The Prevention Leaders Podcast
Tactical Capacity: The Missing Piece in Prevention Success
10 min
Listen on SpotifySummary
This episode of The Prevention Leaders Podcast explores tactical capacity, an often overlooked but crucial element for success in substance misuse prevention. Host Dave Closson explains why traditional capacity building approaches can fall short and how professionals can develop execution skills. The discussion focuses on moving from planning to action for lasting impact.
Key takeaways
- Understand why tactical capacity is essential for real-world prevention work.
- Learn to identify the limitations of traditional capacity building methods.
- Discover how to develop execution skills for greater impact in prevention initiatives.
- Gain insights to address stalled initiatives and shifting community priorities.
- Find strategies to improve engagement and ensure lasting success in prevention efforts.
Show notes
In this episode of the Prevention Leaders Podcast, host Dave Closson dives into a crucial but often overlooked factor in substance misuse prevention, tactical capacity. While traditional capacity building focuses on knowledge, skills, resources, and infrastructure, tactical capacity is what truly determines success in real-world prevention work.
Dave breaks down the key elements of tactical capacity, why traditional approaches often fall short, and how prevention professionals can build execution skills that ensure lasting impact.
If you’ve ever struggled with stalled initiatives, shifting community priorities, or engagement drop-off, this episode is packed with insights to help you move from planning to action.
🔗 Connect with Dave Closson: https://www.daveclosson.com/links
More episodes from The Prevention Leaders Podcast
October 7, 202658 min
How SAFE Project Is Strengthening What Protects Us
This episode features Ronna Yablonski and Adam Swift from SAFE Project, who discuss the organization's comprehensive approach to substance misuse prevention. They emphasize that prevention is an ongoing, daily effort that involves individuals, families, and communities. The conversation highlights how SAFE Project strengthens protective factors before, during, and after a crisis, particularly for veterans.
ListenAugust 12, 202647 min
Culture Is Prevention: Protective Factors, Belonging, and Strength-Based Prevention with Barbara Bessette
This episode of The Prevention Leaders Podcast features Dave Closson and Barbara Bessette, an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe Rocky Boy. They explore how reconnecting with culture, identity, belonging, and community can be a powerful substance misuse prevention strategy. Bessette shares her insights on approaching prevention through an Indigenous lens, emphasizing protective factors and moving beyond deficit-based narratives.
ListenJuly 2, 20261 hr 3 min
Fall, Feel, Rise: Hope Tour, Fourth Wave Foundation, and the Practice of Resilience
This episode, a collaboration with the Unnecessary Harm podcast, explores resilience with the architects of World Resiliency Week 2026, Adam Woods and Sneha Patiyathal. They discuss the critical practice of resilience in diverse cultural contexts, focusing on community-rooted and relationship-centered prevention work for young people. The conversation highlights on-the-ground efforts in schools and communities across Australia and India.
ListenJune 24, 202651 min
The Pulse of Resilience: Why Falling, Feeling, and Rising Matters
This special multicast episode, originally recorded with the Dalgarno Institute for their podcast Unnecessary Harm, explores the 2026 World Resiliency Week campaign theme, "The Pulse of Resilience: Fall, Feel, Rise." Guests Dave Closson and Jen Schneeman discuss resilience as a rhythm rather than a destination, drawing on diverse fields such as trauma recovery and prevention science. They offer a hopeful conversation about navigating adversity and building stronger individuals and communities.
ListenYour people are waiting.
Join a private community built only for prevention professionals. Look around, meet your people, and choose your membership when you're ready.