Community Prevention
We lead community coalitions that build healthier environments for young people through educational and environmental initiatives, based on local data and partnerships that catalyze lasting change. Learn more & get involved!
We are an outpatient clinic operating during set business hours. If you need immediate mental health support, call or text 988 or dial 2-1-1, option 1. If you or someone is in immediate physical danger, call 911.
How Community Prevention Works
Prevention is a public health science, focused on creating community-wide change that prevents risky behaviors and promotes wellness. The role of our prevention work is to improve mental health & to prevent suicide, overdose, and other risks such as substance misuse or problem gambling.
Positive Directions’ role starts with developing local Community Coalitions (also known as Local Prevention Councils or LPCs) and building their capacity.
- We involve 12 stakeholder groups whose voices are all critical when it comes to preventing risky behaviors, particularly among youth: the youth themselves, parents, youth-serving agencies, schools, local government, healthcare providers, police, treatment centers, civic groups, affinity groups, businesses, and media. Please consider joining your local coalition! (Reach out to mwatt@positivedirections.org to learn more.)
- We bring prevention leadership to our local coalitions. We build members’ capacity, gather data, guide the development of evidence-based strategies and initiatives, provide training, and secure grants to keep the work funded.
- Our youth surveys, parent & community surveys, retailer analyses, provider surveys, and other data inform our coalitions’ work.
We use the Strategic Prevention Framework, a planning model from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), to organize prevention work into the following phases:
- Assess local needs through our youth and community surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, and provider surveys.
- Build coalition capacity by bringing the right people to the table and giving them the training to participate.
- Develop plans grounded in proven individual and environmental strategies.
- Implement programs, practices, and trainings in line with those plans.
- Evaluate the work and revise, which restarts the cycle.
- At every stage, we seek input from community members to ensure cultural appropriateness and community buy-in, and we look for partnership and funding opportunities to make our initiatives sustainable.
The 7 Strategies for Community Change
We guide communities and coalitions in developing workplans that combine individual and environmental strategies for maximum impact.
- By raising awareness, teaching skills to youth, parents, and teachers, and organizing support programs such as our Teen Nights Out or our peer support groups, we promote mental health and healthy decision making among individual youth and families.
- By preventing access to substances through initiatives such as our Liquor Stickers or disseminating cannabis/medication lockbags, changing physical design, and working with schools to implement alternatives to suspension models, and leading our annual regional legislative forum to educate law-makers, we create healthier environments for all.
With 90+ community partners involved in our coalitions each year, we aim to amplify efforts already happening, fill gaps, and work together to create systems change. (A recent example is our community-wide Priority Plan for Youth Mental Wellbeing in Norwalk, developed through a months-long grassroots process & now being implemented through a network of partners.)
Our Local Coalitions & Their Work
Over the years we have worked with a number of Local Prevention Coalitions in Mid-Fairfield County.
The Norwalk Partnership
We currently lead The Norwalk Partnership and are proud that under our leadership, TNP was awarded CT’s Coalition of the Year in 2024. Our successes include growing the coalition, conducting large-scale youth surveys biannually, creating signature initiatives such as our TNP Teens clubs, Norwalk Teen Nights Out, and the annual NorWALK for Mental Health: Walk + Wellness Fair, providing training to all middle and high school teachers, and bringing in multiple funding sources to support the work. Our prevention efforts are intertwined with social-emotional health work, and our data show that we have successfully reduced substance misuse and improved mental health among Norwalk youth.
Westport Prevention Coalition
We currently lead the Westport Prevention Coalition, where we have been able to implement initiatives such as a triennial youth survey, Liquor Stickers, environmental scans, an annual drug awareness event for high school seniors, and suicide prevention for all high school juniors annually. In 2026 we were successful in accessing state funding for a five-year “BRYC” grant to address underage alcohol and cannabis use in Westport.
Multi-Town Initiatives
Mid-Fairfield Youth Cannabis Prevention Project
We recently led five communities to partner on the Mid-Fairfield Youth Cannabis Prevention Project, an 18-month pilot project which we created to allow New Canaan, Norwalk, Weston, Westport, and Wilton to build their capacity and take a regional approach to underage cannabis use. The project organized Sector Summits for law enforcement, school staff, and local government; conducted a landscape analysis across all five towns; trained all health and PE teachers from the participating towns; organized a speaker series; and developed a Regional Youth Team who provided education and awareness to their peers.
Regional Legislative Forum
Annually, we lead a regional prevention legislative forum involving up to 10 towns from Southwestern Connecticut.
Fairfield CARES Community Coalition
We are one of the 12 sectors involved in the Fairfield CARES Community Coalition and currently serve as the coalition’s fundraising fiduciary. For a number of years we led the coalition, including accessing state and federal grants for its work.
TPAUD
We partner closely with TPAUD, Trumbull’s Prevention Partnership, on data collection and advocacy.
Catalyst CT | The Hub
We work with Catalyst CT | The Hub to offer trainings such as Youth Mental Health First Aid and to bring Narcan trainings, lockbags, and Naloxboxes to our communities. The Hub is the Regional Behavioral Health Action Organization serving as a strategic partner and grant administrator for prevention work throughout Southwestern CT.
Want to help build a healthier community?
Coalition work depends on people who show up. Join us.