This paper links areas of research with implications for community prevention strategies aimed at high-risk children. Collaborative efforts to reduce the number of at-risk children in rural communities can be advanced by merging knowledge from the following areas: (1) the causal pathways leading to substance abuse and identification of risk factors and vulnerabilities in the community; (2) attributes (social competence, problem-solving skills, autonomy, and sense of purpose) that appear to protect seemingly at-risk children from developing problems, and environmental characteristics that nurture this resilience; (3) school-community relationships and the criteria for effective school-linked community services; (4) "bottom-up" efforts based on the community development principles of self-help, felt needs, and community participation; and (5) the character of the change process, common reasons that reforms fail, and the importance of linkage among the various aspects of the change process. Local change efforts, local interventions, local strategies, and local collaborative arrangements are the tools for nourishing protective factors in at-risk children in the family, school, and community. (SV)