Step One:  BUILD A FOUNDATION

This tutorial focuses on environmental approaches to substance abuse prevention, which broadly includes policy-based approaches, law enforcement-based approaches, public education-based approaches, media-based approaches, and community action-based approaches. Step One: Build a Foundation is designed to help you get started with this complex task.

This first step will prompt you through a series of exercises designed to guide your subsequent prevention activities. It will help you to identify a substance use problem area that you would like to address. Similarly, it will help you to identify ways in which the substance use problem affects the community. This step will help you to develop a mission statement and identify potential stakeholders and barriers to your efforts.

Who are you? We recognize that this tutorial will be used by different groups of people. You may work in an established neighborhood prevention program that is conducting multiple prevention activities. You may be part of an ad-hoc group that came together for one specific campaign. You may work with an informal group of community activists. You may be part of a formal community coalition. You may be working alone, but more likely, you are working within a group, team, partnership, or coalition. We strongly recommend engaging in these exercises within a group context. Thus, when we refer to “you,” we are referring to you as a group. In this context, we recognize that some groups will be more developed, organized, and prepared for prevention efforts than others. As a result, certain groups may have greater or less need to engage in some of the exercises in this tutorial.