Designing for diversity: incorporating cultural competence in prevention programs for urban youth.

Low-income urban youth of color frequently confront a wide variety of challenges and hardships that other young people never experience. The offering of prevention programs represents one strategy to help urban youth avoid the risks associated with substance abuse. In this chapter, an alternative program strategy is posited-one that places diversity with respect to culture, class, and environment at the center of prevention efforts. Such an approach, the authors argue, is more effective not only in appealing to the sensibilities of urban youth but also in altering their behavior.