Community-Based Collaboration: An Overarching Best Practice in Prevention

Several groups of prevention scholars and practitioners have recently worked independently and simultaneously to identify and disseminate guidelines for effective prevention and health promotion, reaching remarkably similar conclusions. The authors argue that community-based collaboration is an overarching best practice in prevention because it is crucial for achieving the characteristics identified as distinguishing effective prevention. This article reviews the elements that scholars have agreed are necessary for effective prevention and summarizes the ways in which community-based collaborations contribute to each.