Prevention services are complex and families may find them difficult to navigate. Even when support is available, they may not engage with it. Hire prevention navigators to help families understand and access important prevention services.

How to do this

Look for specific experience and skills when hiring. Prevention navigators should have experience in community navigation. They should also have meaningful life experience. This helps them better relate to families and handle challenging conversations. Newer employees often struggle to separate themselves from difficult family situations.

Make navigation the person's primary responsibility. Jurisdictions reported more success when navigation was their only job.

Create a structure that allows for flexibility. Parents don't keep business hours, so navigators need to be available at other times. Provide clear boundaries and backup support to avoid having them on-call at all times. Encourage navigators to respond quickly, but make it clear they don't have to respond immediately.

Set clear performance measures and expectations. Track how many contacts navigators make and how many people respond. Monitor last contact dates and track who they closed out of services. For a new program, you may need to hire the best possible navigators and give them freedom to contact families as appropriate, then set standards.

Track engagement with families over time. A person might not be ready for services today, but it's still a positive outcome if they reach back out in a few months when they're more prepared to engage.

Know when to close cases. The goal isn’t to reach out endlessly. Typically, 60 days with no response is a good cut-off for closing a case, though navigators should be able to keep cases open longer when appropriate.