Advancing Primary Prevention in Human Services: Convening Findings
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Key Findings
- Incorporating primary prevention into human services delivery can foster equity and justice by addressing the deeper systemic issues, such as poverty, that lead to adverse experiences.
- We need a national framework for delivering family supports and prevention services that fosters equity and elevates lived expertise.
- To create that framework, it is essential to use a human-centered approach to service design by co-creating with the individuals and communities served; integrate services across program areas and sectors; build a primary prevention workforce that adopts a person-first approach to service delivery; and improve accessibility and effectiveness by engaging those with lived expertise to identify and address barriers and assess success.
- To facilitate adopting and implementing a framework, we can leverage evidence of effectiveness of prevention strategies to build political will; engage communities in increasing the importance of primary prevention; finance services in a way that provides flexibility across funding sources; and supports an integrated service delivery system and community-based service providers.
In August 2022 the Department of Health and Human Services held a convening focused on primary prevention. Discussion highlighted the opportunity for human services to strengthen and support people and families with a shift from responding to families once they are in crisis to preventing the crisis before it occurs. This shift would center on building a national framework for delivering family supports and prevention services that prioritizes equity, elevates lived expertise, and fully incorporates a human-centered, person-first approach.
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