What is Communities That Care?

Communities That Care (CTC) is an internationally accepted approach to help communities develop an action plan to prevent juvenile delinquency and substance abuse, and to promote healthy youth behaviors. Ours is a pro-active, positive approach!

CTC is a process, not a program.  Our goal is to identify the needs in our community and develop ways to address those needs.  In order to accomplish this goal, we follow the CTC Process and the Strategic Prevention Framework, which involve assessing our community’s risk factors, conditions that increase the likelihood of a young person becoming involved in unhealthy behaviors, and protective factors, conditions that buffer youth from exposure to risk.

After the risk and protective factors have been identified, we work to develop a strategic plan that involves the entire community in our prevention work.  CTC’s Prevention Board recently completed our latest strategic plan based on information from the PA Youth Survey, which was given to MCSD 8th, 10th and 12th grade students in October 2005.

CTC believes that all youth have individual characteristics and strengths that help make them who they are and that can help them become healthy, successful adults.  CTC also believes in the Social Development Strategy to Promote Positive Youth Development, and we recognize the importance of nurturing our youth and bonding with them.  If we work together to protect our youth and show them that they are valued for who they are, we will empower our youth and they may be more likely to choose healthy behaviors.