This checklist is designed to assist program implementers during planning for sustainability. It includes categories such as: budget planning, cost efficiency, revenue streams, data, stakeholder engagement, staff retention, and program participation. This tool can help providers and coalitions think through the various facets of sustainability and develop a plan with practical action steps for tackling sustainability barriers.
Category: Building Coalitions and Engaging Communities
Project Management: The Process for Leading Successful Projects
Create an account with The Pennsylvania State University Prevention Learning Portal and earn completion certificates for several prevention topics. The purpose of this course is to introduce the basics of project management. It covers core project management processes and how they strategically organize and execute tasks needed to achieve a project goal, with skills, techniques, and tools that support efficient and successful project completion.
Engaging the Stakeholders in Your Community
Create an account with The Pennsylvania State University Prevention Learning Portal and earn completion certificates for several prevention topics. The purpose of this course is to identify community partners for prevention planning and how to communicate outcomes with these stakeholders.
The PROSPER Delivery System
This video explains the PROSPER prevention delivery system – a structured, multi-level model that helps communities implement evidence-based youth and family programs with high fidelity, strong participation, and long-term sustainability. Speakers describe how PROSPER combines an Extension-led local team with ongoing technical assistance and state/national support, typically delivering a school-based youth program alongside a family program (e.g., a middle-school family skills series), and note research showing stronger substance-use prevention impacts when programs are delivered through PROSPER rather than “business as usual.” The discussion also highlights practical implementation lessons, including the time and resource investment required, the value of using existing community coalitions to recruit team members, stigma reduction to broaden buy-in, and the benefits of PROSPER’s networked supports for adapting operations during disruptions like COVID while protecting program fidelity.
The Community Toolbox: Resources for Building Stronger Prevention Efforts
The Community Tool Box is a free, comprehensive online resource designed to support professionals in building healthier communities through effective prevention and community development strategies. It offers practical, step-by-step, evidence-informed guidance across core areas of practice, including community assessment and planning, program implementation and evaluation, coalition building, stakeholder engagement, communication, leadership and organizational development, advocacy, cultural responsiveness, and sustainability. Together, these resources provide practitioners, coalitions, and organizations – particularly in child welfare, mental health, and prevention fields – with actionable tools and examples to plan, strengthen, and sustain meaningful, positive change for youth and families.
What is the Community Tool Box?
The Community Tool Box is a long-standing, mission-driven resource created to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and practical tools. Launched in 1994, it was designed to provide accessible, real-world guidance on core community-building competencies—such as leadership, program evaluation, and grant writing—that can be used by both professionals and community members across diverse issue areas. Over time, it has grown into an extensive, multilingual resource with more than 340 sections and thousands of pages of content, serving community leaders and practitioners, organizations that support community change, and funders seeking to strengthen and sustain effective community improvement efforts. In addition to its extensive content, the Community Tool Box is designed for ease of navigation and practical use. Each section follows a clear, practical structure explaining what a skill is, why and when it matters, and how to apply it, supported by curated resources, real-world examples, tools and checklists, and ready-to-use PowerPoint slides that facilitate training, technical assistance, and real-world application.
Coalition Check-Up Resource 4 – Action Planning Progress Tool
Coalitions play a crucial role in fostering robust community development. Four tools were developed using the Coalition Check-Up to support the well-being of your coalition and its activities to ensure success! Coalition Check-Up Resource 4 – Action Planning Progress Tool: Need a tool to help you track implementation progress of your action plan? And find solutions to barriers you encounter along the way? Then, this is your resource!
Coalition Check-Up Resource 3 – Action Planning for a Strength Worksheets
Coalitions play a crucial role in fostering robust community development. Four tools were developed using the Coalition Check-Up to support the well-being of your coalition and its activities to ensure success! Coalition Check-Up Resource 3 – Action Planning for a Strength Worksheets: Is something about your coalition going really well? Do you wonder how to give attention to that success and sustain the focus or practice going forward? Then, this is your resource!
Coalition Check-Up Resource 2 – Action Planning Worksheets
Coalitions play a crucial role in fostering robust community development. Four tools were developed using the Coalition Check-Up to support the well-being of your coalition and its activities to ensure success! Coalition Check-Up Resource 2 – Action Planning Worksheets: Need a worksheet to help you make decisions about next steps and itemize them? Then, this is your resource!
Focus on Prevention: A SAMHSA Community Planning Manual
The Focus on Prevention manual (SAMHSA Publication No SMA 10‑4120), first published in August 2020, provides communities with a structured framework to design, implement, and evaluate substance use prevention initiatives. Covering the full prevention continuum, it offers practical guidance on conducting community needs assessments, identifying and partnering with stakeholders, developing targeted strategies, marketing prevention efforts, and setting up monitoring and evaluation systems, including a sample timeline of tasks. Intended for non‑profit and faith‑based organizations, this resource equips local coalitions with the tools needed to tailor culturally appropriate and evidence‑informed prevention programs. By emphasizing community collaboration, strategic planning, and measurable outcomes, the manual supports sustainable and effective substance use prevention at the grassroots level.