Communities That Care is a community-based prevention system proven to reduce youth health and behavior problems community wide.
Based on the premise that communities are unique, CTC helps local coalitions develop community-specific prevention plans based on their unique levels of behavioral health problems and risk and protective factors.
Community choice of proven prevention interventions helps ensure local ownership, as does the series of CTC workshops that build coalition members’ skills to implement CTC and achieve their vision of healthy youth development.
CTC is proven effective. It has been tested in an experimental trial and a state- wide replication, and found effective both in mobilizing communities to take concerted action for preventing youth health and behavioral problems, and in reducing those problem behaviors community wide.
Communities That Care Guiding Principles
- Locally owned and operated. A local collaborative makes decisions from local data to address priority needs.
- Data driven and outcome-focused. Community-specific data are used to set goals, measure progress and adjust as needed.
- Addresses the underlying causes (risk and protective factors) of youth health and behavior problems.
- Uses proven programs matched to local priorities selected from local data.
- Cost effective, returning $5.31 for each dollar invested.
For more information on CTC:
- Communities That Care Rapid City (CommunitiesThatCareRC.org)
- Communities That Care (CommunitiesThatCare.net)