3. Community Empowerment

For any youth prevention program to have an effect, it must empower the surrounding community and convince its individuals that they do have the capabilities of implementing a successful youth program. Having clearly stated goals helps you accomplish this, as does using strong local individuals to work on your program. Be able to identify, develop, and nurture local leadership skills, as evidence has shown that community programs spearheaded by people within that specific community tend to have better effects than programs led by those outside of a community. Local individuals also have better access to resources, and can usually provide better contacts for outside programs that can help with your specific intervention. You should provide these individuals with all relevant information about your prevention’s audience, including details about demographics, attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs. You may also need to provide relevant and up-to-date literature and other materials that can educate the people running your program. Additionally, you should be able to convince the local individuals running the prevention that they have the leadership skills necessary to actually accomplish the objectives set forth by your program. Provide goals that start small and lend themselves to a clearly defined set of actions, and offer any technical, educational, or psychological assistance local community facilitators need in order to feel that they can truly make a difference. Make sure everyone knows exactly mustbe done and how to do it in order to accomplish your objectives. Encourage local individuals to suggest ways to tailor the program to help guarantee their community will be served in the best manner possible. Allowing local feedback promotes a sense ofownership, initiative, and independence, which increases an individual’s pride, and strengthens his or her work ethic for the program. Finally, you should be continually providing feedback and information to ensure your prevention’s success.

Skill Areas:
A Ability to identify, nurture and develop leadership skills in local citizens so that community members can truly make a difference

B Ability to partner with programs already in place within the community to achieve goals

C Ability to providemotivating, population-specific data and information that community leaders can use to achieve program objectives

D Ability to work with community members in identifying specific action steps that lead to goal accomplishment

E Ability to engage community members in the implementation of action steps that have been identified

F Ability to provide technical assistance and tools to local people so they can accomplish their priorities and goals