This document, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in May 2021, offers a comprehensive framework of essential knowledge, skills, and abilities for professionals in the prevention field.
Category: Preventing Youth Problems Overview
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.
The Process of Prevention
This video provides an overview of how prevention science is applied in practice.
Protective and Risk Factors Explained
The New Brunswick Health Council’s article, Protective and Risk Factors Explained, outlines how certain conditions can either support or hinder health and well-being. Protective factors like strong relationships and adequate sleep can buffer against challenges, while risk factors such as social isolation or poverty increase vulnerability to issues like substance use and poor mental health. The piece emphasizes that these factors can be individual, familial, or community-based, and some are modifiable over time. For prevention professionals, this information is crucial for designing strategies that strengthen protective factors and reduce risks, ultimately improving resilience and long-term outcomes.
Understanding Risk and Protective Factors and Their Role in Prevention
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 risk and protective factors, the science behind them, and how they can be used in prevention planning in your community.
Upstream Prevention – How to Prevent Problems Before They Begin
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 explore the idea of upstream prevention and why it’s important to prevent youth problems and promote healthy youth development.
What is Prevention Science?
This document introduces prevention science as a multidisciplinary field that uses research to guide effective prevention strategies, particularly for substance use.