Communities That Care

1. Introduction

Version followed: CTC PLUS, the current licensed version from the Center for Communities That Care, Social Development Research Group (SDRG), University of Washington School of Social Work (implementation details dated 2 Sept 2024). Where CTC PLUS pages give no procedural detail, I use the earlier CTC system materials: Hawkins & Catalano, Tools for Community Leaders (2002 edition), and the Center's older in-person training series as summarised by Blueprints (undated). Divergences between versions are flagged [uncertain].

Communities That Care (CTC) is not a therapy. It is a community-level prevention operating system: a coached, five-phase process in which a community coalition uses local youth survey data to pick a few priority risk and protective factors, then chooses, funds, delivers and monitors tested-effective prevention programmes and policies that target them. It was developed by J. David Hawkins and Richard F. Catalano at SDRG. Targets in the original model are adolescent substance use, delinquency, teen pregnancy, school dropout and violence; the current risk factor chart adds depression and anxiety. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; Tools for Community Leaders 2002; Risk Factors Chart 2023]

Theory of change: guided by the Social Development Model. Young people adopt healthy behaviour when the people and groups they are bonded to (family, school, community, peers) hold healthy beliefs and clear standards. Bonding grows when youth get developmentally appropriate opportunities to take part, the skills to succeed in them, and recognition for effort and achievement. At community level, change comes from lowering prioritised risk factors and raising protection across the population, using programmes with proven effects, delivered with fidelity and tracked with repeated surveys. [source: Hawkins, Catalano & Kuklinski 2011; CTC prevention-science page]

Who this is for: a clinician who is (a) the paid CTC coordinator/facilitator, (b) a Community Board or workgroup member representing mental health, or (c) a provider delivering a programme chosen in a CTC action plan. The individual and family applications of the Social Development Strategy in therapy are marked [synthesis].

2. Framework

Licensing and support (CTC PLUS). Communities contract with the Center for CTC for licensing. The current package includes a CTC specialist who leads a Key Leader Orientation on site in Year 1. The local coordinator/facilitator attends a three-day training in Year 1 and then runs the CTC web-assisted workshops locally, using instructional videos, guides and online progress-monitoring tools. Coaching runs up to three contacts a month by Zoom, phone or email, with monthly peer-network sessions for coordinators. A Social Development Strategy Workshop is held in Year 2, and access to Milestones and Benchmarks tools is used to monitor process fidelity. Sponsors must attend trainings, take part in coaching, supply community-level youth data, secure key-leader support, and fund tested programmes from Year 2. The Center recommends one paid coordinator per community: at least 50% time, full-time strongly preferred. Youth survey data come from the CTC Youth Survey, run through Bach-Harrison, or from a local survey with enough CTC constructs. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; CTC PLUS page]

Older series (pre-CTC PLUS), still taught by some state partners such as Penn State EPIS. Strategic Consultation (1 day); Coordinator Training (2 days); Key Leaders' Orientation (2–4 h); Community Board Orientation (1.5–2 days); Community Assessment Training (1 day); Community Resources Assessment Training (1 day); Community Planning Training (1.5–2 days); Community Plan Implementation Training plus Funding/Sustainability Workshop (1 day, as two half-days); Community Plan Implementation Training 2 (half to 1 day). Usually spread over 2–3 years. [source: Blueprints CTC Training; EPIS CTC Trainings] [uncertain: CTC PLUS has replaced most of these in-person trainings with coordinator-led web-assisted workshops. Exact CTC PLUS workshop names, session counts and lengths are not given, apart from the 3-session Assessing Community Resources Workshop.]

Timeline. One brief describes the five phases taking about a year, with a certified CTC trainer giving technical assistance in each phase. CTC PLUS puts programme costs from Year 2 onward. [source: Hawkins et al. 2011; CTC Implementation 2024] [uncertain: real communities often take longer, and the older series was spread over 2–3 years.]

[source: Tools for Community Leaders 2002, Appendix 1; CTC Implementation 2024; Hawkins et al. 2011]

Version differences [uncertain]:

• Number of priority factors: the older Community Assessment Training lists 1–4 as its output, while the 2011 brief says 2–5.
• Survey grades: the 2002 guide says grades 6–12, while the 2011 brief says grades 6, 8, 10 and 12.
• Programme menu: older materials used the CTC Prevention Strategies Guide, while CTC PLUS uses the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development registry.
• Key Leader Orientation: placed in Phase 1 (CTC PLUS) or Phase 2 (2002 and older series).

