Prevention - Alcohol, Tobacco, and other drugs

OJJDP created a national effort to enhance the development of mentoring programs for youth involved in the juvenile justice system, juvenile reentry, and foster care. This initiative promotes collaboration among community organizations and agencies committed to supporting mentoring services for system-involved youth. Its objective is to identify and support the development of new and effective mentoring programs and determine how to expand these models for system involved youth.

Building Collaboration for Mental Health Services in California Schools is an initiative funded by the California Department of Education through California’s Mental Health Services Act. This project aims to engage mental health and education professionals in an effective planning process to prepare for implementing California’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) in schools.

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.

This technical assistance center serves 10 local communities working to reduce and prevent youth substance abuse by increasing understanding and practice of evidence-based strategies and collaboration between communities. Methods include monthly trainings, regional facilitation with community leaders, e-newsletters, a Web portal and local community coaching.

The Tribal Youth Program (TYP) Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Center addresses the need to strengthen American Indian and Alaska Native juvenile justice and other systems–education, mental health and social services, culture, recreation and employment programs–all critical to Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s mission of reducing juvenile delinquency, violence, child victimization, and increasing the safety of tribal communities.

EDC and SSRE are working with SADD to develop and test a youth-informed and youth-delivered social marketing campaign, as well as other program components, aimed at reducing underage drinking among high school students. Our work includes formative research with youth, parents, and school-community members needed to guide program and measurement development as well as an initial pilot test of the SADD campaign and related program efforts.

EDC is working with the VA National Center for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), Women’s Health Sciences Division to develop print, video, and online training materials to support the national implementation of Cognitive Processing Therapy within the Veteran’s Health Administration.

This program supports a comprehensive statewide initiative to strengthen college alcohol and other drug prevention efforts in Pennsylvania. The project provides training and technical assistance to campus and community coalitions at Pennsylvania public and private colleges, with the goals of limiting alcohol sales to minors, eliminating irresponsible marketing practices by alcohol sellers, and increasing enforcement of campus policy and community laws.

CCHS will provide consultation and training to build the capacity of the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus and community to implement effective early intervention strategies to reduce high-risk alcohol use by students. The purpose of project activities is to build a widening “net”—to design and implement a campus wide infrastructure, linked with community services—to increase the opportunities to identify, screen, and refer students in need of an intervention.

With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, HHD is conducting research and developing new tools for substance abuse treatment and prevention, focusing specifically on the immigrant experience. HHD researched, and developed expertise in, the intersection between immigration, acculturation, and substance abuse. Based on its findings, HHD produced a Web site, Connecting Across Cultures–Promoting the Health of New Americans, which contains informational materials designed to increase understanding about substance abuse and the immigrant experience.