What this resource explains
A prevention plan can list belonging, relationships, and opportunity without showing what a young person will experience. This card connects one protective factor to an action, an owner, resources, and a way to learn whether the action reached people.
Start with the kind of harm you are addressing and what people closest to it say they need. The examples below focus on youth and community violence; other forms of harm require their own evidence and response.
What a protective factor is
A protective factor is a characteristic or condition associated with a lower likelihood of harm. It can exist in a person, a relationship, or the setting around them. It does not guarantee safety or erase exposure to violence. Several conditions can work together, and the factors that matter depend on the kind of harm and the people involved.
For youth violence, CDC identifies connection to family and other adults among protective factors. CDC also describes school connectedness as protective across several health and safety outcomes. ICM uses that evidence as a starting point for local design. The examples below are possible actions, not proven effects of a particular program.
Read the CDC youth violence factors and CDC guidance on school connectedness.
What it can look like in a community
A dependable adult relationship
- What you might see
- A young person can name an adult who notices when they are absent, listens, and follows through after a setback.
- What partners could do
- Fund consistent staff time for outreach and follow-up. Set a backup contact when a worker is away.
- What to check
- Ask young people whether they have a trusted adult they can actually reach; check whether contact continues over time.
Belonging at school or in a program
- What you might see
- Young people feel known, included, and able to participate without being written off after conflict.
- What partners could do
- Give participants a say in activities and rules; train staff to respond consistently and repair relationships.
- What to check
- Ask who feels welcome and who leaves. Look at participation and the reasons people stop coming.
A real path to opportunity
- What you might see
- A young person can get from an interest to a class, paid work, apprenticeship, or another next step without a dead-end referral.
- What partners could do
- Pay for the bridge: enrollment help, transportation, a named partner contact, and follow-up after the handoff.
- What to check
- Count completed connections, not just referrals. Ask participants whether the opportunity fit their goals.
Illustrative example
A basketball program names the factor it intends to build
A coach notices that some teenagers come for open gym but lose contact when the season ends. The team chooses dependable adult connection as the factor to strengthen. The program budgets for a coach to check in weekly during the season and monthly afterward, with a second adult assigned when the coach is unavailable. Youth help decide what support is useful. The program records who actually receives follow-up and asks whether they have an adult they trust and can reach.
Attendance alone would show access to basketball. It would not show that a trusted relationship formed or that violence fell. If participants describe missed calls, weak trust, or barriers outside the gym, the program changes its approach and brings in partners. Any claim about reduced violence requires a stronger evaluation design and enough time to observe outcomes.
Draft your own action card
Use these six fields with the people affected and the organizations that can act. Write the answers in a planning document. If you cannot name the owner or what a person will experience, the action is not ready to fund.
01 · People and place
Who are we trying to reach, and where? What do they say is missing or already working?
02 · Factor and evidence
Which protective factor matters here? What local information and lived experience support that choice?
03 · Change in practice
What will someone actually receive or experience? How often, for how long, and from whom?
04 · Owner and resources
Who can make the commitment, who delivers it, and what staffing, authority, funding, and partners are needed?
05 · Reach and quality
How will we know the intended people received it, and whether the relationship or service was useful to them?
06 · Learning and decision
When will we review what changed, what did not, who was missed, and what to adjust?
A protective factor is a direction for prevention, not a complete intervention. Immediate threats still need a response, and one program cannot repair housing, school, work, and care on its own. The action card should make the connection between its contribution and the wider system visible.
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Use the part you need next. A guest’s account, research finding, local pattern, and implementation plan answer different questions.
Understand the concept
Public Health Approach
Find the patterns, understand what increases danger or helps people stay safe, test a response, and improve it as you learn.
Read the referenceCheck the evidence
Resource & Evidence
Define the type of harm and place, inspect the data, and check what research can and cannot establish.
Examine sourcesBring the right people together
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