3. Guiding principles

• Prevention science base. Target the risk and protective factors shown to predict youth problem behaviours, not the behaviours directly. In practice, every proposal must name the factor it moves. [source: CTC prevention-science page; Tools 2002]
• Data-driven local priorities. Priorities come from your own youth survey and archival data, compared against norms. In practice, "we already know the problem" is not enough: show the data. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Focus on a few priorities. Choose a small set of priority factors (roughly 2–5). In practice, resist adding everyone's favourite issue. [source: Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Tested-and-effective strategies only. Choose programmes with comparison-group evaluations showing a positive youth outcome, a clear logic, and readiness for dissemination (Blueprints Promising or Model). In practice, local homegrown programmes go into the inventory, but new money goes to proven ones. [source: CRAW S1 Handouts]
• Fidelity. Deliver selected programmes as designed, to the intended population, with enough timing, intensity and duration, and monitor this. In practice, budget for fidelity checklists and observation from the start. [source: Tools 2002; Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Community ownership. The process is self-directed and community-owned. Coaches guide, but local people decide. In practice, the clinician facilitates decisions and does not make them. [source: Tools 2002]
• Broad, diverse representation. Key leaders who control resources plus a board drawn from every sector, including youth, parents, faith groups and elders. In practice, map who is missing before each recruitment round. [source: Blueprints CTC Training; Tools 2002]
• Youth involvement. Each community writes a youth-involvement plan. In practice, give youth real roles, not token seats. [source: Tools 2002]
• Collaboration over turf. Coordinate with existing initiatives and use written agreements. In practice, sign memoranda of agreement before shared work starts. [source: Tools 2002]
• Readiness first. Surface and resolve show-stopper issues before launching. In practice, do not run the KLO while key sectors still oppose a risk-and-protection approach. [source: Tools 2002]
• Social Development Strategy as the unifying frame. Opportunities, skills and recognition build bonding, and bonding transmits healthy beliefs and clear standards. In practice, use it to check every programme and every adult–youth interaction. [source: CTC prevention-science page; CTC Australia SDS page]
• Measurable outcomes and accountability. Set outcomes at the behaviour, factor and participant levels, then reassess and report results publicly. In practice, every plan line has an indicator and a data source. [source: Tools 2002]
• Long-term commitment. Board members commit for 3–5 years on staggered, renewable terms, and key-leader membership is tied to the leader's position. In practice, plan for turnover from day one. [source: Tools 2002]
• Paid coordination. A dedicated, paid coordinator is treated as essential. In practice, do not run CTC off the side of a full clinical caseload. [source: CTC Implementation 2024]

4. Intervention inventory

The "interventions" of CTC are community-mobilisation procedures, workshops and monitoring tools, listed here in phase order. Under CTC PLUS, the coordinator delivers most workshops using the Center's web-assisted materials. Steps below paraphrase the published tasks; detailed workshop scripts are licensed and are not drawn on here. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; CTC PLUS page]

4.1 Preliminary organisation (Phase 1, Milestone 1-1)

• Purpose / when: At the very start, to give CTC a home, a leader and a working team.
• Steps:
  1. A catalyst (often an agency staff member, possibly you) introduces CTC and recruits a Champion. The Champion is a respected community leader who will host the KLO and invite key leaders.
  2. Secure a lead agency to house the work, hold the money and provide staff and meeting space.
  3. Hire or assign a paid coordinator/facilitator (at least half-time).
  4. Form a core work group of 4–7 people to decide whether and how to proceed.
  5. Build a key-leader roster covering business, education, faith, elders, government, health, law enforcement, media, parents, social services and youth.
  6. Draft an initial work plan, timeline and resource budget.
  7. Inventory existing youth and family services. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Example language (illustrative): "We're asking you to champion this because people come when you invite them. Your main job is hosting one half-day orientation and making a few calls."
• Watch for: No paid coordinator. A lead agency seen as partisan or turf-bound. A roster missing whole sectors. Working signs: a signed lead-agency agreement, a coordinator in post, and a roster across all sectors.

4.2 Defining the scope (Phase 1, Milestone 1-2)

• Purpose / when: Before any orientation, so everyone means the same community and the same problems.
• Steps:
  1. Define the community's geographic boundaries. The 2002 guide treats this as a core decision, because survey data and programmes must map onto it.
  2. Name the health and behaviour issues of concern.
  3. Agree what "prevention" includes.
  4. Identify funding requirements.
  5. Decide whether the Community Board will be advisory or decision-making, and how it will operate: a new coalition, a subcommittee of an existing coalition, or an ad hoc lead-agency work group.
  6. Summarise open issues in an action plan. [source: Tools 2002]
• Example language (illustrative): "For CTC, prevention means acting before problems start, by changing the conditions that predict them. Treatment for young people already struggling stays essential, but it's a different budget line. Can we agree on that?"
• Watch for: Boundaries that don't match school-district survey units. Prevention defined so broadly that it absorbs treatment funding. Working sign: a written scope statement.

