Prevention Works
An Ounce of Prevention…
The Vermont Children's Trust Fund makes grants to Vermont organizations that provide prevention programming for children and their families. These programs are aimed at children before they need to become involved with any interventions such as counseling, police action or remedial help.
Why do we think that this is the best way to help children? Prevention is:
- humane: we are stopping problems that can cause heartache and strife before they happen
- cost effective: a Headstart study showed that intervention and treatment programs are at least three times more expensive than prevention programs, while a Michigan State University study showed a 19:1 cost advantage to prevention.
- life changing: prevention programs provide skills that people will use their entire lives, such as making appropriate decisions, communicating well, and caring for others
- society-saving: the impact of these programs will last throughout the participant's lifetime, thus helping them to be strong, contributing members of our world.
The State of Vermont recognized the importance of prevention in 1983 when the legislature mandated that a prevention plan be developed for every state department, making "prevention the strategy of first choice" in all work done by state agencies. The Primary Prevention Plan helps state agencies to partner with communities to improve the well-being of Vermonters.
Someone recently said that the concept of prevention needs to be shouted out. It is something that we know is important, but that often is overlooked as pressing problems that have moved past the prevention stage take our attention in our families or communities. Let's work together to shout the message that prevention works!