Provide Ongoing Training

Prevention programs often do a lot with a little. Program staff often work on more than one campaign and the wages for program staff is typically limited. Also, projects often use volunteer staff who may join the project while underway or replace volunteers who are leaving. The turnover among project staff and volunteers can be considerable. As a result, the institutional memory of the project effort and knowledge about the project’s goals, objectives, and strategies can be lost. When problems such as these occur, the momentum of a prevention project can diminish.

Providing ongoing training to project staff and volunteers can help to sustain prevention project momentum. Indeed, prevention programs that provide ongoing training to staff and volunteers are more likely to have significant and lasting effects. Training should be incorporated into regular program staff meetings to expose training information to the greatest number of staff, even program staff who may not work on a specific project. Cross-training staff has the added benefit of making the prevention project flexible and adaptable to changes in staffing.

However, training should not be random affairs and on topics that have little relevance to staff, volunteers, and the project. Rather, programs should engage in a systematic and methodical process that results in providing training that meets the specific needs of the target audience and supports the goals and objectives of the prevention project.