Capacity Building for Prevention Planning with Substance Abuse Prevention Organizations in Los Angeles County

Background. As part of an initiative that promotes evidence-based substance abuse prevention interventions in Los Angeles County, funded service provider organizations were required to conduct a community needs assessment and submit detailed plans describing their proposed prevention strategies. The initiative is grounded in the Strategic Prevention Framework outlined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Methods. We conducted a survey and interviewed each prevention organization (n=33) and coded their work plans (n=226) and data summaries (n=42).

Results. Organizations reported that the needs assessment generated valuable information about their target communities and increased their organizational capacity to collect community data. They also reported major challenges: limited understanding of data collection methods, limited time and funding, and concerns about balancing needs assessment with ongoing service provision. Coding showed improvements in the quality of work plans from years 1 to 2, such as increased alignment between prevention strategies and objectives. Most strategies were guided by needs assessment results. The majority of organizations focus on alcohol prevention, use curriculum-based programs (65%), multi-component approaches (48%), policy development (50%), and general education strategies (35%).

Conclusions. The requirement to conduct needs assessment and develop plans for prevention work was a marked change for the organizations. The amount of training and technical assistance required for organizations to conduct successful assessments, thereby increasing their organizational capacity for prevention, was considerable.  If models such as the Strategic Prevention Framework are to be successful, funding organizations should allow an entire year for planning and provide sufficient funds for needs assessment training, plan development, and selection of evidence-based strategies.