Comprehensive School-Based Prevention: Lessons Learned from DELTA FOCUS

Comprehensive prevention strategies – targeting multiple risk and protective factors and multiple layers of the social ecology – are effective at preventing violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and teen dating violence (TDV). Schools are natural places to implement such strategies since youth spend so much time in that setting. Furthermore, comprehensive, multi-level strategies may provide a greater opportunity to reach the entire school community and address the social and structural conditions contributing to violence related inequities among certain groups. However, several important factors – including the school’s readiness to participate, strategies to encourage engagement and sustainability, and how the approaches can support and add value to the school’s needs and priorities – must be considered before and during implementation.

The prevention approaches highlighted in this story provide examples of school-based prevention efforts that include multiple approaches to more comprehensively address risk and protective factors for dating violence among all youth in a school setting. In this story, three community coalitions in Idaho, Indiana, and North Carolina sought to create protective, positive school environments by implementing comprehensive school-based prevention related to safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments, gender equitable policies and programs, and school climate norms and beliefs.