Implementing the Plan
Virginia’s five-year plan for improving prevention practices and outcomes among children and adolescents throughout the state includes 16 short-term and long-term recommendations, targeted for implementation by the end of calendar year 2008. Each of these recommendations addresses one of the following nine “core elements” of the plan that were identified by prevention practitioners, principally working with youth at the local level.
- Work Force Development
- Developing capacities to recruit, develop and retain substance abuse prevention providers.
- Ethical Prevention Practice
- Assisting in the promotion and assurance of prevention standards of practice by prevention providers.
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Promoting the use of, and building the capacity for, evidence-based practice.
- Environmental Change
- Increasing focus on the shared environment related to community norms, regulations, policies and data collection.
- Resource Development
- Securing a consistent and efficiently integrated funding stream for substance abuse prevention efforts.
- Legislative Issues
- Enacting public policies that clearly reflect what research shows to be effective in promoting successful outcomes in substance abuse prevention.
- Public Awareness
- Heightening awareness of prevention goals, messages and initiatives at the local, state and national levels.
- Advocacy
- Fostering prevention advocacy development at the local and state levels.
Immediately upon the 2003 approval of the Gaining Traction plan by then Governor Mark R. Warner, the GOSAP Collaborative began the implementation of these recommendations. Overall implementation is well ahead of schedule, with five of the 16 recommendations already completed and five more now in the process of implementation.