4.3 Readiness assessment and resolving show-stoppers (Phase 1, Milestones 1-3 and 1-4)

• Purpose / when: Before the KLO, to find issues that would derail adoption.
• Steps:
  1. Check agreement on: the issues; a shared definition of prevention; willingness to collaborate; support for a risk-and-protection approach; school-district support for the youth survey (secure it as early as possible); coordination with existing initiatives; and which stakeholders are missing.
  2. For each gap, choose a response (see Section 5).
  3. Treat competing events, such as elections or a crisis in the news, as possible show-stoppers that may justify a delay. [source: Tools 2002] Under the older series, a one-day on-site Strategic Consultation did this with the steering committee. [source: Blueprints CTC Training]
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we invite the mayor, I want to know where the school district stands on the survey. Without it we have no profile and no Phase 3."
• Watch for: Pushing ahead because funding deadlines loom. Working sign: a written survey agreement and no unresolved sector opposition.

4.4 Key Leader Orientation (KLO)

• Purpose / when: End of Phase 1 (CTC PLUS) or start of Phase 2 (older). Wins commitment from people who control resources.
• Format: Half-day in the 2002 guide (sample agenda of about 4 hours with a break) or 2–4 hours in the older series, plus optional one-to-one briefings with top leaders. Delivered on site by a CTC specialist in CTC PLUS. Invitations and materials go out about a month ahead, confirmations two weeks ahead, and follow-up calls in the week of the event. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training; CTC Implementation 2024]
• Content: Risk and protective factors for the target behaviours; the five phases; Key Leader Board and Community Board roles; defining the community; designating a Community Board of 15–30 members; a shared vision for youth. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Your role: As coordinator or catalyst, you handle logistics, prepare local data highlights, brief the Champion, and track follow-up commitments.
• Example language (illustrative): "What we're asking from each of you is three things: nominate board members, help secure funding for proven programmes in Year 2, and open doors when the plan needs them."
• Watch for: Leaders who send deputies. No explicit decision at the end. Working signs: a recorded decision to adopt CTC, Key Leader Board members named, and board nominations received.

4.5 Community Board recruitment and Community Board Orientation (CBO)

• Purpose / when: Phase 2, to create the working coalition.
• Steps:
  1. Recruit 15–30 members from all stakeholder groups, including youth.
  2. Ask for a 3–5 year commitment on three-year renewable, staggered terms.
  3. Hold the CBO. In the older series this ran 1.5–2 days and covered the research base, the CTC phases and benefits, stakeholder roles, teamwork and decision-making skills, and the Social Development Strategy.
  4. Leave the CBO with an organisational structure, 4–6 workgroups, and an action plan and timeline for each workgroup. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training] [uncertain: the CTC PLUS equivalent is delivered as web-assisted workshops by the coordinator. Its session count was not found.]
• Example language (illustrative): "Which workgroup fits what you already do? The assessment group needs people comfortable with numbers. The resources group needs people who know every agency in town."
• Watch for: A board made up entirely of agency staff. No youth or parents. Workgroups without a chair. Working sign: each workgroup meets and reports against its timeline.

4.6 Vision statement

• Purpose / when: Phase 2, to anchor the board around shared aims for young people.
• Steps:
  1. Elicit hopes for local youth from board members.
  2. Draft a short positive statement.
  3. Get the board to adopt it.
  4. Use it in communications. [source: Tools 2002; CTC Implementation 2024] [synthesis: elicitation steps]
• Example language (illustrative): "Picture our kids at 25. What do we want to be true for them? Say it as something they have, not something they avoid."
• Watch for: Deficit wording ("drug-free" only). Working sign: board members can paraphrase the vision.

