Minnesota Institute of Public Health

No, that’s not a Scrabble move; it’s the evolution of our largest federal grant to the new National Prevention Technical Assistance (TA) system Central Region known as the Regional Expert Team, (RET). Since its inception in 1997, the Central Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies, (or Central CAPT) was established and managed by MIPH on contract with the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Last year an intense re-competition for one national TA delivery system bridging prevention research with community practice in effective substance abuse and violence prevention  took place. MIPH emerged as the Central Region Expert Team subcontractor to Education Development Center (EDC) out of Boston, who is the Prime Contractor for the new five-year national delivery system. At MIPH, we are once again the Central Regional TA service provider.

Some things have changed; some things have remained constant. What has changed is much more emphasis a technical assistance to States and jurisdictions, with emphasis on the epidemiology of regions and states. Also, a to large extent, States know who we are and what we do to help them do even better in prevention. The Central Region US has almost 57 million people, ten states, the Red Lake Nation and other jurisdictions – almost 1200 units of government, give or take. As always, we intend to follow the federal SAMHSA leadership to bridge prevention research prevention with community practice, by working with the States. Our vision is to help best practices in substance abuse and violence prevention evolve from ‘promising exceptions’ to a ‘new normal’ in our country.

What is changed is, precious limited prevention resources have influenced us to re-invent how we do the business of prevention. We are much more technologically driven, and more efficient than ever. This change requires each of us to count on one another, really listen to one another, leverage our respective skills and needs, and expect help from each other. 

But we will continue to keep the highest quality of prevention service by dealing with change, with unchanging principles. We will go the extra mile, give the extra effort, do what we say we’ll do, and make every effort to capitalize on opportunities to serve you, as well as learn from any mistakes we might make.

It was an honor to be your CAPT; it’s a thrill to be your new RET.

-JJ