# Presentation: 066622

## The THIRD Key toSustainability: 

***Community Support***

## Learner Outcomes

- At the end of this module, participants will be able to:
- Describe the importance of relationships for sustainability
- Describe the actions for developing and nurturing positive relationships
- Define system leaders and champions

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-1

## Learner Outcomes (Cont.)

- Describe how to cultivate prevention system champions
- Describe how to encourage ownership of the prevention system

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-1

## Cultivate community support for the prevention system and its outcomes

- Community Support

**	****3**

- Key _***stakeholders***_ must assume collective responsibility through:
- Positive relationships
- System leaders and champions
- Ownership

## ACTION 8Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships

- Community agencies and organizations, working through the coalition, must ***cultivate broader*** ***community support*** in order to sustain outcomes as they are achieved and reduce substance use and related community problems.

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-2
The coalition is a nexus for innovation within the prevention system and for the larger community with which it operates.

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- Key stakeholders must see themselves as ***stewards of the community’s health and***** *****well-being*** whose success depends on their ***collective ***effectiveness.
- This ***collective responsibility*** requires ***trusting relationships ***among ***all*** the stakeholders and ***a willingness to work strategically together***.

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-2
There are many important stakeholders in any system; the system is important to them in some way, providing some benefit to them.
Stakeholders should see themselves as stewards of the community’s health and well-being.
Organizations enjoying positive relationships take a lot of effort; they don’t just happen.
It is critical to have a common vision that binds members together.

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- We commonly refer to this collective group of stakeholders as a coalition.
- A coalition is a formalized group of stakeholders that is representative of the community.

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-2
There are many important stakeholders in any system; the system is important to them in some way, providing some benefit to them.
Stakeholders should see themselves as stewards of the community’s health and well-being.
Organizations enjoying positive relationships take a lot of effort; they don’t just happen.
It is critical to have a common vision that binds members together.
A coalition is a constellation of its membership, just as a corporation is a constellation of its membership.
A Coalition is also a process.
Its role might differ or change over time.
Its function as a problem-solving group with stewardship of the prevention system stays constant.

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- The coalition facilitates the identification of a community’s problems associated with or the result of substance use. Coalitions work through an informed, objective process to determine the most effective direction, strategy and allocation of resources to achieve identified substance use reduction outcomes.

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-2

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- The coalition must cultivate ***champions ***for prevention strategies***, ***such as ***policy*** ***change*** and ***enforcement,*** which can influence population level changes in substance use behaviors and consequences.

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-2
A coalition in and of itself can’t make change; it must rely on relationships with others to make change.
A coalition can expand the support needed for change.

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- Build awareness of the importance of prevention in meeting short-term outcomes and its contribution to an overall comprehensive strategy
- Facilitate active involvement of key stakeholders in the planning, decision-making, implementation of the intervention, and review of evaluation results to increase interest and commitment

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-3

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- Communicate with key stakeholders through a variety of means (meetings, newsletters, presentations, newspaper articles, etc.) that celebrate key success stories and connect positive outcomes of the prevention system to identified needs of the community

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-3

## ACTION 8 Develop and Nurture Positive Relationships (Cont.)

- Seek advice, feedback, and assistance from peers, program developers, and others who have created and sustained successful coalitions that demonstrate changes in policies and reduction in problems related to substance use

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-3

## Assess Relationships Among Key Stakeholders

- Consider the key stakeholders critical to achieving, demonstrating, and sustaining the strategy’s positive outcomes.
- Are key community stakeholders supportive of the goals and efforts of the coalition?
- Are any of these relationships creating a barrier to achieving, demonstrating, or sustaining the strategy’s positive outcomes?

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-3

## ACTION 9 Turn Stakeholders into System Leaders and Champions

**How do we appeal to stakeholders?**
- Prevention leaders must view themselves as stewards of not only the prevention system and its strategies, but its outcomes
- Prevention leaders must prioritize the effectiveness of the system in their strategic and day-to-day actions as they guide the prevention work of community agencies, organizations, and institutions

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-4

## ACTION 9 Turn Stakeholders into System Leaders and Champions (Cont.)

**How do we appeal to stakeholders? *****(Cont.)***
- The coalition must view itself as a prevention leader, advocating for policies and actions throughout the community that support long-term strategic outcomes of reductions in community problems related to substance use

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-4

## ACTION 9 Turn Stakeholders into System Leaders and Champions (Cont.)

**How do we cultivate prevention system champions?**
- Identify the needs of influential stakeholders within organizations that are implementing effective strategies and in the broader community
- Assess how well these strategies are meeting the needs of influential stakeholders
- Communicate to targeted influential stakeholders how sustaining outcomes of effective strategies can meet their needs

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-4

## Assess Leaders and Champions

- Consider your community’s prevention leaders and champions.
- Does the community coalition champion policies and actions throughout the community that support long-term strategic outcomes of reductions in community problems related to substance use?
- Are key stakeholders in the community aware of how sustaining effective prevention outcomes benefits them?

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-5

## ACTION 10Encourage Ownership of the Prevention System (Cont.)

- How do we encourage ownership?
- Prevention efforts and infrastructure need ownership among the stakeholders, key decision and policy makers, community leaders, and the broader community
- Consider creative ways to demonstrate and communicate the extent of the problems in the community related to substance use

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-5
Ask participants for examples drawn from their own personal or profession experiences.

## ACTION 10Encourage Ownership of the Prevention System (Cont.)

- Build awareness among influential audiences such as the business community and civic leaders of the costs of problems related to substance use to the community and the savings realized by effective prevention
- Communicate the importance of using data to make strategic decisions about resource allocations and strategy selection in order to accomplish population-level changes

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-6
Ask participants for examples of creative ways they or others have used data and other information to communicate to stakeholders. This foreshadows closing exercise on day 3. 

## ACTION 10Encourage Ownership of the Prevention System (Cont.)

- Build support for the importance of using a public health approach to achieve population-level changes
- Identify and target key influential stakeholders (individuals and groups) in the community whose ownership of the prevention system is critical to its sustainability

## ACTION 10Encourage Ownership of the Prevention System (Cont.)

- Develop a communication plan that uses appropriate messages and communication modes to strategically target stakeholders
- Assess ownership among system stakeholders
- Involve key decision-makers in the implementation process
- Communicate regularly with key stakeholders about efforts of the coalition to strengthen the prevention system and the resulting impacts on substance abuse behaviors and consequences

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-6

## Assess Prevention System Ownership

- Consider how key stakeholders and the broader community value prevention.
- Are key stakeholders engaged with or aware of the community coalition, its goals to reduce problems that are related to substance use?
- Are key stakeholders supportive of using data to drive decisions?
- Are key stakeholders aware of or involved with strategies to achieve and sustain positive outcomes of strategies?

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-6

## Next Steps to Sustainability

- Identify sustainability policies, procedures, and practices that need strengthening
- Prioritize the top two that should be strengthened within the next six months
- Develop an action plan to address these priorities that indicates:
- Who needs to be involved
- What resources are needed
- What major steps should be taken
- What is the time frame for each step
- What do you expect to be the result of each step

**Notes:**
Page Ref: K3-7