Prevention Services

Our mission is to engage the most vulnerable populations to challenge systemic conditions and social disparities that threaten a healthy environment.

The multi-faceted needs of a community are unique and complex and require strong measures to address them. To this end, SMRS devotes an entire department aimed solely at lessening the harms related to alcohol and other drugs (AOD). Utilizing the US Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s recognized science-based principles, SMRS (through its Prevention Department) employs a range of social-organizing strategies to address institutional, social as well as other health concerns.

Prevention is first and foremost about partnerships; it is about motivating community members to seek and achieve policy and normative changes in local institutions. Prevention is an integral part of a continuum of care that includes intervention and treatment/recovery. Experience has shown that the proper application of prevention strategies impact all members of the community, those who have never consumed as well as those recovering from substance abuse. Our prevention programs utilize a broad array of community organizing and learning activities including skill development, community involvement, AOD-free alternative activities, cultural awareness, land-use understanding, neighborhood assessment, and action plan development and execution as well as civic participation