevent youth alcohol use and prescription drug misuse.  Part 2 will examine policies to prevent youth tobacco and marijuana use, with a focus on preventing vaping.  Outline a process for identifying and enhancing the community conditions that promote policy adoption  Review best practices for supporting policy implementation.  Presenters  Tracy Desovich, MPH, CPS - Tracy has over 25 years of experience in substance abuse prevention and public health. Her experience includes developing, implementing, and evaluating prevention services for students at the University of Connecticut and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her expertise includes community health assessment, planning, organizing and evaluation, leadership development, utilizing data to mobilize change, social norms marketing and healthy communities’ principles.  Ivy Jones-Turner, MPA - For over 20 years, Ivy has provided organizational capacity assistance on health promotion and prevention in substance abuse, suicide, violence, injury, and mental health with nonprofit and community-based organizations, state and faith-based agencies, and school districts. Her capacity building skills include program evaluation, training and technical assistance in program design and implementation, organizational development, partnerships/collaborations, and grant management. Ms. Jones Turner is a Certified Prevention Specialist and holds an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  Noreen Burke, MPP - Noreen M. Burke is a training and technical assistance specialist in substance misuse prevention with EDC and has extensive local public health and human rights leadership experience in strategic planning, budgeting, grant writing, project management, program operations, program and product development, event organizing, advocacy, and community education. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Tufts University.  Part 1 Sept 19 2019: Part 2 9 26 2019: Supplemental Materials  Knowing what Policies are in Place  Surveying the Landscape Session Slides Part 1 Session Slides Part 2 Session Transcript Part 1 Session Transcript Part 2 Webinar Flyer

In this Issue Sustaining Prevention Programming During a Pandemic Additional Resources What's Happening Around the Region? Epi Corner: Sustainability: A Data-Driven Dynamic Process

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.

While evidence-based approaches are highly encouraged in the prevention field, it is very important to make sure strategies you select have both conceptual and practical fit, aligning with the priorities, risk and protective factors, and local issues in your community. Additionally, reviewing and weighing the evidence of effectiveness of proposed strategies gives prevention practitioners scientific support for strategy selection in a comprehensive prevention plan. This webinar will provide an 1) overview of strategic fit and its components, providing a step-by-step process of determining best fit for strategy selection; 2) describe how selecting best fit strategies can be adapted to current conditions with COVID-19; and 3) provide the opportunity to interact with fellow participants to explore the application of these strategic fit components into the work of prevention practitioners. Following the webinar, participants will have the opportunity to register for a learning lab where they will breakout into small work groups to discuss these concepts and how they are implemented locally. This is an opportunity to connect with other prevention practitioners nationally and share ideas and experiences in aligning priorities, selecting strategies using strategic fit, considering the context in which you do prevention and the evidence available.   Objectives Upon completion of this virtual learning experience, participants will be able to: 1. Define conceptual fit and understand the necessity for aligning program design with community needs. 2. Define practical fit and identify opportunities for program adaptations to improve program outcomes. 3. Identify data collection opportunities to determine program or practice effectiveness. 4. Describe the effects of COVID-19 and social distancing on the implementation of evidence-based prevention practice.   Download Presentation Slides    

Southeast PTTC July Newsletter

Building Capacity for a Public Health Approach to Prevention Josh Esrick, MPP, and Emily Patton, MSc, PgDip July 16, 2020, 1-2 PM EST COURSE DESCRIPTION Substance misuse and behavioral health overall, are an intrinsic part of public health. Many people with substance use disorders also live with mental health disorders, including serious mental illness, as well as preventable and treatable medical health issues. Often, the same root causes and care disparities are responsible for most or all of these issues. Therefore, substance use preventionists are often trying to reach and serve the same populations and individuals as mental and physical health care professionals. Bringing together these different fields into a comprehensive public health approach can significantly improve overall health and wellness. This webinar provides information on preparing for a public health approach from a substance use prevention perspective. This includes how preventionists can use the Strategic Prevention Framework to support the implementation of public health approach. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Define a framework for a public health model Explain what is a public health approach to prevention Describe the stakeholders and partners necessary for a public health approach Explore the steps to implementing a public health approach PRESENTERS Josh Esrick, MPP is a Senior Policy Analyst with Carnevale Associates. Josh has extensive experience in substance use prevention; researching, writing, and presenting on best practice and knowledge development publications, briefs, and reference guides; and developing and providing T/TA to numerous organizations. He developed numerous SAMHSA Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies’ (CAPT) products on strategies to prevent opioid misuse and overdose, risk and protective factors for substance use, youth substance use prevention strategies, youth substance use trends, emerging substance use trends, the potential regulations surrounding marijuana legalization, as well as numerous other topics. Emily Patton, MSc, PgDip holds a Masters of Science in Abnormal and Clinical Psychology from Swansea University and a Postgraduate Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Edinburgh. She offers significant professional experience in the fields of public policy development and analysis, criminal justice research, data collection and analysis, program development, and performance management.               

