Prevention - Alcohol, Tobacco, and other drugs

The MetroWest Youth Risk Behavior Survey is a ten-year initiative of the Massachusetts-based MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation to better understand and address the health needs of adolescents in the region. Surveys are being conducted biannually with middle and high school students. The first round of surveys was conducted in 2006, with over 16,000 high school students and 8,000 middle school students participating. Districts receive timely reports of their data along with technical assistance. Findings are used to identify problems, track trends, and inform local programming.

Sponsored by SAMHSA/CSAP and administered regionally by Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPTs), Service to Science is a national initiative that provides support to innovative local interventions seeking to demonstrate and document evidence of effectiveness in preventing substance abuse and its related consequences.

The Center helps college and community leaders develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies to reduce student problems related to alcohol and other drug use and interpersonal violence. In order to produce enduring, large-scale changes that will make students’ social and cultural environment healthier and safer, the Center supports a comprehensive approach to prevention, grounded in environmental management strategies that address the institutional, community, and public policy factors related to these problems.

We assist colleges and universities create safer and healthier campus communities through an environmental approach. Our support services include consultation, resources and materials, face-to-face and online trainings, strategic planning, and support developing, implementing and evaluating proven programs and policies that address heavy drinking, tobacco and other drug use, violence, hate crimes, and high-risk sexual practices among college students.

The Connecticut Health Foundation’s (CHF) 10 year strategic plan included a goal to decrease the number of children and youth (ages 6-14) from entering the Juvenile Justice System and/or the most intensive level of mental health treatment. To accomplish this goal, CHF created a grant program to support and promote a comprehensive community-based system of early screening, assessment, identification, and brief intervention.

The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention (National Center) provides technical assistance (TA) and training to 106 federally-funded Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees and to six Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) (PL) grantees.

EDC continues to expand its Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM), a comprehensive school health curriculum for grades 6 through 12 used in all 50 states and several countries. EDC is updating scientific content and making the modules responsive to the ethnic and cultural diversity of today’s classrooms. New materials include Getting Active and Eating Well and Voices Against Violence. THTM has been identified as a “promising” model program by the U.S. Department of Education.

EDC is conducting an effectiveness study of a parent education program to reduce early sexual initiation and alcohol use among young adolescent girls, funded by the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Office for Research on Women at NIH. With extensive community input, the researchers developed a set of audio-CDs, Especially for Daughters, which is targeted to African American and Latino families.

dot-EDU was an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention mechanism for USAID Missions seeking to improve education systems in their respective countries. dot-EDU sought to assist developing countries in strengthening learning systems that improve quality, expand access, and enhance equity through carefully planned applications of digital and broadcast technologies. The dot-EDU mission had two foci. First, dot-EDU provided training and technical assistance to support USAID Missions in developing and implementing technology-assisted applications.

EDC will produce two new 10-15 page publications—one specifically targeted for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and the other for their families. They will be based on the VA National Center for PTSD’s successful publication for war veterans, “Returning from the War Zone”.