The commentary in this article highlights the importance of building the social and emotional capacities of the prevention workforce, in order to meet the Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth and the goals of the Unleashing the Power of Prevention framework.
The article defines adult social and emotional capacity and provides a description of the interplay between individual, team, and organizational capacity building, including how it may impact collaboration across disciplines and sectors. Examples of integrating adult capacity-building activities and practices into an organizational context are provided from a school safety project that is implementing evidence-based prevention programs in 43 public middle schools. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the proposed strategies for advancing the goals of the Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth. (publisher abstract order)