The Evidence-Based Strategies (EBS) Matrix has been developed in partnership with Kansas Substance Abuse Prevention Coalitions, the Kansas Prevention Collaborative, and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.
Created on 11/9/2018 by DCCCA; Revised by the EBSW in July, 2019, Revised January, 2026
The Evidence-Based Strategies Matrix has been developed by the DCCCA and Kansas Evidence-Based Strategies Workgroup (EBSW). The matrix is offered to the public with community coalitions in mind as a tool to support planning for effective and comprehensive prevention efforts. This matrix offers examples of primary evidence-based environmental strategies and curriculum-based prevention education programs. The matrix does not encompass every evidence-based prevention strategy available to communities. Stakeholders may research and select other strategies that align better with identified risk and protective factors. It is important to select strategies that have an appropriate fit and approval from designated funding sources. If you have questions about strategies that will be approved for implementation, please contact the appropriate funder for your initiative.
Evidence-based prevention strategies (programs, practices, and policies) are validated by documented evidence of effectiveness. The KPC’s EBS Matrix used SAMHSA’s “Selecting Best-fit Programs and Practices: Guidance for Substance Misuse Prevention Practitioners” as a guide (https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/selecting-best-fit-programs-pep19-02.pdf).
Evidence of Effectiveness
The KPC’s EBS Matrix uses SAMHSA’s SPF Application for Prevention Success Training (SAPST) materials for guidance. As such, “evidence of effectiveness refers to whether an intervention has previously been found to be effective (i.e., it was evaluated and found to be effective under a particular set of circumstances).”
When selecting strategies, SAMHSA recommends considering the strength of the evidence of effectiveness and intervention effectiveness produced by evaluation studies, and the effectiveness continuum includes the following categories:
When selecting strategies, it is recommended to work with an evaluator or another expert. Reliable information can be found in the following general formats:
Examples of federal registries and searchable online databases include the following:
Examples of peer-reviewed journals include American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Addiction Studies, Annual Review of Public Health, Journal on Studies of Alcohol, Preventive Medicine, Journal of School Health, Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of the American Medical Association, Public Health and Research
Meeting criteria for “evidence-based” does not guarantee effectiveness in all communities. Communities are also expected to select strategies that meet their unique assessed needs, capacity (readiness and resources), community fit, feasibility, cultural fit, and sustainability.
Selecting Best Fit Prevention Interventions. The graphic below provides a visual summary of the process coalitions are recommended to complete, from demonstrating conceptual fit to practical fit and then to evidence of effectiveness, before selecting the strategy of best fit for each community.
The KPC recommends communities develop comprehensive prevention plans by using the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) as guidance, including all components of this effective process. The SPF includes the overarching factors of Cultural Competence and Sustainability, to be considered within each step and the five steps of the SPF: Assessment, Capacity, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Strategies should be selected and implemented based on community-level needs assessment data and the development of a logic model and action plans.
Category of Type of Strategies
Type Description
CADCA Strategies for Community-Level Change
Educational presentations, workshops or seminars or other presentations of data (e.g., public announcements, brochures, dissemination, billboards, community meetings, forums, web-based communication).
Workshops, seminars or other activities designed to increase the skills of participants, members and staff needed to achieve population level outcomes (e.g., training, technical assistance, distance learning, strategic planning retreats, curricula development).
Creating opportunities to support people to participate in activities that reduce risk or enhance protection (e.g., providing alternative activities, mentoring, referrals, support groups or clubs).
Improving systems and processes to increase the ease, ability and opportunity to utilize those systems and services (e.g., assuring healthcare, childcare, transportation, housing, justice, education, safety, special needs, cultural and language sensitivity).
– Increasing or decreasing the probability of a specific behavior that reduces risk or enhances protection by altering the consequences for performing that behavior (e.g., increasing public recognition for deserved behavior, individual and business rewards, taxes, citations, fines, revocations/loss of privileges).
Changing the physical design or structure of the environment to reduce risk or enhance protection (e.g., parks, landscapes, signage, lighting, outlet density).
Formal change in written procedures, by-laws, proclamations, rules or laws with written documentation and/or voting procedures (e.g., workplace initiatives, law enforcement procedures and practices, public policy actions, systems change within government, communities and organizations).
SAMHSA Prevention Strategy
This strategy provides awareness and knowledge of the nature and extent of alcohol, tobacco and drug use, abuse and addiction and their effects on individuals, families and communities. It also provides knowledge and awareness of available prevention programs and services. Information dissemination is characterized by one-way communication from the source to the audience, with limited contact between the two.
This strategy involves two-way communication and is distinguished from the Information Dissemination strategy by the fact that interaction between the educator/facilitator and the participants is the basis of its activities. Activities under this strategy aim to affect critical life and social skills, including decision-making, refusal skills, critical analysis (e.g., of media messages) and systematic judgment abilities.
This strategy provides for the participation of target populations in activities that exclude alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. The assumption is that constructive and healthy activities offset the attraction to, or otherwise meet the needs usually filled by alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and would, therefore, minimize or obviate resort to the latter.
This strategy establishes, or changes written and unwritten community standards, codes and attitudes, thereby influencing incidence and prevalence of the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs used in the general population. This strategy is divided into two subcategories to permit distinction between activities which center on legal and regulatory initiatives and those that relate to the service and action-oriented initiatives.
This strategy aims to enhance the ability of the community to more effectively provide prevention and treatment services for alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse disorders. Activities in this strategy include organizing, planning, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of services implementation, interagency collaboration, coalition building and networking.
This strategy aims at identification of those who have indulged in illegal/ageinappropriate use of tobacco or alcohol and those individuals who have indulged in the first use of illicit drugs in order to assess if their behavior can be reversed through education. It should be noted, however, that this strategy does not include any activity designed to determine if a person is in need of treatment.