Rapid City is a Community that Cares
Communities that Care is a community-based prevention system proven to reduce youth health and behavior problems community-wide.
Our vision is to ensure Rapid City is a safe, healthy and culturally-responsive community by engaging and empowering all youth and families through advocacy, awareness, education and partnership.
Communities that Care uses the Social Development Strategy to foster the success and health of young people through every stage of development.
Providing young people with opportunities, skills and recognition strengthens bonds with family, school and community. Strong bonds motivate young people to adopt healthy standards for behavior.
Proven Results
Positive youth outcomes include:
- A greater percentage of students who graduated high school on time
- Better economic outcomes
- Better mental health in their 20s
- Significantly fewer sexually-transmitted diseases — especially among those at greatest risk
- Fewer teen pregnancies
CTC Is Proven Effective
Key Youth Outcomes
A randomized controlled trial of CTC in 24 communities showded that, by Grade 8, youth in CTC communities fared significantly better than youth from control communities:
%
less likely to start smoking cigarettes
%
less likely to start drinking alcohol
%
less likely to start engaging in delinquent behavior
%
less likely to drink alcohol currently
%
less likely to binge drink
%
fewer different delinquent acts in past year
5 Phases of Communities that Care
Phase 1 - Get Started
Communities get ready to introduce CTC
Using the online tools at communitiesthatcare.net and with coaching from a CTC specialist, you can create a small group to explore the advantages of CTC for your community and explore key leader interest. Key community leaders will attend an orientation provided by a CTC specialist in your community. Once key leaders have decided to use the Communities That Care system, your community will start the work of implementing CTC.
Phase 2 - Get Organized
Communities form a board or work within an existing coalition.
After recruiting community board members, they:
• Learn about prevention science
• Write a vision statement
• Organize workgroups
• Develop a timeline for installing CTC
Phase 3 - Develop a Community Profile
Communities assess community risks and strengths—and identify existing resources.
The community board and workgroups:
• Review data from the community’s youth survey
• Identify priority risk and protective factors that predict targeted health and behavior problems
• Assess community resources that address these factors
• Identify gaps to be filled in existing resources
Phase 4 - Create a Community Action Plan
The community board creates a plan for prevention work in their community, to:
• Reduce widespread risks and strengthen protection
• Define clear, measurable outcomes using assessment data
• Select and expand tested and effective policies and programs using the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development website
Phase 5 - Implement & Evaluate
In this final phase, communities:
• Implement selected programs and policies
• Monitor and evaluate them
• Measure results and track progress to ensure improvements are achieved
Communities that Care Guiding Principles
Local
A local collaborative makes decisions from local data to address priority needs.
Data-driven and outcome-focused
Community-specific data are used to meet goals, measure progress and adjust as needed.
Addresses Underlying Causes
Addresses risk and protective factors of youth health and behavior problems.
Proven Programs
Uses proven programs matched to local priorities selected from local data.
Cost-Effective
Our proven methods return $11.14 for each dollar invested.
Who is involved in Rapid City?
Rapid City has nearly 40 key leaders and nearly 30 community board members involved.
Key leader and community board members represent a variety of systems in the Rapid City community: business, nonprofits, education, legal, government, healthcare, philanthropy and many more!
How You Can Get Involved
There are many opportunities to get involved with CTC! Become a key leader or get on a workgroup.
There are 6 different workgroups that community members can become involved in:
Risk & Protective Factor Assessment Workgroup
Resources Assessment & Evaluation Workgroup
Community Outreach and Public Relations Workgroup
Funding Workgroup
Community Board Maintenance Workgroup
Youth Involvement Workgroup
Get in Touch. Get Involved.
Become a part of building our Rapid City community with Communities That Care.