Mobilizing communities to reduce risks for drug abuse: Lessons on using research to guide prevention practice

In May 1988, the authors initiated a risk-focused community mobilization project for drug abuse prevention. That project, TOGETHER! Communities for Drug Free Youth, is a state-wide collaboration involving 28 Washington communities. The project uses current research on risk and protective factors for adolescent drug abuse as its foundation. Through training and technical assistance, communities have been mobilized to design and implement comprehensive, risk-focused plans for adolescent drug abuse prevention. This paper describes the design of the project and examines the extent to which the participating communities formed planning teams that utilized an empirically based risk reduction approach in mobilizing to prevent drug abuse.