Communities That Care (CTC)

Introduction

CTC is a coalition-based community prevention operating system that uses a public health approach to prevent youth problem behaviors including underage drinking, tobacco use, violence, delinquency, school dropout and substance abuse. For additional information and contact info, please see the following:

Phase One: Getting Started.

With strategic consultation provided by a CTC trainer, a community catalyst and small group of advisors assess community readiness to undertake collaborative prevention efforts, and identify the stakeholders who need to be involved. Key activities in this phase include recruiting key leaders to serve as champions of the effort, obtaining school district support to conduct a youth survey to provide epidemiological data on risk, protection, and youth behaviors, and hiring a coordinator to manage CTC activities.

Communities That Care Community Planning System

Community Building and Foundational Material

SOAR into Action! A Communities That Care Presentation Kit

Phase Two: Organizing, Introducing, Involving.

In Phase Two a diverse and representative prevention coalition is formed. Specific tasks for this phase include involving and educating stakeholders who were identified in Phase One; developing a vision for the future of the community’s children, and putting an organizational structure in place to help the community move toward the vision. The first two CTC trainings are implemented in this phase: the Key Leader Orientation (KLO) and the Community Board Orientation (CBO). These trainings introduce prevention science to community stakeholders, and help community members create an appropriate structure for the Community Board.

Key Leader Orientation

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Community Board Orientation

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Phase Three: Developing a Community Profile.

This is the data collection phase, including a comprehensive community assessment of adolescent behaviors and current prevention services. This phase usually requires administration of the CTC Youth Survey. Members of the Risk and Protective Factor Assessment Work Group participate in the Community Assessment Training , in which they learn about key data sources for risk and protective factors (such as the student survey) and how to analyze the data. In communities already using the CTC Youth Survey, this training is tailored to help the work group interpret survey results and identify elevated risk factors, depressed protective factors, and problem behaviors prevalent among youth in the community. From this analysis, the work group recommends priority risk and protective factors for focused attention by the CTC Board.

The second component of the community profile is an assessment of current community programs, policies, and resources that address the prioritized risk and protective factors. The Resource Assessment workgroup is trained in assessment procedures during the Community Resource Assessment Training. The goals of the resource assessment are to identify existing evidence-based programs that address the priority factors, discern the gaps in existing program delivery, and recommend where new programs or policies are needed.

Prevention Strategies Guide

The CTC Prevention Strategies Guide was published in 2005. To identify prevention programs tested since that time that have been found to be effective, the Blueprints model and promising programs lists are the best source for finding tested and effective programs.

Community Assessment Training

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Community Resources Assessment Training

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Phase Four: Creating a Community Action Plan.

During the fourth phase of CTC, the results of the assessment process are reviewed by the full Community Board, and a community action plan is developed. The Community Plan Training (CPT) is provided to Community Boards during this phase. During this training, Board members select prevention policies and programs that target their prioritized risk factors to fill gaps in current prevention services. The CTC Prevention Strategies Guide is a tool used during this process. It describes prevention programs that have been demonstrated in at least one high quality research trial to be effective in changing risk, protection, and problem behaviors. Once program choices are made, CPT participants are trained to write an action plan that sets clear, measurable goals regarding anticipated outcomes, and also develop an evaluation plan.

Community Planning Training

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Phase Five: Implementing and Evaluating the Community Action Plan.

In this phase, the CTC Board implements selected strategies, and evaluates progress over time. Board members and staff for the selected preventive programs attend the final CTC training workshop, the two Community Plan Implementation Training (CPIT-1), which emphasize the importance of implementing prevention programs with fidelity; that is, ensuring that the programs’ content, dosage, and manner of delivery adhere to the protocols identified by program developers. Participants also learn methods for tracking implementation progress, assessing desired changes in participants, and using this information to adjust implementation as needed to fulfill program objectives. CPIT also includes a module on funding and sustainability, suitable for a workshop with the Board’s Funding Workgroup.

CTC is intended as an ongoing process. The process of monitoring implementation progress and community level changes in risk, protection and youth outcomes is repeated every two years. Based on a review of these data, CTC boards revise their action plans as needed.

Community Plan Implementation Training

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Staff Training Materials

Training of Coordinators

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Training of Process Facilitators

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Training of Trainers

Participant Guide

PowerPoint Presentations

Training Guide

Training Evaluation