Help Support a Prevention Agenda

From the Executive Director

Word is getting out about prevention – not only from an individual perspective – but at the community level. We have a growing cadre of people who understand effective prevention and can implement comprehensive initiatives in their communities – whether the focus is on promoting nutrition and activity environments, fostering safe communities free from violence, eliminating health disparities, or other issue areas.

We think Prevention Institute is helping to build this momentum, and as a still young organization (8 years old), we are asking your help in making sure people know about us - especially our website, which is the focal point for our tools and papers, our regular updates, Prevention Resources Alerts, and our trainings and consultation work. Please think about who could benefit from knowing about our work and forward them our materials.

2005 was a year of success and growing opportunities for Prevention Institute. We released new resources - including the THRIVE health disparities tool, the ENACT nutrition and physical activity tool, and the article, The O word: Why the focus on obesity is harmful to community health. We reached more communities than ever through our training and consultation services and website (check out our website for more information about our work, organized by topic area). We expanded our web presence and web-based tools – a deliberate effort to make user-friendly prevention resources broadly accessible. Together we are shaping the dialogue on community health and building momentum for primary prevention.

We look forward to the important work that lies ahead in 2006, especially the opportunity to build on partnerships and develop new ones with more communities. As we expand our network, our collective voice and impact grows.

We ask that you help support a prevention agenda:

• Encourage people to sign up to receive Prevention Resources Alerts.
• Forward this message to friends and colleagues (Click here for a plain text version of this Alert to attach and forward to others).
• Forward our agency description and the examples of our success listed below.
• Encourage people to use the web-based ENACT tool.
• Let us know what you think, any advice? Connections? ...as we advance primary prevention together.
• Please let us know what you've done and how many people you've sent this to (it boosts our spirits!).

Thank you.

Larry Cohen, Executive Director

Examples of our work in 2005

• THRIVE tool released: published 12/05 in the American Journal of Public Health – a community assessment tool to help communities improve health outcomes and reduce disparities
• UNITY launched: a CDC-funded national urban youth violence prevention initiative
• Strategic Alliance Taking Action for a Healthier California: a platform to advance business and government involvement in creating healthier places to live and work, is reflected in Gov. Schwarzenegger's Vision for a Healthy California.
• Strategic Alliance ENACT upgraded: a tool to help communities improve nutrition and activity environments on a local level, includes new online assessment function. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting national pilot testing in cities around the U.S.
• Violence Prevention Blueprint adopted: a comprehensive policy initiative for Alameda County, California
• Prevention Connection launched: over 1,000 people reached via web forms to prevent violence against women

Upcoming tools and events in 2006

• California Nutrition/Physical Activity Policy Database: offering health advocates a catalogue of emerging local policies on nutrition and activity to stimulate implementation of promising policies throughout California

• THRIVE Web-Based Tool and Consultation: translating our health disparities resources into an interactive tool and providing consultation and training in several locales
• Prevention Connection: a series of 8 web forums and dialogues to deepen the dialogue on primary prevention of violence against women
• Prevention is Primary: an academic text on primary prevention, co-edited by Prevention Institute and Dr. Vivian Chavez of San Francisco State University, final text to be published by Jossey-Bass
• The Physician's Guide to Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse: PI co-authored a chapter on primary prevention in this book on intimate partner violence, to be released in April 2006
• Training and consultation across the country: check for upcoming events periodically on our Upcoming Events pagerimary prevention that is co-edited by Prevention Institute and Dr. Vivian Chavez of San Francisco State University. The final text will be published byey-Bass. an academic text on primary prevention that is co-edited by Prevention Institute and Dr. Vivian Chavez of San Francisco State University. The final text will be published by Jossey-Bass. SERT text from SANA

A focal point for encouraging effective primary prevention, www.PreventionInstitute.org is your link to prevention-related ideas, projects, publications, tools, and events.

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