Meeting Communities Where They Are: Aligning Prevention Strategies with Readiness
- salusconsultingllc6
- Nov 3, 2025
- 3 min read
When I was a nurse, I learned an essential lesson: interventions only work when they match a person’s readiness for change. This reality is understood using the behavior change model – “Stages of Change Model” or “Transtheoretical Model (TTM) – and it applies just as much to communities as it does to individuals.
Most people can’t recall the model’s name, but they are very familiar with the stages:
1. Precontemplation
2. Contemplation
3. Preparation
4. Action
5. Maintenance
Example: If a patient doesn’t recognize that their lack of exercise contributes to low energy or pain, they won’t be eager to start an exercise regimen. In the pre-contemplation stage, the goal is to raise awareness (that moving one’s body throughout the day will increase energy and flexibility and decrease lethargy, pain, and stiffness) and not to push for behavioral change (increased exercise).
Applying the Concept to Communities
Communities, made up of a bunch of people, have a similar concept for stages of change. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a public health agency, nonprofit, or fatality review to design a strategy that is not aligned with the community’s level of readiness or stage of change too soon.
Thankfully, there is a tool communities can use to assess the community’s stage of change or readiness – the Community Readiness Model (CRM).
The Problem with Misaligned Interventions
Public health and prevention professionals are often eager to improve community outcomes. They hear about a strategy used in another community or attend a webinar about an evidence-based approach, and rush to implement it – without first assessing whether their community is ready. This often ends up with the intervention not resulting in the outcome expected. It also results in a waste of money, time, and resources; it can damage the community’s trust in the organization and the organization’s credibility; and it delays effective prevention and more lives lost.
The Solution: The Community Readiness Model (CRM)
The CRM, developed by the Tri-Ethnic Center at Colorado State University, recognizes that effective strategies must match the community’s level of readiness as well as be culturally appropriate, realistically implementable to be accepted and sustained.
How the CRM Works: Six Key Dimensions
The CRM assesses a community’s preparedness across six key dimensions:
Community Efforts – Existing efforts, programs, and policies
Community Knowledge of Efforts – Awareness of those programs and their effectiveness
Leadership – Engagement and support from formal and informal leaders
Community Climate – Attitudes toward suicide and prevention efforts
Community Knowledge of the Issue – Understanding of suicide and its contributing factors
Resources – Availability of time, money, people, space, etc.
Each of these dimensions is rated on a nine-stage continuum, from “No Awareness” to “High Level of Community Ownership,” resulting in a readiness assessment that can guide the scope and style of strategies to implement.
The CRM Nine Stages:
No awareness
Denial or resistance
Vague awareness
Preplanning
Preparation
Initiation
Stabilization
Expansion or confirmation
Community ownership
Communities can be defined as a geopolitical community (e.g., city, county, tribe), population (e.g., racial), cohort (e.g., elderly/older adult) or sector (pharmacies or educators). I have been trained in using the CRM model and have implemented in a variety of communities over the years: American Indian tribal community, Laotian immigrant community, urban Black young adult male community, older adult population, school district, and local rural communities. I have supervised over half a dozen students (public health and social work) in using the CRM model as their masters’ project or capstone.
How Salus Consulting Can Help
Ready to make sure your prevention strategies truly meet your community where it is? Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with Melissa Heinen to explore how the Community Readiness Model can strengthen your next project or funding proposal.
References and Resources
References and Resources
(1) Stages of Change TheoryNahrain Raihan; Mark Cogburn, National Library of MedicineStages of Change Theory - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
(2) Community Readiness for Community Change Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research, Colorado State Universityhttps://tec.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CR_Handbook_8-3-15.pdf
(3) Community Tool Box: Chapter 2. Other Models for Promoting Community Health and Development, Section 9. Community ReadinessCenter for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansashttps://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/community-readiness/main
Comments