MRC Philosophical Foundations for Prevention

The ultimate goal of prevention is the development of intellectually, personally, and socially competent youth.

A comprehensive prevention effort cultivates school and community environments that promote the development of goals, dispositions, knowledge, and competencies that maximize the ability of all young people to nurture and protect their minds, bodies, spirits, and futures.

1. Helping youth avoid high-risk behavior is essential to the mission of schools and other youth-focused agencies and organizations.

   Acquiring the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to avoid high-risk behavior is an essential ingredient of the education necessary for 21st century adults, and therefore must be included as a basic and permanent part of the mission and goals of schools, as well as of all other agencies, organizations, institutions, and groups that can have an impact on the lives of young people.

2. Effective prevention promotes avoidance of all high-risk behaviors, particularly ATOD use and violence.

   Effective prevention initiatives clearly articulate the expectation that underage youth will avoid ATOD use, as well as other high-risk behaviors, and are initiated before such use or involvement begins.

3. Prevention addresses the multiple reasons for involvement in various high-risk behaviors.

   A comprehensive prevention effort extends beyond simply reducing the incidence of high-risk behavior or ATOD use, by addressing the varying reasons, needs, conditions, and circumstances in young peoples' lives that affect their ability to become, or remain, drug-free and avoid other high risk behaviors. Effective prevention is strategic and results-focused, rather than programmatic and activity-oriented.

4. Effective prevention changes systems and norms.

   Effective prevention changes the day-to-day "norms of experience" for young people in the school and community rather than simply creating temporary or small scale "alternatives" to unhealthy or high-risk behaviors, experiences, and conditions. Therefore, prevention must be systemic and ongoing, not fragmented or episodic.

5. Context is crucial.

   To be effective, prevention initiatives must be matched to the unique cultural, social, political, and structural characteristics and histories of the school and community environments in which they will be implemented, including strategies for identifying and building on existing strengths and resources.

6. Prevention strategies provide youth with "something to say yes to."

   The priority for prevention should be on helping young people learn what to embrace, rather than simply what to "reject"--on what we hope they will strive to become, rather than on only what we don't want them to do--and on preparing young people to make positive choices about all aspects of their lives, both in the present and for the future.

7. Effective prevention focuses on adults as well as youth.

   Creating a youth development, prevention-focused environment requires addressing the attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values of adults as well as youth, both in the school and in the broader community.

8. Prevention requires broad-based collaboration.

   Many people and institutions influence young people's decisions about ATOD and other high-risk behavior. Therefore, prevention initiatives should involve a broad range of individuals in the school and community as well as partnerships among the school and other institutions, agencies, organizations, and businesses.

9. Learning from research and practice is crucial.

   Prevention strategies and related materials must be grounded in the most up-to-date concepts, information, and strategies from research and practice.

10. Evaluation is essential to effective prevention.

    Successful prevention requires a comprehensive evaluation strategy that provides a framework for planning and implementation as well as for assessing the short- and long-term results and impact.

    These frameworks, taken together, can provide a redefined ecology for schooling that is holistic, coherent, synergistic, reflective, and ultimately more effective in achieving the multiple goals the society has assigned to schools and schooling.

Based on a review of the restructuring literature, the following table reflects some of the fundamental changes in both the basic concepts and metaphors for schooling that are necessary to pursue any substantive change in schools. These four paradigm shifts are not reflective of the entirety of the changes necessary to move schools from where they are to where they need to be, but instead, are the core foundations that are prerequisites for that effort.

Copyright © 1995:

Midwest Regional Center for
Drug-Free Schools & Communities


North Central Regional Educational Laboratory

Contact:info@ncrel.org

Posted on March 27, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/sa/4-1phil.htm