Evolution of a Substance Abuse Prevention Program with Inner City African-American Families

SUMMARY Substance abuse prevention programs successfully implemented and shown to be effective through rigorous evaluation must be able to respond to participant needs and changing environments in order to sustain themselves. The Safe Haven Program for the Prevention of Substance Abuse, a family skills training program for African-American families, is presented as an example of a substance abuse prevention program which evolved over time while the goals of the program remained stable. The author presents the program in a series of evolutionary stages: Program Implementation; Process/Outcome Evaluation; Environmental Impacts; Cultural Specificity Evaluation; Cross-site Evaluation; and Future Development. The author emphasizes the need to respond to participant needs and changing environments to enhance sustainability and calls for flexible evaluation components to accommodate the dynamic nature of substance abuse prevention programs.