Evaluation: Adding Razzle Dazzle to Your Prevention Programming Efforts This number hasn’t been confirmed, but in my experience, about 110% of preventionists are passionate about prevention and the work they’re doing. Their elevator speeches advocating for prevention are in their back pockets and ready to be shared at the first glimpse of eye contact from that unsuspecting county commissioner, they work into the wee hours of the morning to make sure everything is in place for that special community event, they meet nervously but energetically with the hesitant community leader that took them hours to contact. Surely, preventionists would give the energizer bunny a run for his money! Regardless of how much passion a preventionist has though, prevention outcomes cannot be achieved with a handful of motivated individuals. We already know that in order for prevention efforts to be sustained over time, the community needs to be involved and sometimes others need to see the value of the prevention efforts and the changes that can, and have, occurred in the community before they invest. Regardless of the type of investment; time, space, energy, resources, they need to know the cause is worth their effort. This is where evaluation comes in. Telling your story, sharing your data with the community and those who are making an investment, or that you would like to make an investment, will greatly increase your opportunities for collaboration. Not only does evaluation help you improve your impact on the community from year to year, but it helps you share that information in concise, measurable ways that will convince even the most reluctant of community leaders.  

This webinar is the first installment in the webinar series: Key Elements of Effective Coalitions.  The initial webinar introduces and defines, through research, the six elements to have a strong relationship to effective coalitions.  These six elements are the starting place for prevention practitioners and community coalition’s members to reflect upon and discuss as part of healthy coalition building and maintenance efforts.

  Congratulations SAMHSA Grantees Resources-New Fiscal Year Training and Conference Highlights Staff Music Picks Staff Self-Care Ideas Epi Corner-Partnering with an Epidemiologist to Enhance Your Prevention Efforts

June Newsletter: The Strategic Prevention Framework Step 4: Implementation The key to positive outcomes in substance misuse prevention is using evidence-based programs and practices that produce the intended results. This is accomplished when prevention practitioners select, plan for, and carefully implement those interventions. Sometimes a practice or program will need to be adapted. This adaptation may be identified early in the planning process or may be discovered later. Monitoring the implementation process is necessary to identify areas of concern. The sooner the need for adaptation is identified, the better your prevention outcomes will be. SAMHSA has identified 5 guidelines to consider when balancing fidelity and adaptation. Retain core components. Evidence-based programs are more likely to be effective when their core components are maintained. Build capacity before changing the program. Rather than change a program to fit local conditions, consider ways to develop resources or to build local readiness so that it can be delivered as it was originally designed. Add rather than subtract. Doing so decreases the likelihood of important program elements (i. e.., those that are critical to program effectiveness) getting lost. Adapt with care. Even when programs and practices are selected with great care, there may be ways to improve their appropriateness for a unique focus population. If adapting, get help. Knowledge experts, such as program developers, can provide information on how a program has been adapted in the past, how well these adaptations have worked, and what core components should be retained to maintain effectiveness.1  

While evidence-based approaches to prevention are being strongly supported by policy makers of late, it isn’t always clear what this means and how it might relate to your own work in the field. This webinar is an overview of prevention science and how it has brought about the development not only of effective prevention programs but also to the planning and implementation of these. Evidence-based programs have been shown through rigorous research to be successful at reducing risky and unhealthy behaviors across the life span. This webinar describes how the science contributes to our understanding of the etiology and prevention of substance use and related behaviors, examples of some of the most effective interventions and policies.

