Prevention is grassroots work. In its simplest form, prevention is noisy metal chairs, collapsible tables, and quick set up and tear down community-based work. Taking a closer look, it requires quality training and education and formal qualifications or certification to ensure the full impact of the work can be achieved. It connects prevention science and expert leadership with people where they are so that positive behavioral change can happen. Let me share a story of prevention science in action. A few years ago, the Ohio Coaching and Mentoring Network (OCAM) started a prevention education series in a church. People met every Thursday for two hours for seven weeks. Following the series, 20 people received their Ohio Certified Prevention Specialist Assistant (OCPSA) Certification. How can we understand the 20 informed individuals’ impact on their families and communities? We can count the number of people who receive prevention training. We can count the number of people who become prevention certified. We can count the increase in protective factors in a community. We can count the number of resources people can access. We can even count the reduction of lives lost over time. While those numbers are significant and provide valuable information, they do not fully capture what happens when trained prevention professionals draw upon established prevention science and create support systems for individuals, organizations, and communities and when people learn safer, smarter, healthier ways to live.

Read the entire post, “The OCAM Network: Creating the Conditions for Positive Behavioral Change” here.