Mission & Vision

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
— Benjamin Franklin

Our Mission

Photo: Prevention Works office exteriorTo educate communities on positive life choices by encouraging health, wellness and inclusion.

Our Vision

An environment where all communities thrive by making safe and healthy choices.

Educate, Collaborate, Motivate

In 1974, in response to a deeply felt community need, a citizen study group recommended the formation of a drop-in center on Prather Avenue under the name of the Jamestown Area Council on Alcoholism. The drop-in center provided a place for alcoholics and their families to meet with counselors for intervention services and to begin building a new alcohol-free life. Affiliation with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) began in 1975. In response to increased service requests from the North County, the Council opened a program office in Dunkirk in 1979. Both offices provide prevention services for alcohol and other drugs to the Chautauqua County community.

NYS OASAS Prevention Framework

New York State’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) defines prevention as a pro-active, research-based, data-driven process utilizing proven-effective strategies and programs to reduce or prevent alcohol and other drug abuse in individuals, families, and communities. Our approach to alcohol and substance abuse prevention, and the conceptual framework that supports it, have evolved over time. Both are based on emerging national research findings and the state’s experiences in program development, implementation, and evaluation.

Prevention Works is a community partner of the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County and the United Way of Northern Chautauqua County.

Prevention Works is the only New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports approved and supported prevention agency in Chautauqua County.

Serving as the leading community resource, Prevention Works maintains information regarding alcoholism, drugs, addictions, gambling problems and available help services.

Prevention Works’s prevention strategies take aim at how people think, feel and act by focusing messages and activities on areas of influence such as the individual, family, peer, school, and community. Prevention Works believes that the stigma of addiction which prevents people from seeking help must be reduced or eliminated. It is through Prevention Works’s prevention services that this goal may be accomplished.

Prevention Works has come a long way since 1974, but our passion for making a difference throughout the communities of Chautauqua County has never been greater.

 
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