The Communities That Care (CTC) Milestones and Benchmarks were developed to assist communities in the implementation of CTC. There are five phases in CTC with Milestones and Benchmarks for each of the phases. For example, in Phase 1 Getting Started the milestones include Define the scope of the prevention effort and Identify community readiness issues. Think of the phases as the ‘big picture,’ the milestones as the specific goals and the benchmarks as steps to achieve the goal.

The Milestones and Benchmarks have multiple uses in the implementation of CTC. They are used as a planning tool to decide what needs to happen in the planning process, a checklist to ensure that all appropriate steps are taken and as an assessment and evaluation tool that can assist in identifying training and technical assistance needs. Several communities have used the Milestones and Benchmarks with their coalitions, boards and other groups by having the members of the group rate their progress in implementing CTC which leads to the identification of key next steps in implementation process.

The Milestones and Benchmarks provide the community or state an opportunity to rate their progress in implementing CTC. Each Milestone and Benchmark has a rating scale from 1 – Not at all there to 4 – Completely and totally there. The rating definitions are listed in the Coding Definitions column. The Milestones and Benchmarks can be periodically rated by the coalition, board or other group and provide a history of the implementation process.