4.7 Workgroups, structure and meeting practice

• Purpose / when: From Phase 2 onward.
• Steps:
  1. Set up the workgroups the phases need. Named in the sources: Risk and Protective Factor (Assessment) workgroup, Resources Assessment and Evaluation workgroup, PR/communications workgroup, Funding workgroup, and others as needed.
  2. Give each a chair, a work plan and a timeline.
  3. In each workshop, agree ground rules such as being present, letting everyone speak, listening actively, speaking one at a time, respecting all ideas, and starting and ending on time. The facilitator helps the group monitor them.
  4. Close each session with a short feedback round. The Center's handouts use a "3-2-1" form covering things to act on, what worked, a suggested change and open questions. The older coordinator training also taught meeting, team-development and conflict-management tools. [source: CRAW S1 Handouts; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we start, which ground rules do we want tonight? I'll keep an eye on them, and anyone can call one."
• Watch for: One workgroup doing everything. Meetings without decisions. Working sign: minutes record decisions and owners.

4.8 Communication plan and youth-involvement plan

• Purpose / when: Phase 2, then ongoing.
• Steps:
  1. Write a communication plan covering audiences, messages, channels and who speaks for CTC.
  2. Write a youth-involvement plan covering the roles youth will hold.
  3. Define relationships with other coalitions. [source: Tools 2002] [synthesis: content of each plan]
• Example language (illustrative): "When the survey results come out, who tells the press, and what's our one sentence?"
• Watch for: Survey findings leaking before the board has seen them. Working sign: a named spokesperson and an agreed release sequence.

4.9 CTC Youth Survey administration

• Purpose / when: Plan it in Phase 1, field it before Phase 3, and repeat at least every two years.
• What it is: A school-based student survey of risk and protective factors and problem behaviours. Grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 per the 2011 brief, or grades 6–12 per the 2002 guide [uncertain which applies to CTC PLUS]. Bach-Harrison supplies paper or online forms plus analysis and reporting; per-form fees are listed on the 2024 implementation page. Local surveys can substitute only if they contain enough CTC risk and protective constructs. The instrument is licensed: do not reproduce its items. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; Hawkins et al. 2011; Tools 2002]
• Steps:
  1. Obtain the district agreement.
  2. Agree consent procedures and dates with schools.
  3. Order forms or online links.
  4. Brief the school staff who will administer it.
  5. Receive the report.
  6. Hold the results until the assessment workgroup and board have reviewed them. [synthesis: steps 2–6]
• Example language (illustrative): "The survey is anonymous. It gives us your school's pattern, not any individual child's answers."
• Watch for: Low participation rates, which bias the profile. Late survey dates that delay Phase 3. Results on depression and anxiety items that may need a mental-health response plan (see Section 5).

4.10 Community assessment and priority-factor selection (Phase 3)

• Purpose / when: To choose the risk and protective factors the plan will target.
• Format: Older series: one-day Community Assessment Training for the Risk and Protective Factor Assessment workgroup (about 5–15 people). [source: Blueprints CTC Training; EPIS CTC Trainings]
• Steps:
  1. Review survey and archival data on problem behaviours, risk factors and protective factors, and compare them with national norms and trends.
  2. Identify populations and areas with high risk and low protection.
  3. Select priority factors. The older output was 1–4 factors; the 2011 brief says 2–5. Use the 2023 risk-factor chart, which groups 20 risk factors under community, family, school and individual/peer domains and marks which of six outcomes each predicts (substance use, delinquency, teen pregnancy, dropout, violence, depression and anxiety).
  4. Write the Community Assessment Report, which also records baseline data.
  5. Plan how to communicate findings. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training; Risk Factors Chart 2023]
• Risk factors on the chart (paraphrased labels):
  • Community: drug availability, firearm availability, favourable community laws and norms, media portrayals, transitions and mobility, low neighbourhood attachment and community disorganisation, extreme economic deprivation.
  • Family: family history of the behaviour, family management problems, family conflict, favourable parental attitudes and involvement.
  • School: academic failure from late elementary school, low commitment to school.
  • Individual/peer: early and persistent antisocial behaviour, rebelliousness, gang involvement, friends who engage in the behaviour, favourable attitudes, early initiation, constitutional factors. [source: Risk Factors Chart 2023]
• Example language (illustrative): "Family conflict is elevated in every grade and predicts all six outcomes. Lack of commitment to school spikes in grade 8. Which of these can we realistically move in three years?"
• Watch for: Picking factors by agency interest rather than data. Choosing too many. Choosing factors no tested programme addresses. Working sign: each priority is backed by an elevated survey scale and the board endorses the report.

