EDC Launches Prevention Solutions@EDC

WALTHAM, MASS | Building on its 30 years of experience providing training and support to behavioral health specialists across the country, Education Development Center (EDC) is launching Prevention Solutions@EDC. This new initiative will offer training and consultation services for public health agencies and other organizations tasked with preventing substance misuse among a variety of audiences. Prevention Solutions@EDC will be formally introduced to prevention colleagues during the National Prevention Network conference on August 29 in Boston, Mass.

Prevention Solutions@EDC is committed to continuing and strengthening prevention efforts at the national, regional, state, tribal, territorial, and local levels and to building the nation’s prevention workforce. It will offer state-of-the-science trainings to help prevention leaders and practitioners develop the skills and resources they need to plan, implement, and evaluate prevention systems and programs to ensure they are both effective and sustainable.

For nearly two decades, EDC has operated the Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT), a national training center funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Through the CAPT and beyond, EDC has served as a trusted partner of health departments across the country.

“At EDC, we understand the critical role that prevention practitioners play in addressing our nation’s most pressing public health challenges,” said EDC’s Carol Oliver, who will direct Prevention Solutions@EDC. “We also know firsthand what it takes to prepare the prevention workforce to do this important work. We look forward to helping our nation’s public health practitioners and advocates build a prevention workforce empowered to make a difference.”

Trainings offered by Prevention Solutions@EDC will include the highly regarded Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST), which EDC has already provided to 2,500 participants nationwide. The SAPST prepares practitioners new to the field of prevention with a blueprint for implementing effective, data-driven programs and practices. Other available trainings will include:

• Addressing Opioid Overdose: Understanding the Role of Prevention, which provides an introduction to overdose prevention
• Ethics in Prevention, which explores the six principles of the Prevention Code of Ethics, illustrated with realistic examples
• Increasing Cultural Competence to Address Health Disparities, which explores the connections between behavioral health disparities, cultural competence, and substance misuse prevention

Prevention Solutions@EDC also offers courses that focus on collaboration among care-providing systems, substance misuse across the continuum of care, and how to sustain prevention programming once it has begun. To schedule a customized consultation with Prevention Solutions@EDC, visit preventionsolutions.edc.org or contact Carol Oliver.

Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, we have been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world.