Prevention Centers of Excellence

The State of Maine Office of Substance Abuse provided funding to two Regional Prevention Centers of Excellence. One Center was located at the University of Maine in Orono which primarily covered the northern half of Maine in providing assistance and resources to communities. The second Center, University of Southern Maine, Muskie Center located in Portland and Augusta. USM primarily covered the southern half of Maine. The following bullets detail the functions of both centers as well as highlights specific specialties of each.

Past Functions of both centers:

Provide technical assistance and facilitation/support for coalitions/agencies/ schools on a regional basis.
Assist with needs assessment and the development of prevention plans in underserved areas within each region.
Work toward developing a self-sustaining and diversified funding base for the centers.
Design, propose, and conduct academic research on substance abuse, prevention, and other inter-related issues.

In addition to the functions above, each center also has a unique “specialty”:

University of Maine:

Conduct GIS mapping. To help in identifying infrastructure components already developed as well as possible gaps, and to help local and county partners strengthen their capacity to communicate effectively with their various stakeholders. This could include development of documents, and other resources to assist those working in community prevention to use data effectively, to publicize their efforts, to frame issues, and to advocate more effectively for the priority issues they are working on.

For more information https://www.ccids.umaine.edu/projects/prevctr/

University of Southern Maine:

Develop a cross-disciplinary prevention workforce development system within the university system. This system would strengthen the substance abuse prevention workforce by establishing a system for those in the field to develop core competencies for prevention in general as well as specific skills/knowledge in particular categorical areas of prevention. In addition, this work should include development of a plan and curriculum to improve prevention-related and substance abuse-related education within the pre-service education and professional development of professionals in other relevant fields, such as teachers, counselors, social workers, primary health care providers, first responders, law enforcement, etc. They will develop a cross-disciplinary training curriculum (on child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and substance abuse) proposed by the combined state-plan workgroup representing these four fields.

For more information https://muskie.usm.maine.edu/helpkids/workforce.htm

SPF-SIG INFORMATION

Prevention Centers of Excellence