Breaking new frontiers: outcome evaluations of community-based program

Over the last decade thousands of community-based partnerships and coalitio ns have been funded by the federal government and the private sector to hel p prevent substance abuse. The Community Coalitions Program was the second generation of community-based prevention programs sponsored by the Substanc e Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-Center for Substance Abus e Prevention (SAMHSA-CSAP). This special issue is devoted to the findings a nd lessons learned from the National Cross-Site Evaluation of the Community Coalitions Program as well as those from several local evaluations. The evaluation of community-based and coalition-driven programs is a diffic ult task and presents many conceptual, methodological, and technical challe nges. These articles discuss these challenges and present innovative ideas that are currently practiced in the evaluation of community-based and coali tion-driven prevention programs. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.