Applying prevention science to policy and practice around the world
Announcements and More...
APRIL IS ALCOHOL AWARENESS MONTH
Every April, Alcohol Awareness Month opens a conversation that prevention professionals know well but that the broader public often underestimates. Our colleagues at the PTTC Network have published a timely reflection on what this month means for communities and prevention systems. We want to amplify it from APSI's perspective, because it speaks directly to the work we support across Europe and the US.
Alcohol is legal. It is woven into celebrations, stress relief, social connection, and identity. That normalization is precisely what makes it challenging: alcohol-related risk often lives just below the threshold of collective concern. We don't always name it as clearly as we might other behaviors. We don't always see how quietly problem patterns can take hold. And yet the evidence is consistent. Research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) shows that early alcohol use is associated with increased risk of substance use disorders later in life, alongside impacts on brain development and decision-making. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) links excessive alcohol use to chronic disease, injury, and mental health challenges across the lifespan.This is not a peripheral issue. It is primary prevention at its core.
From the international frameworks that guide our work such as the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS), the UNOD/WHO International Standards, or SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework, alcohol prevention sits at the center of any quality prevention system. Not because alcohol automatically leads to other substance use, but because effective interventions here create ripple effects: on other substances, on mental health outcomes, on risk-taking behaviors, and on the development of healthy coping skills across a lifetime. At APSI, this is not an abstract reflection. It is foundational to the training we deliver to strengthen the prevention workforce and to the technical assistance we provide to public institutions and prevention professionals.
This April, we invite you to sit with a few questions: What messages are we sending about alcohol, consciously or not? What environments are we building? What tools do prevention professionals have to act with rigor and evidence? Prevention doesn't start with the hardest substances.
It starts with the first ones.
About APSI
"Prevention science has identified the most effective strategies for helping children, youth and adults make positive connections and engagement with their families, schools, workplace and community. We are working to bring these evidence-based prevention interventions and policies to communities both in the US and across the world. "
​
Zili Sloboda
CEO and President
This Prevention Nugget explores what the Decade of the Child means for prevention professionals. It examines the gap between what science tells us children need and what systems currently deliver, highlights evidence-based and fidelity-driven approaches, and invites practitioners to reflect on system alignment, workforce capacity, and next steps to strengthen children’s health and wellbeing.
Let's talk about Prevention
Foundational Resources for Prevention Knowledge
Our Community
Organizations, friends and colleagues that work tirelessly to promote and support the implementation of evidence based prevention interventions and the professionalization of the prevention field around the world
Our Scientific Advisors Say...
“Which prevention programs and policies are truly worthy of being considered “evidence-based”? I’ve been thinking about the answer to this challenging question for decades. The difference between what can – and what should not – be called “evidence-based” is often critical, if we are to avoid wasting the limited available resources we can expend on prevention. But that difference is often difficult to discern, and as evidence accumulates over time the status of a given program and policy may well change. Sifting through the evidence on a continuing basis, and making recommendations as to what should and should not be implemented, is the job of the entire community involved in the application of prevention science.”
​
Chris Ringwalt, DrPH