The Cambridge Prevention Coalition is an innovative community-based coalition linking substance abuse prevention to a range of health promotion initiatives.

The Coalition has been awarded grants from both the Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Services “Universal and Selective Prevention Programs to Reduce AOD (alcohol and other drugs) Uses in the Community with a Particular Focus on Under Age Drinking”, and the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention’s “Drug Free Communities Support Program”. The Coalition is using these resources to implement CMCA, (Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol) a program using a collaborative community-based implementation approach toward community change.  This model consists of a comprehensive array of community-organizing substance abuse prevention activities with a particular focus on underage drinking. Activities involve youth, community residents, local businesses, law enforcement, the licensing commission, schools, media and others. The “Cambridge Community Mobilizing for Change Around Alcohol” program will also include a variety of environmental strategies aimed at reducing underage drinking focusing on issues of access, social norms, and regulations. 

Over the past few years, the Coalition has also developed responsible beverage service training for servers and sellers of alcohol.  Owners and managers are included in the training, which provides information on the public health justifications for alcohol laws and ordinances and the important role servers play in protecting public health.  In addition to including information on the local and state laws and regulations regarding alcohol sales, the training also includes a strong skill-building component to enable servers to practice the techniques presented in the training.   The training also shows owners, managers and servers methods on how to maintain and increase sales without promoting alcohol abuse.

Throughout its 13-year existence, the members of the Coalition have collaborated to produce a community forum on the results of the biannual middle school and high school health surveys for key decision-makers in the community. Each of these forums has focused on a different aspect of substance abuse and its impact in the community.

In the last five years, Coalition staff has presented papers on its prevention efforts at least once each year at national conferences such as the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting, and the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care Convention. The Coalition has also presented numerous papers on its prevention efforts at state and local conferences.