Environmental Strategies
Grounded in the field of public health, which emphasizes the broader physical, social, cultural and institutional forces that contribute to the problems that coalitions address, environmental strategies offer well-accepted prevention approaches that coalitions use to change the context (environment) in which substance use and abuse occur. Environmental strategies incorporate prevention efforts aimed at changing or influencing community conditions, standards, institutions, structures, systems and policies. Examples include:
Individual strategies, such as drug education classes, are based on the premise that substance abuse develops because of deficits in knowledge
about negative consequences, inadequate resistance skills, poor decision making abilities and low academic achievement. But these efforts, while important in a multiple strategy approach, do little to independently alter the overall environment in which people live and work.
Environmental Strategies contribute to sustainable community change. Such approaches potentially reach entire populations and reduce collective risk. They create lasting change in community norms and systems, producing widespread behavior change and, in turn, reducing problems for entire communities.
Source: The Coalition Impact: Environmental Prevention Strategies by Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute
- Increasing fines for underage drinking
- Not selling cold, single-serving containers of beer in convenience stores
- Increasing access to treatment services by providing Spanish-speaking counselors
- Limiting the density of alcohol retailers in a community
Individual strategies, such as drug education classes, are based on the premise that substance abuse develops because of deficits in knowledge
about negative consequences, inadequate resistance skills, poor decision making abilities and low academic achievement. But these efforts, while important in a multiple strategy approach, do little to independently alter the overall environment in which people live and work.
Environmental Strategies contribute to sustainable community change. Such approaches potentially reach entire populations and reduce collective risk. They create lasting change in community norms and systems, producing widespread behavior change and, in turn, reducing problems for entire communities.
Source: The Coalition Impact: Environmental Prevention Strategies by Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute
