There are a lot of challenges that are affecting families and communities, that range from drugs and substance abuse, child abuse, and diseases that may affect the well-being of individuals. This has compelled different stakeholders like volunteers and non-governmental organizations to come up with suitable prevention programs to reduce risk factors and promote protective factors. Prevention programs are not only aimed at creating awareness but also encourage the community on various intervention methods and activities that will help prevent predictable problems and as promote desirable behavior which will in turn lead to positive actions. This can only be achieved when the right procedures are followed before the implementation of the prevention programs. Below is a summary of the crucial steps that the stakeholders should follow when implementing prevention programs.
The success of prevention programs will be guaranteed after assessing the readiness of the community to adopt the program. This is prudent since the prevention programs should receive support from the community. This can be achieved by working with community leaders since they will help you carry out community assessment surveys in different areas and inform you about some of the problems that are affecting people of different age groups. This will enable the program designers to come up with suitable strategies on how to implement the prevention programs. After assessing community readiness, you should carry out needs assessment since it will enable you to assess the problems that are affecting the community currently as well as the demographic and geographic areas that are worst affected. This is crucial since you will put your time and money where it matters the most. During needs assessments, you will be required to collect and analyze data and give priority to the risk factors.
Once you are through with needs assessments, it is crucial to check on the resources that exist in the community that will help address the risk factors you have identified in the community that could trigger drug and substance abuse. It is important to find out where you put your target effort. Some prevention programs will be suitable for a segment of the population while others will impact the broader community so you should research the aspect before implementing the program. It is important to identify the best prevention practices that have been proven to be effective in addressing a particular problem. You should research from various sources and this includes reputable websites that will provide useful resources and materials that you can work with. Prevention programs require adequate funding since you will be required to move from one place to another and sensitive the community through courses and seminars and working with an experienced team Lastly, it is prudent to evaluate the programs that should be conducted by qualified evaluators so that best results can be guaranteed. You can verify whether the evaluators of the prevention programs are experienced by inquiring about the period that they have been in the business. It is important to work with the ones that have been in the profession for along time.
