Mental health challenges for youth continue to be a growing concern. Youth-serving organizations have the potential to play a significant role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in youth. The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training course is widely used to equip adults working with youth with skills to support…

The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), has had a significant influence on how child- and family-serving programs operate and support healthy development and wellbeing. Many organizational partners and members of the Strengthening Families National Network are…

This executive summary describes the study, "Community Conditions That Strengthen Families: Protective Factors Work at the Community Level." The Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), has had a significant influence on how child- and family-serving programs…

Sexual violence prevention programs are important for addressing sexual violence and are often implemented in local community and university settings. However, program implementer perspectives are often missing from academic research literature, limiting access to practical knowledge that can provide insights to improving programs and prevention.…

Suicide prevention gatekeeper training is designed in order to enhance participants' recognition of persons in distress, enhance skills in responding, and referrals to help. In response to rising suicide rates in British Columbia, Canada, two standardized gatekeeper training programs were implemented by the Canadian Mental Health Association…

B'More Healthy Communities for Kids was a multi-level, multi-component obesity prevention intervention to improve access, demand and consumption of healthier foods and beverages in 28 low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore City, MD. Process evaluation assesses the implementation of an intervention and monitor progress. To the best of our knowledge,…

Coordinated systems are required to ensure evidence-informed practice and evaluation of community-based interventions (CBIs). Knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategies show promise, but these require evaluation. This paper describes implementation and evaluation of COOPS, a national KTE platform to support best practice in obesity…

Background: Public health professionals must monitor the effectiveness of school policies and programs to prevent youth initiation, promote quitting, and eliminate secondhand smoke. This analysis of school tobacco policies was preliminary to release of a state tobacco prevention and control plan for 2010-2015. Methods: University health educators…

Prevention support systems (PSSs) are designed to help communities implement evidence-based practices (EBPs). Little is known about the factors that influence their adoption. In this article, we examined adoption of a PSS for substance abuse prevention called Getting To Outcomes (GTO)[R] among staff in two community coalitions with varying levels…

This article describes the opportunities and challenges encountered in the service-learning adaptation of an early childhood primary prevention program through the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston Auburn College. In the face of economic and social challenges confronted by many communities, service-learning models are proposed as essential…

This paper summarizes an effort to transpose and sustain the evidence-based Early Risers "Skills for Success" conduct problems prevention program in a real world community service system. The Early Risers program had previously been implemented by a local agency within the context of research-based operations. In the current initiative,…

Translational research (Pentz, Jasuja, Rohrbach, Sussman, & Bardo, 2006; Woolf, 2008) is concerned with moving advances in prevention science into everyday practice in communities, yet there are few models for ensuring this transfer of knowledge. Communities That Care (CTC) provides a planned, structured, and data-driven system that trains…

Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities.…

The Durham Family Initiative (DFI) is one of two community-based child abuse prevention efforts that comprise The Duke Endowment's Child Abuse Prevention Initiative. Beginning in 2002, the Endowment provided support to the Durham Family Initiative (DFI) in North Carolina and Strong Communities in South Carolina to develop a comprehensive approach…

The Duke Endowment launched its Child Abuse Prevention Initiative in 2002 by funding two program sites, the Durham Family Initiative in Durham, North Carolina, and Strong Communities in Greenville, South Carolina. Both sites aimed to reduce rates of child abuse, improve parenting practices and behaviors, strengthen community service systems, and…