Building organizational capacity for prevention

When I think of capacity building, I think of resources: number of staff, funding, office space, printed materials, etc. When I read the March 2012 Technical Assistance Memo from the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, I started to reframe my thinking about “capacity” not as physical stuff we need to provide prevention education to the community but as a systems change within our agency.

“Embracing Prevention as Social Change” defines organizational capacity for primary prevention as “the agency’s ability to support and implement domestic and sexual violence prevention efforts”. When the agency fully embraces primary prevention, the work becomes part of the organizational culture, existing in all departments, volunteers, board members, and administrators.

What is the benefit of creating an organizational culture that supports primary prevention? “Primary prevention work can be an energizing social change endeavor that rekindles a spark of hope in the movement to end domestic and sexual violence. By incorporating prevention into all aspects of an organization’s work, the daunting task of changing the world will become more realistic and attainable”.

Read the full text of the article here: Embracing Prevention as Social Change- How to Build Organizational Capacity for Prevention