What Is Prevention?

There's an old story that goes something like this:

"Two people are fishing by a river, when they suddenly see a drowning child being pulled by the current. They rush into action and pull the child ashore, comforting him and checking for any injuries. But before they can catch their breath, another struggling child comes floating down the river, and then another. While one of the fishers dives back into the water, the other - curious about why children are ending up in the river - walks upstream and around the bend, where she finds a group of children playing on an old bridge with a broken railing. She cautions the kids to stay back as she gets to work on fixing the railing."

We use a method of prevention called the Strategic Prevention Framework, which is built around 5 steps used to identify the problems in a community, gather local support, implement a plan, and then regularly evaluate for effectiveness.