In today’s episode we will be talking about leading a DFC coalition, writing for years 1-5 and for 6-10, and a proven process that builds buy-in and sustainability right from the beginning. ___________________________________________________________________ The Drug-Free Communities (DFC) program has been a central, bi-partisan component of our nation’s demand reduction strategy since its passage in 1998. The consistent and steady growth of the program from $10 million in 1998 to $100 million in 2019 and the number of grantees (from 92 original grantees to more than 2,000 grantees) is a testament to the program’s popularity. The premise of the DFC program is simple – that communities around the country must be organized and equipped to deal with their individual substance misuse problems in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. WHO IS HUELIFE? HueLife is a human understanding and engagement (Hue) consulting firm. We take ideas, aspirations, and goals, and turn them into exciting realities that our clients are proud of.  We work with public, private, and government sectors in organization development, strategic planning, public and in-house facilitation training, consulting, executive search, community engagement, and leadership/team development.

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 are 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. Inside this edition, there are additional benefits to consider and share with your stakeholders.

  10 Reasons Why You Need a Needs Assessment Josh Esrick, Senior Policy Analyst at Carnevale Associates, walks us through the top 10 reasons why substance misuse prevention efforts should begin with a needs assessment.     > Download Companion Document: Needs Assessment Infographic        

Part 2 of the Alcohol Policy Series is presented by Kellie Henrichs (Prevention First) and Chuck Klevgaard (Great Lakes Prevention Technology Transfer Center). Lawmakers have developed, enacted, and applied a variety of policy strategies that target society- and community-level influences to reduce underage drinking and its associated consequences. This webinar will highlight Social Host Liability Laws aimed at decreasing social access to alcohol by underage youth and deterring underage drinking parties.   ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Transcript_Alcohol Policy Series (2) Social Host Liability Laws

April Newsletter - Strategic Prevention Framework, Step 2: Capacity Maintaining Community Involvement by Building Capacity A question often asked about coalition building is how to maintain the momentum of a coalition and keep members involved. Program coordinators will often take on the responsibility and the burden of the work of the coalition leadership alone. This approach can lead to a loss of interest from the coalition membership and an exhausted prevention team. If any of this sounds familiar, and you want to turn things around in your community, there is good news! This month we have provided many resources in the newsletter on capacity and leadership building.

Southeast PTTC February Newsletter

Adapting Prevention Interventions to Better Serve Vulnerable Populations Josh Esrick, MPP, and Lauren Pappacena, MSW March 31, 2020, 1-2 PM EST COURSE DESCRIPTION This webinar, developed by the Central East PTTC, will discuss adapting prevention interventions to better serve minority populations in our communities. By adapting evidence-based interventions, preventionists can implement prevention programs that are a better fit for the specific needs of different populations. This webinar will discuss the importance of assessing the conceptual and practical fit of interventions for minority populations and how adaptation can improve an intervention’s fit. The webinar will walk through the evidence base for why adaptation is important for improving outcomes among diverse populations. It will also discuss evidence-based processes for conducting adaptations in a culturally competent manner that involves active participation and feedback from minority population members. The webinar will provide examples of successful adaptations from research literature. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Review the importance of adapting prevention interventions Discuss how to assess the relevance of an intervention to a population Describe the evidence base for adapting prevention interventions to improve outcomes among minority populations Examine evidence-based processes for adapting interventions Provide examples of successful adaptations of prevention interventions PRESENTERS Josh Esrick, MPP is a Senior Policy Analyst with Carnevale Associates. Josh has extensive experience in substance use prevention; researching, writing, and presenting on best practice and knowledge development publications, briefs, and reference guides; and developing and providing T/TA to numerous organizations. He developed numerous SAMHSA Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies’ (CAPT) products on strategies to prevent opioid misuse and overdose, risk and protective factors for substance use, youth substance use prevention strategies, youth substance use trends, emerging substance use trends, the potential regulations surrounding marijuana legalization, as well as numerous other topics. Lauren Pappacena, MSW is a Research Associate with Carnevale Associates. Lauren has a background in criminal justice and juvenile justice research specifically as it relates to evidence-based programs and practices spanning criminal justice topics, including corrections, law enforcement, reentry, and courts. Currently, she assists with training evaluations for NADCP and the PTTC, where she brings her experience with quantitative and qualitative analysis and data visualization. With a strong interest in policy analysis, research translation, data collection, and analytic writing, Ms. Pappacena is published in the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work for her analysis of national early-release laws.