Community Engagement Toolkit - Prevention Promotion Plan Template - Collaboration with Key Stakeholders

Sep 22, 2026

Toolkit for building healthy communities by preventing substance misuse through broad-based community engagement. Covers benefits such as improved understanding of local history and context, increased prevention awareness and support, shared resources, greater influence when marginalized voices are included, and long-term sustainability. Presents two engagement pathways: prevention promotion with an actionable plan template (goals, messages, tools, action steps, and resources) and collaboration with key stakeholders, including practical examples and tips for identifying and networking partners.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Substance Use Prevention Professional Development Toolkit

Increasing Community Engagement

Prevention Promotion Plan Template

Collaboration with Key Stakeholders

Tips for Identifying Stakeholders

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Substance Use Prevention Professional Development
Toolkit

Increasing Community Engagement Building healthy communities and preventing substance misuse is a big job. It impacts everyone in your community in some way or another, so everyone has a stake in it—whether they know it or not. A job this big requires broad-based community engagement to bring about the environmental and systems changes that improve local conditions.
The benefits of broad-based community engagement include:
r An increased understanding of the community. There will always be ideas, issues, concerns,
history and context that you don’t have a good grasp on but can have a major impact on your programs.
r Increased awareness and support for prevention. High engagement helps build a stronger reputation within the community, helping to provide credibility to your efforts.
r Shared resources. Pooling expertise, skills and resources can make daunting tasks more manageable and achievable.
r More power to influence community change. When all voices are included, especially marginalized populations, efforts and messages are amplified. Strategies are more likely to be effective when they are culturally responsive.
r Sustainability. When more people are invested in the program and services there are more people working to ensure they remain in the community.
There are at least two main ways to engage your community in prevention: prevention promotion and collaboration with key stakeholders.
Prevention Promotion
One way to engage your community in prevention is through promotion. It’s important to publicize the important work you are doing and the progress you are making in preventing substance misuse to build support for your efforts and sustain your programs. Develop an ongoing, targeted promotion effort to educate your community about prevention, raise awareness of your efforts and invite community members to get involved.
As you promote your prevention work there are many ways to invite community members to get involved. For example, ask them to:
r Sign up for your newsletter.
r Join a coalition or advisory group.
r Attend a townhall meeting.
r Participate in a focus group or interview or take a survey.
r Participate in a prevention program.
r Send in a donation for a specific need or program.
r Join or like a social media page and participate in the conversation.
r Spread prevention messages with their families, friends and coworkers. | EVERY DECISION MATTERS. Prevention Promotion Plan Template 1. Identify your goals. What projects are you working on? What support do you need with upcoming activities? Which programs are strong in terms of community support, and which are lacking? 2. Develop key messages. What prevention programs and activities are you implementing and what is their positive impact on the community? Why is your work meaningful and why does it matter? What assistance do you need to be more effective? 3. Select appropriate tools and methods. What sources of information are considered reliable and credible in your service area? What message dissemination methods can you use to best achieve your promotion efforts? 4. Identify action steps. What steps will you take to promote your prevention efforts in your community? Who will be responsible for each step? When will you complete each step? 5. Identify resources. Who can help you implement your plan? What other resources are available to assist you (training, technical assistance, etc.)? See our course “Promote Prevention Efforts and Build Support” to learn more about prevention promotion | | | --- | |

EVERY DECISION MATTERS.
Collaboration with Key Stakeholders
Community engagement also involves creating a system or network of collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders. Community stakeholders are valuable resources that can help you achieve your prevention goals and enhan

FAQs

What are the main benefits of broad-based community engagement for substance use prevention?

It increases understanding of community needs, strengthens awareness and support for prevention, enables shared resources, amplifies influence through inclusive participation, and supports sustainability as more people invest in programs and services.

How does the toolkit suggest engaging the community in prevention?

It outlines two main approaches: prevention promotion and collaboration with key stakeholders, both aimed at building support, improving implementation, and expanding impact.

What steps are included in the Prevention Promotion Plan Template?

The template guides users to identify goals, develop key messages, select appropriate tools and methods, identify action steps with responsibilities and timelines, and identify resources to implement the plan.

How should you identify and work with key stakeholders?

Start by defining prevention goals and needed projects, research organizations and voices that are receptive and able, broaden the network beyond initial lists, and share the stakeholder list with colleagues to avoid missing crucial partners.

Sep 22, 2026

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