Introducing a New Recognition of Prevention Leadership: CPN Seal of Prevention

Resources

June 11, 2020

Resource: Blog Industry: Higher Education
Tags: Prevention

CPN Seal of Prevention

This year’s Campus Prevention Network Summit illuminated so many incredible efforts happening on campuses across the country, all aimed at creating safer, healthier, more inclusive communities.

But too often, great prevention work goes unnoticed and uncelebrated.
It’s time to fix that.

The work of student affairs professionals is too important, and not just to their community of students. Every big challenge higher education is facing right now is connected to the prevention efforts they lead. Enrollment, student success, retention… check, check, check.

Yet their budgets are being cut and their positions are being furloughed or eliminated. Prevention is treated as an expense to minimize instead of an investment to maximize.

It’s time to talk about how we make prevention more meaningful to institutional leaders; how prevention work goes beyond the mission of higher education to power the business of higher education.

The Vector Solutions (formerly Everfi's Campus Prevention Network) Impact Awards have recognized the work of, now, 22 colleges, universities, and national fraternity and sorority organizations. These awards investigated every aspect of the institutions’ prevention strategies because we know prevention isn’t just a program, it’s a process. These colleges and universities use population-level programming--online and in-person--to reach all of their students, every year. They regularly gather survey data which drives their strategy. They invest in efficacy and impact.

That investment matters, now more than ever.

In our increasingly virtual future, online prevention programs will be held to similar standards as those developing around the quality of the digital learning experience. Campuses meeting those standards need to be recognized.
When Vector Solutions created AlcoholEdu for College 20 years ago, nothing like it existed. Today, we work with 1,300+ campuses and reach 5 million students, staff, and faculty every single year. AlcoholEdu for College is now the largest online education course on the internet.

Now, we are excited to embark on another first for the industry - the CPN Seal of Prevention, a mark of distinction for campuses who are committed to rigorous, high-impact digital prevention programs. Vector's team of public health experts spent months reviewing research and translating prevention principles into technology metrics that can serve as an industry standard for quality and outcomes. The criteria for the Seal includes things like frequency and reach, theory and evidence, impact and climate data, and content that connects multiple wellness and safety issues.

CPN Seal of Prevention Criteria
The CPN Seal of Prevention comes at a pivotal time, as higher education is facing enormous challenges - declining enrollment, rising costs, increased competition, and the ongoing debate over the value of a college degree. Add to that, today’s generation of students are socially conscious, issue-oriented, and activism inclined. They are making values-based consumer decisions, from the food and clothing they buy to the college or university they choose to attend. Their academic success and persistence to graduation are being derailed by preventable harms and high-risk behaviors.

When we think of the future of the CPN Seal - imagine a world where students and their parents select a campus based on their safety, wellness, and inclusion efforts. Where college rankings incorporate measures of prevention quality. Where institutional success is directly connected to the work prevention professionals lead. This is the future we must achieve.

As part of the launch of the CPN Seal, we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Parchment, the nation's leading digital credential service. Millions of students use Parchment to learn about which campuses best align with their interests, needs, and qualifications, and to share credentials like transcripts, certificates, diplomas, and badges.
Starting this year, Parchment will begin incorporating the CPN Seal of Prevention into their College Profile Pages and Student Choice Survey.

EXAMPLE OF CPN SEAL ON PARCHMENT'S COLLEGE PROFILE PAGES:

CPN Seal
Now, as prospective students use these tools to decide where to go to college, it’s not just cost or size or academic rigor that they’re looking at. It’s also the rigor of prevention efforts. With so many campuses competing for fewer and fewer students, this puts safety, wellness, and inclusion directly into the decision-making process. And it ties prevention work directly to tuition revenue.

Caring for our students, nurturing our community, and safeguarding our bottom line are fundamentally intertwined.

Prevention isn’t just the right thing to do, or the required thing to do… it’s also the smart thing to do. And there has never been a more important time than right now to elevate the great prevention work taking place across the country to ensure that campuses and communities can thrive.

Want to Know More?

Reach out and a Vector Solutions representative will respond back to help answer any questions you might have.

Contact Us