4.11 Community resources assessment and gaps analysis (Phase 3)

• Purpose / when: After the priorities are set, to find what already addresses them and where the gaps are.
• Format: CTC's Assessing Community Resources Workshop (handouts dated 2013–14) runs in three sessions with the resource assessment workgroup. The older series ran a one-day training for about 5–20 members. [source: CRAW S1 Handouts; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Steps:
  • Session 1:
    1. Review the priority factors received from the Risk and Protective Factor workgroup.
    2. Watch short videos on Phase 3, prevention science, the Social Development Strategy and tested-effective programmes, then take a short knowledge quiz.
    3. Build an agency master list.
    4. Search Blueprints for proven programmes that may already exist locally.
    5. Finalise a phone-survey script with the PR workgroup.
    6. Recruit and train callers, assign agencies, and set a completion date.
  • Between sessions: Phone agencies. Ask which of their programmes address the priority factors, and whether each uses a national curriculum or has an evaluation. Record each programme on an inventory sheet: factor targeted, programme, agency, contact details.
  • Session 2:
    1. Review the phone results.
    2. Flag Blueprints programmes already in the community, and other programmes that claim evidence.
    3. Choose which programmes to interview in person, and send interview teams.
  • Session 3:
    1. Complete the gaps analysis: compare the collated inventory against each priority factor and population.
    2. Finalise recommendations.
    3. Draft the Resource Assessment and Gaps Analysis Report, finalising it with the PR workgroup.
    4. Plan the board presentation. The results feed the Community Planning workshop. [source: CRAW S1 Handouts]
• Criteria for "tested and effective":
  • Evaluated in high-quality studies with a comparison or control group (randomised or quasi-experimental).
  • Positive effect on at least one youth health or behaviour outcome.
  • Clear about how the programme works and for whom.
  • Ready for dissemination, with training and materials available.
  • Blueprints rates programmes as Promising (at least one high-quality study, positive effects, no harmful effects) or Model (two or more high-quality studies, effects lasting at least a year after the programme ends). [source: CRAW S1 Handouts]
• Example language (illustrative, phone survey): "I'm calling for the county's Communities That Care board. We're mapping services that address family conflict and school commitment. Could you tell me which of your programmes do that, and whether they follow a published curriculum?"
• Watch for: Providers who feel judged. Keep the tone respectful and stress that the inventory is not an audit. Programmes counted twice. Working sign: every priority factor has either an existing tested programme or a named gap.

4.12 Writing desired outcomes (Phase 4)

• Purpose / when: At the start of action planning.
• Steps: Write measurable outcomes at three levels, each with a baseline, target, date and data source:
  1. Long-term goals for problem behaviours.
  2. Changes in priority risk and protective factors.
  3. The target population or area. Later, for each programme, also write programme outcomes (implementation) and participant outcomes (pre/post change in participants). [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training] [synthesis: the baseline/target/date/source format]
• Example language (illustrative): "By the 2028 survey, reduce the share of 8th-graders scoring high on family conflict from our baseline toward the state norm, measured by the CTC Youth Survey."
• Watch for: Outcomes the survey cannot measure. Unrealistic targets. Working sign: every outcome has an indicator already being collected.

4.13 Selecting tested-effective programmes and policies (Phase 4)

• Purpose / when: To fill the gaps found in 4.11.
• Format: Older series: the Community Planning Training (1.5–2 days) for the whole board. Some state partners now teach it as shorter planning and programme-selection sessions using a strategy grid. [source: Blueprints CTC Training; CPWI training plan 2024]
• Steps:
  1. For each priority factor and gap, list Blueprints (CTC PLUS) or Prevention Strategies Guide (older) options that match the age group and setting.
  2. Check fit, cost, training requirements and the capacity of local providers.
  3. Choose a small set to start with. An evaluation trial averaged about 2–3 programmes per community per year.
  4. Consider expanding existing proven programmes before adding new ones.
  5. For each choice, record participant and programme outcomes, tasks, timeline, budget, training needs, resources and funding source. [source: Tools 2002; CTC Implementation 2024; Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "Three programmes on the list target family management for 10–14-year-olds. Which one do our providers have capacity to deliver at the dose the developer requires?"
• Watch for: Choosing on familiarity. Under-budgeting developer training and fidelity monitoring. Working sign: each selected programme has a provider, a trained-staff plan and a funded budget line.

4.14 Writing and endorsing the Community Action Plan (Phase 4)

• Steps:
  1. Compile the outcomes, selected strategies, implementation details and evaluation plan, including annual data collection with the youth survey suggested.
  2. Get board approval, then key-leader endorsement.
  3. Distribute the plan.
  4. In the older series, also plan how to keep stakeholder support. [source: Tools 2002; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Watch for: A plan nobody with budget authority has signed. Working sign: formal endorsement minutes.

