Prevention Resource Center (PRC)

Broad based participation for positive action…
schools, neighborhoods, and communities working together to build brighter futures across the life span

Researching, planning, and mobilizing community action to prevent alcohol and other drug abuse and reinforce positive lifestyle choices

PRC Brochure

New! Videos:

Teens – see video on underage drinking: Underage Drinking: A Message for Teens

Parents – important video about underage drinking: Underage Drinking: A Message for Parents

See video on “Oklahoma’s Promise” to our youth: Oklahoma's Promise

Click here for important video on Diabetes: Paseo de Salud...disabetes prevention for Hispanics

The PRC Strategy

The PRC provides effective leadership for organizing grassroots community coalitions—parents, educators, youth, law enforcement officials, elected city leaders, health care providers, neighborhood activists, state legislators, and more—working together for the safety, health, and overall well being of youth and their families.

First in East Tulsa and now also in other Tulsa neighborhoods/areas, the PRC strategy works quietly behind-the-scenes to create conditions for healthy active communities.

Prevention of What? How?

"Prevention of what?" Gangs. Underage drinking. Delinquency. Drop-outs. Smoking. Teen suicide. Drug abuse. Crime. Intolerance. Unemployment. Language barriers. Obesity & diabetes. Poverty. Peer pressure. Prejudice. Illiteracy. Isolation.

Common risk factors exist for many substance abuse, health, and mental health problems. For example, easy access to tobacco and alcohol, and community norms that are benign toward underage use, increase the risk for adolescent substance abuse and delinquency. Risk factors exist in the individual, the family, and the broader community environment.

Good prevention focuses on building and enhancing protective factors that reduce or prevent the level of risk. For example, leadership skills, pro-social involvement, school success, effective parenting, employment, and involvement in community activities can foster resilience and lessen/diffuse the influence of risk factors.

Research shows that the most effective prevention strategy is comprehensive, integrated into community and family life, and engages critical roles throughout a defined neighborhood or other area…the PRC approach.

The PRC Strategy’s Key Resource: Community Involvement

PRC sponsors the East Tulsa Prevention Coalition (ETPC), a vibrant and active force for neighborhood and community change for the past eight years. With more than two hundred members, ETPC has a long record of success in advancing conditions and opportunities critical to reducing youth substance abuse and violence in a defined area in the far eastern part of the city. Its membership includes youth, parents, educators, law enforcement, social service agencies, faith-based organizations, businesses, and apartment communities.

The ETPC sponsors innovative community-based programs; promotes zero tolerance for underage drinking; advocates for needed policy changes; and trains and engages over fifty East Central High School youth each year for positive involvement, leadership, advocacy, and service.

The PRC Strategy Making a Difference: a Closer Look at a few Examples

Promoting Problem Solving and Citizenship Skills among Area Youth…

• PRC’s award-winning Teens in Action engages area high school students in school and neighborhood leadership and service activities

• PRC staff regularly present substance abuse and violence prevention programs and community mobilization trainings to assist youth and parents in becoming community leaders

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles…

• The PRC’s Paseo de Salud program helps to prevent diabetes among Hispanic immigrant women (twice as likely to develop diabetes as non-Hispanic white women) by participation in neighborhood-based fitness activities, health screenings and events

Preventing Gang Violence…

• The PRC serves as Tulsa’s model in gang work; the Tulsa Youth Intervention Project (TYIP) represents the national best practice model of comprehensive gang prevention and intervention

• PRC worked with the Mayor’s Office and U.S. Attorney to present a major community Gang Summit in Tulsa in September 2006, resulting in recommendations and broad-based support

• Building on its successes in East Tulsa, PRC is now working to strengthen the North Tulsa Community Coalition, sponsoring Project Impact and Life Network to reach youth who are at high risk

Assisting Transition of East Tulsa’s Growing Hispanic Population…APRC Provides:

• Cultural competency training for Union Public Schools

• Spanish language resource guides: Community Health & Social Services (Blue Book), Free Clinics, Walking Trails, School Policy & Procedures

• Home Ownership/Financial Literacy Workshops in Spanish

• College recruitment (OHLAP) outreach to immigrant families

• Spanish language Town Hall on alcohol prevention

"The PRC’s approach to prevention surrounds communities with the tools to empower citizens to make positive changes in their lives and neighborhoods."

"PRC fosters an atmosphere of inclusion and an appreciation of cultural diversity."

"Gone are the days of trying to reach one youth at a time. I believe the good grassroots efforts of the PRC are so effective because we focus on alcohol and drug prevention activities by including the entire community."

Prevention Resource Center Staff (left to right):

Corince Wilson, Martin Ramos, Cindie Lamon, Dolores Verbonitz,
Jordan Westbrook, Alice Blue, Ivette Chavez

For more information, please contact Alice Blue at the Community Service Council - ablue@csctulsa.org - 585-5551