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SELECT, ADAPT, EVALUATE
Essential Elements
What are Essential Elements?
Essential elements are the active ingredients of a prevention approach responsible for achieving intended outcomes. The essential elements of a violence prevention approach are the WHAT, HOW, and WHO that describe:
WHAT approach content (messages or skills) and standards (design elements or policy components) should be delivered or implemented.
HOW they should be delivered.
Characteristics of WHO should ideally deliver or lead an approach.
Essential elements are not discrete activities or components of an approach; rather, they are characteristics that define how an approach is intended to influence risk and protective factors and violence outcomes. Essential elements can also be impacted by the context where an approach is delivered and how collaborations to implement it are selected.
Throughout history, some communities received more access and resources than others, which causes differences in social and health opportunities and outcomes. For example, some groups are at increased risk of violence because of unequal access to affordable housing, income, health care, and educational opportunities. These differences can also create power dynamics among members of the same community. Recognizing the role of power dynamics can help ensure collaborations are equitable as an approach is planned, adapted, and implemented.
Understanding essential elements and considering the role of health inequities can help you select approaches and guide your decisions about program delivery and adaptations. As different sectors work together to prevent violence, partners should have an equal opportunity to define issues, create strategies, implement solutions, and make decisions to meet the community's needs.
Review the tables below to notice how the WHAT, HOW, and WHO differ for programs versus community and societal level approaches:
Essential Elements of Programs
WHAT
Knowledge, skills, and messages delivered through program activities
HOW
Instructional methods, setting, and timing
WHO
Characteristics of the person or entity delivering the program
Essential Elements of Community and Societal Level Approaches
WHAT
Key messages, design elements, and policy components
HOW
Guiding principles, implementation methods, and processes
WHO
Characteristics of leaders, partners, and stakeholders implementing the approach
Planning the Approach
As a first step, the school district convened local partners to begin program planning and to set strategic priorities. According to local data, young people who identify as LGBTQ+ in VetoVille were experiencing high rates of sexual violence at school. In response, the school district partnered with a local LGBTQ+ serving organization to jointly implement a program to increase protective factors for sexual violence. Since LGBTQ+ youth are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ youth to experience violence at school, this partnership can help young people feel more supported.
To achieve their goals of preventing sexual violence, program staff planned to teach healthy relationship skills to all 8th and 9th graders to support positive communication, anger management, and conflict resolution. This program aimed to increase skills that protect against sexual violence in high school students in the intermediate term, which will lead to the long-term outcome of reduced violence among 8th and 9th grade students of VetoVille.
Essential Elements Key Takeaways
- Essential elements are the "what, how, and who” of a violence prevention approach's delivery and implementation.
- Essential elements are the characteristics and components that define how an approach is intended to achieve the desired outcomes.
- Understanding essential elements and the impacts of health inequities can inform decisions about planning, implementation, and adaptation.
The following section will describe more about how to estimate essential elements for the approach you choose.