4.15 Collaborative agreements with providers (Phase 5)

• Purpose / when: Before programme launch, so delivery responsibilities are explicit.
• Steps:
  1. Define the roles of the Key Leader Board, the Community Board and other stakeholders.
  2. Sign agreements or memoranda with each implementing agency. Cover: the target population, required dose, developer training, fidelity monitoring, data sharing and reporting dates. [source: Tools 2002] [synthesis: agreement contents]
• Example language (illustrative): "The agreement just writes down what the developer's model requires and what data you'll send us each quarter, so nobody is surprised later."
• Watch for: Agencies agreeing to deliver but not to be observed. Working sign: signed agreements that include fidelity clauses.

4.16 Implementation with fidelity monitoring (Phase 5)

• Purpose / when: Throughout delivery of every selected programme.
• Format: The older series ran a Community Plan Implementation Training (two half-days) and a follow-up Implementation Training 2 (half to one day) for programme staff and board overseers. [source: Blueprints CTC Training]
• Steps:
  1. Ensure implementers are trained by the programme developer and funded.
  2. Ensure each programme reaches the intended population with sufficient timing, intensity and duration.
  3. Use programme-specific implementation checklists, completed by facilitators, to record which core components were delivered.
  4. Arrange independent observation of a sample of sessions.
  5. Track attendance as a measure of dosage.
  6. Administer participant pre- and post-surveys.
  7. Review the fidelity data with providers and correct drift. [source: Tools 2002; Hawkins et al. 2011] In the community trial, adherence to programme components averaged about 91–94% and dosage about 93–95%. Use these figures as a rough benchmark. [source: Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Example language (illustrative, to a provider): "The observer flagged that the role-play segment was skipped in three of five sessions. What got in the way: time, group size, or comfort with the exercise?"
• Watch for: Ad hoc adaptations that cut core components. Low recruitment. Observation framed as a punishment. Working sign: checklists returned on time, adherence stable, and participant outcomes moving in the expected direction.

4.17 Evaluation, reassessment and reporting (Phase 5, cyclical)

• Steps:
  1. Collect baseline, mid-point and post data for each programme.
  2. Review the action plan yearly.
  3. Re-survey and reassess risk and protection at least every two years. The board reviews new survey data and revises the plan, returning to Phases 3–4.
  4. Share results with the community at least once a year.
  5. Engage local media. [source: Tools 2002; Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Example language (illustrative): "The new survey shows family conflict down in grade 8 but not grade 10. Do we extend the parenting programme upward, or add a school-based option?"
• Watch for: Expecting population-level change within one cycle. Not reporting null results. Working sign: a yearly report that is publicly released and discussed by the board.

4.18 Social Development Strategy (SDS) and SDS workshop

• Purpose / when: The framework taught in board orientation and in the Year 2 SDS Workshop. Adults (parents, teachers, coaches, employers, neighbours, clinicians) apply it in everyday interactions with youth. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; Blueprints CTC Training]
• Components:
  • Opportunities: developmentally appropriate chances to take part actively and meaningfully with prosocial others.
  • Skills: teach the skills needed to succeed in those opportunities.
  • Recognition: consistent, specific acknowledgement of effort, improvement and achievement.
  • These build bonding: attachment to, and commitment towards, the people and groups who give the recognition.
  • Through bonding, youth adopt those people's healthy beliefs and clear standards.
  • Individual characteristics (e.g. positive social orientation, resilience, intelligence or sociability) shape how much youth benefit. The Center's parent materials illustrate recognition as praise in front of others, asking for the young person's input, showing interest, and giving constructive feedback. [source: CTC prevention-science page; CTC Australia SDS page; GGC Family Guide S1]
• Steps (applying it in a single interaction or programme review) [synthesis]:
  1. Name the standard you want the young person to adopt.
  2. Offer a real role or opportunity linked to it.
  3. Teach or rehearse the skill the role needs.
  4. Recognise effort and improvement specifically, close to when they happen.
  5. Repeat across settings to build bonding.
  6. State clear standards explicitly. For programme review: check whether each selected programme provides all five elements.
• Example language (illustrative, coaching a parent in a family session): "Your son wants to help with the cooking. That's the opportunity. Show him one dish step by step, which is the skill. Then tell him exactly what he did well, which is the recognition. That's how your 'we eat together, no phones' rule starts to become his rule too."
• Watch for: Recognition that is vague or only for outcomes. "Opportunities" that are chores without meaning. Standards stated but never modelled. Working sign: youth seek out the adult or group and begin to voice its standards.

