Page 23 - Focus on Prevention: Strategies and Programs to Prevent Substance Use

FOCUS Community Partners

ON

Partnerships are the backbone of nearly every successful
prevention campaign. Organizing a community around a
substance use issue can take a great deal of work, but the
effort can have big payoffs.
Building partnerships is a dynamic process that changes
as participants’ goals, abilities, and needs change.
Partnerships include a variety of arrangements to
produce results that one partner alone could not achieve.
Examples include creating entities to deliver new
programs, expanding or improving services, fostering
social marketing activities (see Focus On Social Marketing),
or providing research and evaluation services. The table
below outlines ways organizations can engage partners.
Levels of Partner Engagement 1

1. Networking or Partners have minimal involvement (mainly to share information).
communication links
2. Publicity Partners may serve as channels or go-betweens to help spread information.
3. Endorsement Partners publicly endorse each other’s programs to broaden appeal or lend credibility.

4. Coordination Partners remain self-directed but conduct mutually beneficial activities and work
together with a common purpose.
5. Co-sponsorship Partners share their resources.

6. Collaboration Partners work together from beginning to end to create a vision and to carry out a program.
1 Adapted from: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of
Nutrition and Physical Activity. (1999). Promoting Physical Activity: A Guide for Community Action. Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL.

Effective partnerships develop mutually rewarding and
sustainable chemistry. As more than an exchange of
services, partnership includes:
 Defining a shared mission, vision, and goals. The more a prevention strategy
 Maintaining a high level of trust and mutual respect. represents the whole community

 Making decisions jointly. and shares a common goal, the more
 Contributing staff time and other resources.
 Committing to build knowledge, skills, and systems powerful and respected it will be.
by seeking or offering technical assistance.
Staying in close contact with a partner, listening
carefully to what is communicated, and providing
regular and consistent feedback, encouragement,
guidance, and recognition help to sustain partnerships.

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