This action guide and its 2-page preview companion outlines the benefits of using a coalition building approach to foster long-term, cross-sector engagement in communities. It highlights data and experiences from six communities who used a coalition building approach to improve youth well-being, inclusivity, and participation, particularly among racially and ethnically diverse groups.
Category: Coalitions, Community Engagement & Systems Building
The Community Readiness Model
The Community Readiness Model (CRM) toolkit provides a comprehensive approach to assessing and improving a community’s readiness for change. The document outlines key components of the CRM, explaining how to evaluate when both individuals and entire communities are ready to alter behaviors or attitudes. It includes a detailed guide on conducting a community readiness assessment, offering step-by-step instructions for defining the issue and community, preparing interviews, selecting key respondents, and analyzing data. The toolkit also emphasizes the importance of setting goals, developing action plans, and using tools like SWOT analysis to strategize for change. Additionally, it covers how to communicate effectively with the target audience and foster relationships, with practical activities and examples to guide the process.
Evidence2Success® Guiding Collective Change Action Guide 4: Placing Communities at the Center of Coalition-Driven Change.
This action guide and its 2-page preview companion offers insider tips, check-lists, and stories from real communities to guide practitioners in creating and sustaining efforts to improve youth and family outcomes.
Afterschool Alliance – Lights On Afterschool Event Planning Kit
The Afterschool Alliance’s Event Planning Kit provides prevention professionals with comprehensive guidance for organizing Lights On Afterschool celebrations. It includes a detailed planning timeline, checklists, and templates to help teams coordinate logistics—from budgeting and securing venues to inviting media and policymakers . The toolkit also offers event ideas and activity themes like community festivals, performances, or STEM showcases to spotlight youth achievements and civic engagement. Downloadable resources include sample invitations, flyers, press release templates, branded artwork, and social media messaging to enhance outreach and visibility. Ideal for prevention-minded leaders aiming to mobilize support, raise awareness, and build partnerships, the kit makes planning accessible, scalable, and policy-relevant.
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.
Ready, Set, Go, Review: A Toolkit for School-Based Mental Health Screening.
This toolkit is designed to guidine schools through the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating effective behavioral health screening systems.
Coalition Check-Up (CCU)
The CCU is a data-driven, relationship-centered technical assistance and support system designed to strengthen community prevention coalitions through a continuous improvement cycle. The process involves systematically collecting and reviewing coalition data, developing targeted action plans, and supporting implementation. The accompanying video provides an overview of the initiative’s purpose and origins, explaining why the Coalition Check-Up was developed, what it is designed to accomplish, and the guiding motivations of its developers. It is intended to give viewers a clear understanding of how the approach supports effective coalition functioning and sustained prevention efforts.
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.
Coalition Check-Up (CCU) Missouri Streamlined Group Webinar
On July 26, 2021, project co-lead and technical assistance providers met with the Streamlined Coalition Check-Up group in Missouri to formally kick off the project. The session marked the transition from initial survey-based data collection to direct engagement with participating coalitions and the sharing of results. The meeting served to orient participants to the purpose of the Coalition Check-Up and set the stage for using data to guide action planning and implementation.
Community Needs Assessment
This document is a practical guide to conducting a community needs assessment, outlining why such assessments are important, how to systematically collect and analyze data, and how to use findings to inform planning and decision-making. It describes key steps—including defining the purpose, engaging stakeholders, selecting data sources and methods, interpreting results, and communicating findings—to help communities identify priority issues, existing resources, and gaps that can guide effective prevention and development efforts.