4.19 Milestones and Benchmarks self-monitoring

• Purpose / when: Every phase. These checklists of milestones (major goals) and benchmarks (the actions that achieve them) track process fidelity to CTC.
• Steps:
  1. The coordinator records each benchmark as it is met, using the online tools under CTC PLUS.
  2. Review the record in coaching calls.
  3. Report progress to the board.
  4. Do not advance a phase with core milestones still open. In the community trial, communities enacted on average about 90% of key CTC features each year. [source: CTC Implementation 2024; Tools 2002 Appendix 1; Hawkins et al. 2011]
• Watch for: Ticking boxes without real board decisions. Working sign: benchmark dates match the minutes.

4.20 Coaching, peer network and technical assistance

• Purpose / when: Throughout Years 1–2 of CTC PLUS.
• Steps:
  1. Schedule coaching contacts (up to three a month).
  2. Bring your milestone status and the current blockers to each contact.
  3. Attend the monthly coordinator peer-network sessions.
  4. Use technical support for the web-assisted workshops. [source: CTC Implementation 2024]
• Example language (illustrative, to coach): "We're stuck at Milestone 3: two schools haven't returned survey dates. What have other coordinators done with a reluctant superintendent?"
• Watch for: Dropping coaching once things seem fine. Supports matched to those used in the randomised trial are the Center's stated rationale for this package. [source: CTC Implementation 2024]

4.21 Funding and sustainability planning (Phase 5)

• Steps:
  1. Form a funding workgroup.
  2. In the older series, attend the funding/sustainability workshop, which produced a plan to sustain both the programmes and the coalition.
  3. Map funding streams to each programme.
  4. Plan to replace short-term grants before they end.
  5. Keep key leaders informed using outcome data. [source: Blueprints CTC Training] [synthesis: steps 3–5]
• Watch for: All programmes riding on one grant. Working sign: a multi-year budget with at least two sources per programme.

4.22 Note on programmes delivered within CTC

CTC does not supply its own treatment. The Center distributes Guiding Good Choices (GGC), a parent programme built on the SDS. Its first family session includes writing positive wishes for one's child, an introduction to the SDS and risk factors, and weekly family meetings run with an agenda and agreed ground rules. GGC is a separate licensed programme, and any programme chosen from Blueprints carries its own developer training and certification requirements. [source: GGC Family Guide S1; CTC prevention-science page]

4.23 Clinical uses of CTC data and frameworks by a therapist [synthesis]

• Purpose: To use CTC products in individual and family work. This is not a CTC procedure.
• Uses:
  • Use the local risk/protective profile to anticipate pressures on adolescent clients, such as high drug availability or community norms that favour use.
  • Structure parent work around the SDS.
  • Refer families to Blueprints programmes funded under the local action plan.
  • Share aggregate service-gap observations with the resources workgroup, never identifiable client data.
• Example language (illustrative): "Our county's survey shows a lot of young people find alcohol easy to get. How does that match what you see with your friends?"

5. Handling problems

Responses marked [source: Tools 2002] are the readiness responses from Tools for Community Leaders. Everything else is [synthesis].

Readiness problems named in the source [source: Tools 2002]

• Stakeholders disagree on what the problem is. Delay the prevention planning, or deal with the urgent issue first, then return to CTC.
• Scepticism, or "prevention isn't my job". Build support across sectors before going further. Ask each sector what it stands to gain.
• "Get tough" thinking (pressure for sanctions only). Reframe towards the conditions that predict problems, and show the risk-factor data.
• Mistrust and turf wars between agencies. Build shared goals and trust, and put roles in memoranda of agreement.
• Separation along racial or ethnic lines. Engage each community through organisations it already trusts.
• Fear for the community's image. Present objective data that show strengths alongside problems.
• Bad experiences with past programmes. Stress that CTC is self-directed and owned by the community.
• Competing events (elections, a crisis in the news). Treat these as possible show-stoppers and consider delaying.
• Turnover of leaders and members. Use staggered terms, recruit regularly, and replace key leaders as positions change.

