The experience of implementing Communities That Care in Harku Municipality, Estonia
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As part of Estonia’s participation in the JA PreventNCD project, Harku Municipality is one of three municipalities piloting the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system. Through this process, we are working to strengthen our local prevention capacity and create a more strategic, coordinated approach to supporting children and young people’s wellbeing.
Implementing CTC has been both challenging and rewarding. While the methodology offers a clear framework, bringing it to life at the local level requires significant coordination, patience, and trust in the process.
Building the Coalition: Starting from the Ground Up
One of the first and most important steps in the CTC process was establishing a local multisectoral coalition to lead the work. This meant identifying relevant stakeholders across sectors, engaging community organisations, and building a shared understanding of why a systemic prevention approach matters.
At the beginning, CTC felt like stepping into the unknown. Although the framework and support structures were in place, there was still uncertainty about whether we were sufficiently prepared.
Drawing on my knowledge of the local context and stakeholder networks, I reached out to organisations and community representatives across the municipality to build commitment around the initiative. We also used local media to raise awareness and broaden participation, which helped bring additional members into the coalition.
Moving from Participation to Shared Ownership
One of the key lessons I have learned so far is that establishing a coalition is only the first step. Building genuine ownership of the intervention among stakeholders takes much more time.
The CTC methodology is based on the idea that prevention must be community-led, with responsibility shared across stakeholders rather than concentrated in one coordinator.
People participate actively and contribute meaningfully during meetings, but embedding the mindset that CTC means Communities That Care –not Coordinator That Cares– requires patience and continuous reinforcement.
Developing this shared ownership is essential if prevention efforts are to remain sustainable beyond the pilot phase.
Using Data to Build Commitment
A major milestone in our implementation process was carrying out the CTC youth survey, which provides local-level data on the risk and protective factors affecting young people’s wellbeing.
Organising the survey was a complex task, particularly given the structure of our local education system. However, thanks to close cooperation with schools and careful communication with school leadership, teachers, parents, and students, we achieved a 55% response rate.
Presenting the survey results to the coalition marked an important turning point.
When coalition members saw the data, they immediately understood the significance of their contribution. It became clear to them that their involvement would directly shape local priorities and decisions.
The survey helped move our discussions from general assumptions toward evidence-based decision-making.
Reflections So Far
My experience implementing CTC in Harku has shown that building an effective prevention system requires much more than following a methodology.
Real change depends on:
- strong local coordination,
- multisectoral collaboration,
- meaningful community engagement, and
- patience to build shared ownership over time
While we are still in the early stages of implementation, the process has already demonstrated the value of structured locally-led prevention planning.
I believe this approach can help municipalities move from fragmented prevention activities toward more strategic, coordinated, and sustainable support systems for children and young people.
Moving towards Resource Assessment
We are now moving into the next stage of implementation: mapping existing prevention and health-promotion activities across the municipality.
This will help us assess how current efforts align with the needs identified through the survey, where overlaps exist, and where important gaps remain.
Each phase of the process brings new questions and uncertainties, but my confidence in the methodology has grown throughout the journey.
Our Swedish trainers told us from the start: “Trust the process.” That advice has remained relevant at every stage.
Author
Janne Tomberg, Health Promotion Specialist and CTC Local Coordinator,
Harku Municipality, Estonia