Stay on Track is a school-based substance abuse prevention curriculum conducted over a 3-year period with students in grades 6 through 8. Stay on Track provides youth at each grade level with 12 45- to 50-minute lessons taught by classroom teachers. Motorsports is a motivational theme, with each lesson relating program objectives to professional racing activities and personalities. Special emphasis is given to tobacco, alcohol, club drugs, hallucinogens, prescription drugs, marijuana, and inhalants. The overall goal is to increase knowledge about substance use, increase personal competence skills and self-esteem, and change attitudes and intentions related to substance use.
Reality Tour
Reality Tour is a volunteer-driven substance abuse prevention program that is presented to parents and their children (ages 10-17) in a community setting over the course of one approximately 3-hour session. Trained community volunteers present testimonies from individuals with a history of addiction, information on drugs, coping, and refusal skills, and an opportunity for families to hear from law enforcement personnel and ask questions. The overall goal is to increase children’s negative attitudes toward alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drugs, as well as their perceived risk of harm from use of these substances.
Project Venture
Project Venture is an outdoor experiential prevention program designed primarily for 5th- to 8th-grade American Indian youth. The program is designed to foster the development of positive self-concept, effective social interaction skills, a community service ethic, an internal locus of control, and improved decision-making and problem-solving skills. Students participate in classroom-based activities, experiential activities such as camping and hiking, adventure camps and wilderness treks, and community service learning. The overall goal is to develop the social and emotional competence that facilitates youths’ resistance to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
Project Northland
Project Northland is a school- and community-based multilevel prevention program for adolescents in grades 6-8. Lesson content involves students, peers, parents, and community members with home-based curriculum for families and peer- and teacher-led curriculum in the classroom. Student-parent homework assignments, in-class discussions, skills training, and role-plays, and community-based projects comprise the program. The overall goals are to delay the age at which adolescents begin driving, reduce alcohol use among those already drinking, and limit the number of alcohol-related problems among young drinkers.
PALS: Prevention through Alternative Learning Styles
Prevention through Alternative Learning Styles (PALS) is a school-based prevention program for middle school students. Teachers or PALS staff members lead students through five units, presented in ten lessons, which cover the following topics: learning styles and differences, effects of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs on the brain and body, peer pressure, and healthy choices. A supplemental website provides additional lessons and a peer mentoring program with interaction games and presentations. The overall goals are (1) reducing intentions to use substances, (2) increasing students’ use of refusal skills, and (3) enhancing students’ knowledge of the effects of ATOD, peer pressure and healthy decision-making, and different learning styles.
Creating Lasting Family Connections
Creating Lasting Family Connections (CLFC) is a substance use prevention program that can be used in school or community settings. It is designed for youth ages 9 to 17 and their families, who complete six modules of curriculum over 18-20 weekly sessions. Trainers cover topics such as ATOD education/awareness, communication and conflict resolution skills, coping mechanisms to resist negative social influences, encouraging use of community services, and delaying the onset and reducing the frequency of alcohol and other drug use among youth. Participants may be referred to community services as appropriate. The overall goal is to increase family use of community services, change knowledge and beliefs about alcohol and drug use, and promote abstinence.
