AI for Prevention Practitioners

by Robb Hutson, MA, Jill Hutson, MA, Autumn Decker, PhD

A guide written for prevention practitioners: real ways to use AI in the work you do every day, and everything you need to decide for yourself whether you should.

If you work in prevention, you have probably already encountered AI. AI for Prevention Practitioners follows the Strategic Prevention Framework step by step, Assessment, Capacity, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation, and includes more than 40 ready-to-use prompts organized by task, from needs assessment narratives and logic models to reports and coalition communications.

The authors bring more than 50 years of combined prevention experience to this guide, and write as people who have gone through their own AI learning curve with the same uncertainty, trial and error, and skepticism many readers are bringing to these tools right now.

The same guide that hands you those prompts also gives you the tools to decide where AI does not belong. Hallucination, data privacy, and algorithmic bias get treated as true considerations for AI adoption. A full chapter takes on the environmental and labor costs behind these tools without pretending the tradeoffs are simple. And rather than telling you what to conclude, this guide trusts you to weigh the evidence and decide for yourself.

Inside, you will also find a glossary of AI terms written for practitioners and a sample AI use policy your organization can use as a place to begin, or adapt today.

Whether you work at a state agency, a tribal organization, a local health department, a coalition, or a one-person nonprofit office, this guide meets you where you are. No
technology background required.