Process problems [synthesis]

• Stalled phase (the board meets but nothing moves).
  • Check which milestone is open and who owns it.
  • Break it into the next benchmark, with a date.
  • Take it to a coaching contact.
  • Ask the Champion to re-engage key leaders.
  • Example (illustrative): "We've discussed the gaps report three times. Can we decide tonight whether we accept it, and note any objections for the plan?"
• Low attendance or disengaged members.
  • Give each member a specific task in a workgroup.
  • Shorten meetings and make sure each one ends with a decision.
  • Rotate meeting times.
  • Recognise contributions publicly. This is the SDS applied to adults.
• Conflict on the board.
  • Go back to the agreed ground rules and the vision statement.
  • Separate data questions (what the survey shows) from value questions (what we prioritise).
  • Use structured decision methods such as rating factors on importance and changeability.
  • Escalate real turf issues to the Key Leader Board.
• School refuses or delays the survey.
  • Escalate through key leaders.
  • Offer the district its own data report.
  • Address consent and burden concerns.
  • As a fallback, use a local survey that contains CTC constructs, and log the gap in the profile. [source for fallback: CTC Implementation 2024]
• Pressure to fund a homegrown or favoured programme that isn't tested.
  • Keep it in the inventory.
  • Show the tested-effective criteria.
  • Offer evaluation support, or a pairing with a Blueprints programme.
  • Do not put it in the plan's core strategies.
• Fidelity drift or unapproved adaptation.
  • Review the checklist and observation data with the provider without blame.
  • Distinguish core components from surface adaptations, such as language or examples.
  • Contact the developer before changing dose or content.
  • Fund refresher training.
• Poor recruitment into programmes.
  • Map referral routes: schools, clinics, faith groups.
  • Reduce barriers: childcare, meals, transport, times.
  • Use trusted messengers.
  • Track reach against the target population named in the plan.
• Funding loss or coordinator burnout.
  • Hold multi-source budgets.
  • Document procedures so a successor can take over.
  • Protect the coordinator's time (at least 50%).
  • Ask the lead agency to keep CTC off clinical caseloads.
• Disappointing survey results after a cycle.
  • Check survey participation and dosage first.
  • Expect population-level change to take multiple cycles.
  • Revisit priorities, but don't abandon a strategy after a single wave.

Clinician-specific difficulties [synthesis]

• Dual roles. As both a treating clinician and a board member, never use identifiable client stories in coalition work without consent. Speak from aggregate service patterns instead.
• Treatment vs prevention tension. Colleagues may want CTC funds for treatment. Name the difference clearly (see 4.2) and advocate for treatment capacity through other channels.
• Survey results showing high depression and anxiety risk, or self-harm signals. The survey is anonymous, so no individual follow-up is possible. Make sure schools publicise crisis lines and referral routes when the survey is administered and when results are released. Brief school counsellors. Consider adding mental-health-relevant programmes to the plan. Any individual disclosure that reaches staff during administration triggers the school's standard risk-assessment and safeguarding procedure.
• Overwhelm in workgroups (data-heavy sessions). Pre-digest reports into one-page summaries. Teach a single scale at a time. Use the Center's short videos and knowledge checks. [source for videos: CRAW S1 Handouts]
• Cultural mismatch (e.g. Indigenous communities). Ensure community-held authority over priorities and partner with culturally grounded organisations. Treat CTC's tools as aids, not mandates.

Sources

Sources:

• CTC Implementation Details: Phases (Penn State EPIS copy)
• CTC 0006 Implementation, 9.2.2024 (Center for Communities That Care)
• CTC PLUS programme page
• CTC: Tools for Community Leaders, Hawkins & Catalano 2002 (EPIS copy)
• Prevention science / Social Development Strategy (Center for CTC)
• Assessing Community Resources Workshop, Session 1 Handouts (Center for CTC, 2013–14)
• Guiding Good Choices Family Guide, Session 1 (Center for CTC, 2020)
• CTC Training (Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development)
• CTC Trainings (Penn State EPIS)
• Mobilizing Communities to Implement Tested and Effective Programs: The CTC Approach (Hawkins, Catalano & Kuklinski, Child Trends 2011)
• Risk Factors Chart 2023 (Center for CTC)
• Social Development Strategy (Communities That Care Australia)
• CPWI Strategic Planning Training Plan, updated 9.17.24 (Athena Forum, Washington State)

Books and documents cited:

• Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2002). Communities That Care: Tools for Community Leaders: A Guidebook for Getting Started. Companion to Investing in Your Community's Youth: An Introduction to the Communities That Care System.
• Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Kuklinski, M. R. (2011). Mobilizing Communities to Implement Tested and Effective Programs to Help Youth Avoid Risky Behaviors. Child Trends Research Brief 2011-25.

Further reading (not drawn on) [uncertain]: the CTC PLUS web-assisted workshop facilitator guides; the Milestones and Benchmarks tool itself; the CTC Prevention Strategies Guide; the EPIS Community Planning Training page.