Though the sky was growing dark outside, Luis Cabrera had lost track of time. He had been working since noon to complete his U.S. Department of Education end-of-the-year grant report, but he was finding the task more difficult than expected. The problem was not a lack of material to write about -- to the contrary, his two years as a drug prevention and school safety coordinator at Taft Middle School had been busy ones.

Taft was an inner-city school with a diverse student population and many problems. Luis and his Prevention Planning Team had worked hard to identify these problems and find ways to address them. But writing his report had forced him to confront the inevitable: With only one year left on their grant, all that the school had accomplished might disappear.

Sustainability: Overarching Goal, Ongoing Effort

"How can I make this last?" he asked his friend Alex, a Prevention Planning Team member, when Alex stopped by to see if Luis wanted to grab a bite to eat. Alex sensed Luis' frustration and sat down. "Are you worried about losing your job," he asked, "or about how to keep our prevention activities going past next year?"

"Well, both -- and more," Luis said, "because the activities we've put in place so far are really just the beginning." Seeing that Alex was confused, Luis continued: "My understanding of sustainability is that it refers to the continuation of more than just jobs or programs and services. It's about moving the different pieces of our prevention initiative from the realm of 'add on' to the realm of regular school and community 'practices.' It's about integrating what might now be a 'program' into the ongoing efforts of our school."

"However, " he stopped for a minute to collect his thoughts, "our programs, as we know them now, may very well need to be adapted in order to become an integral part of Taft's operations. So we probably need to make a distinction between sustaining our current program activities for the short term -- so that we can implement and evaluate them fully and see how they need to be adapted -- and the long-term sustainability of these activities in their ultimate forms. Does that make any sense?"

"I think I know what you mean," answered Alex, "but isn't that an awfully tall order to fill? It has been hard enough getting our prevention activities up and running . . . I can hardly imagine having to continue with their implementation and their evaluation and work on sustaining them at the same time!"

"Now you know why I'm feeling so stressed!" Luis said. "But the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe we're not in such bad shape after all. Look at it this way: we've already taken a lot of important steps toward sustaining this initiative. Think about our prevention planning process, for example. The relationships we established and the support we built during that process will go far in helping us sustain our initiative. Maybe we should start by taking stock of everything that we've accomplished so far that might support our sustainability efforts. Then we can make some concrete plans for what still needs to be done."

"Fine," agreed Alex, "but after we go to dinner. I'm starving!"

Support for Prevention = Support for Sustainability

The next morning, Luis and Alex met to continue their discussion. During the night, Luis had considered all that he had learned about sustainability from the prevention literature, his colleagues, and his 10 years of experience working in schools and community agencies.

"The more I think about it," Luis declared, "the more I realize how important strong institutional and community support are -- not only for getting programs up and running, but also for keeping them going. And we've done a great job of building support for Taft's prevention initiative. Just think of all we've done!"

The two friends brainstormed a list of the ways they had built support, which Luis jotted down. During the past two years, they had:

• Involved key school and community stakeholders in all aspects of the planning and decision-making process

• Designed a comprehensive prevention plan that responded to identified student needs

• Coordinated prevention efforts with existing services and school improvement plans

• Worked toward integrating selected prevention strategies and programs into normal school operations

• Provided training and ongoing assistance to faculty and staff involved in the implementation of selected prevention strategies and programs

• Communicated progress and lessons learned to school and community partners who were not directly involved in the initiative

As they reflected on their list, they laughed about all the times they had considered "just doing it themselves". They were very grateful now that they had made the extra effort to include school and community partners at every turn. "We've built a solid foundation," Alex commented.

"Now we can think about how to move forward," Luis agreed. "It would be a shame if we had to stop now. Good thing we have our next Prevention Planning Team meeting on Thursday!"

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Please think about the question below, and post your answer, comments, or questions in the Discussion Area.

1. What initial steps have you taken to sustain your prevention initiative?