With its roots in substance abuse prevention, Community Partnership of the Ozarks, in southwestern Missouri, uses the 40 assets as the foundation of all of their work on behalf of children and families. Serving 21 counties across the region, Community Partnership provides training, resources, and support to bring community sectors together to create positive change.
Community Partnership of the Ozarks began eighteen years ago when the community received a Fighting Back Grant to prevent substance abuse. Since then, their substance abuse and violence prevention programs have developed and expanded to serve people across the region in a multitude of ways. Melissa Haddow, the Executive Director of Community Partnership of the Ozarks spoke about the importance of addressing the issue of substance abuse prevention holistically, and utilizing the asset framework as a comprehensive tool for doing so. All sectors of the community and factors in people’s lives work together and impact one another. “You cannot address substance abuse in isolation,” said Haddow. The range of programs and partnerships that span the twenty-one counties served to exemplify Community Partnership’s focus on building strong communities.
Community Partnership has been known to utilize creativity to advertise campaigns and spread the message of the Developmental Assets by producing designs on clothing and balloons. But recently, they decided to share the asset framework in a different way. For many years, Community Partnership has been using its own materials and curriculum to address substance abuse and risk behavior prevention using methods that have worked throughout their years in the field. To keep the movement growing, and support sustainability, Community Partnership decided to make their materials available to others at a low cost, and the response has been great.
To learn more about Community Partnership’s prevention materials, visit www.cafeprevention.com.
For more information, visit Community Partnership of the Ozarks online at www.commpartnership.org or contact Executive Director Melissa Haddow at mhaddow@commpartnership.org.
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