A Roadmap for Prevention Practice: Using the Updated Core Competencies to Support Professional Growth in Violence Prevention

People come to work in violence prevention through all different pathways. 

Some begin as advocates working directly with survivors while others come from public health, education, community organizing, youth development, or research. Many practitioners arrive in prevention work because they care deeply about their communities and want to address the root causes of violence.

But once someone begins working in prevention, a common question often emerges:

What does it actually mean to be a violence prevention practitioner?

The recently updated Core Competencies for Injury and Violence Prevention (2026 Edition) help answer that question. Developed through a collaborative process led by the Safe States Alliance, the competencies provide a shared framework for the knowledge and skills needed to effectively prevent injury and violence across a wide range of settings.

For individuals and organizations alike, the competencies can serve as a roadmap for professional growth and help practitioners understand the scope of the field, identify areas for skill development, and strengthen prevention efforts over time.

A Framework for the Prevention Workforce

Violence prevention is inherently multidisciplinary. Practitioners work in public health departments, community-based organizations, schools and universities, healthcare systems, research institutions, and policy environments.

Because of this diversity, there has long been a need for a shared framework that describes the knowledge and skills that support effective prevention work.

The updated competencies outline eight key domains of practice, including:

• Science and practice of injury and violence prevention
• Data analytics and assessment
• Program planning and evaluation
• Management and finance
• Community partnership
• Communication
• Policy development
• Leadership and systems thinking

From analyzing data and evaluating programs to building partnerships and shaping policy, together these domains reflect the wide range of activities that support violence prevention.

Importantly, the competencies recognize that no single practitioner needs expertise in every domain. Instead, prevention work depends on teams and organizations that collectively bring together a mix of knowledge, experience, and skills.

What’s New in the Updated Competencies

The 2026 update is the first major revision of the competencies since they were originally developed more than two decades ago. As the field has evolved, so has the understanding of the skills needed to support effective prevention practice.

One of the most helpful additions in the updated version is the introduction of three tiers of competency development:

• Foundational – understanding key concepts and basic practices
• Intermediate – applying knowledge and analyzing information
• Advanced – strategic thinking, systems-level decision making, and innovation

These tiers are based on knowledge and skills rather than job titles or years of experience. This makes them useful for practitioners across many roles and career stages.

The updated competencies also emphasize upstream approaches to prevention, recognizing how social drivers of health, such as housing, education, transportation, and community conditions ,shape injury and violence outcomes.

Together, these updates reflect how the field of violence prevention continues to grow and adapt.

Using the Competencies to Support Professional Development

The competencies can be used in many ways to support professional development within the prevention field.

For individual practitioners, they offer an opportunity to reflect on questions such as:

• What skills are most important in my current role?
• What areas of prevention practice do I want to strengthen?
• How do my skills connect to the broader prevention ecosystem?

Organizations can also use the competencies to support workforce development by:

• Informing job descriptions and hiring processes
• Guiding professional development conversations
• Shaping training plans and curricula
• Strengthening team-based skill development

By making the knowledge and skills of prevention work more visible, the competencies help practitioners see how their work fits into a larger system of prevention.

One Example: Supporting New Prevention Practitioners

One particularly valuable use of the competencies is supporting the onboarding of new practitioners.

For someone new to the prevention field, the competencies can help answer important early questions:

• What does prevention look like in practice?
• How do data, partnerships, communication, and policy fit together?
• Why do prevention efforts often involve multiple sectors?

Using the competencies during onboarding can help new staff understand both the breadth of the field and the skills they may develop over time.

For example, a new practitioner might begin by building foundational knowledge in areas such as the public health approach to prevention, shared risk and protective factors, or community partnership. Over time, they may develop intermediate and advanced skills related to program planning, evaluation, or systems-level change.

This approach can help new practitioners see prevention work not just as a set of tasks, but as a developing practice that grows over the course of a career.

How PreventConnect Can Support Learning These Competencies

Developing prevention skills rarely happens in isolation.

For many practitioners, learning happens through conversations with peers, shared examples, and opportunities to explore how prevention concepts are applied in real-world settings.

Communities of practice like PreventConnect play an important role in supporting this kind of learning.

Through web conferences, discussions, and ongoing connection with prevention practitioners across the country, PreventConnect creates opportunities to:

• Explore prevention frameworks and emerging research
• Learn how organizations are using data and evaluation to inform their work
• Hear how practitioners are building community partnerships and cross-sector collaborations
• Reflect on how to communicate about prevention in different contexts

For practitioners at any stage of their careers, these shared learning spaces help bring the competencies to life.

Instead of learning them only as concepts on paper, practitioners can see how the knowledge and skills described in the competencies are applied in communities working to prevent violence.