As 2010 begins, prevention and equity must have increased visibility and additional resources to solidify the important gains we made in the last year. To help make that happen, we've launched Prevention Institute's new website, preventioninstitute.org, to better highlight our commitment, perspective and resources, and to serve as a focal point for bringing communities, policy makers, funders and advocates together.
From a prevention perspective, we can look back on a number of successes from 2009. It took all of us: we saw a preventive emphasis in the stimulus and in health reform legislation, as well as in numerous state and local initiatives. We saw greater prioritization of disenfranchised communities explicit in many of these efforts-though much further emphasis here is needed, especially in this tight economy.
Though the future of real reform seems uncertain, I feel confident that health reform and prevention will move forward. At this critical time, we've designed the new preventioninstitute.org to function as a hub for cross-sector efforts to keep prevention and equity center stage now and in the decades to come. It also makes it easier than ever to make the case for quality prevention, with features and publications that:
• Continue to build momentum and buy-in for quality prevention in health care reform with tools, advocacy opportunities and evidence dedicated to Reforming our Health System, along with updates on the current status of the federal legislation.
• Demonstrate the economic value of prevention, showing how prevention saves money along with saving lives. Reports like Prevention for a Healthier America offer concrete data reflecting the 5-to-1 return on investment of quality prevention efforts;
• Emphasize health, safety and equity in all sectors and policies. Transportation Prescription delineates a new way to think of the nation's investment in getting around. Collaboration Multiplier uses an interactive framework to strengthen and enhance collaborative efforts; and
• Connect outcomes and strategies of successful prevention approaches to new challenges, including violence prevention, health reform, healthy eating and more: from our signature Spectrum of Prevention to a video I recently made, From Kools to Cancer Sticks, that shows how the same approaches used in shaping tobacco prevention policies can be applied to today's pressing health and equity issues.
