National Prevention Week is May 20-26!
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has created a new annual health initiative called National Prevention Week. This year’s event will span May 20-26, with the theme: “We are the ones. How are you taking action?”
SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. This national observance celebrates the work that community organizations and individuals do year-round to prevent substance abuse and promote mental, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing, while serving as an opportunity for community members to learn more about behavioral health issues and get involved in prevention efforts throughout the year.
The event’s dates were strategically selected to coincide with the beginning of summer, a season filled with celebrations and recreational activities that can potentially be linked to substance use and abuse (such as graduation parties, proms, weddings, boating and camping excursions); it is also timed to allow schools to take part in a prevention-themed event before the school year ends, raising awareness in students of all ages.
Wake Forest Law School Students Mentor Troubled Teens in North Carolina
An integral part of Reclaiming Futures' six step model is connecting troubled young people with positive and caring adult mentors. In Forsyth County, North Carolina, Wake Forest Law School students are volunteering their time to mentor teens and provide that positive influence.
Our very own judicial fellow Judge William B. Reingold spearheaded the partnership between the Pro Bono Project and Reclaiming Futures. He recruited students by sharing the benefits of being a mentor while detailing the great need in Forsyth County.
Writing in the Pro Bono Project's blog, law student Ramie Shalabi explains the partnership:
The Wake Forest University School of Law students meet at least once a week with their mentees and participate in activities such as bowling, prom dress shopping, and playing basketball. The mentors are required to write “contact notes,” which they submit to Advanced Placement monthly, to help ensure that the program is running effectively.
Although law students make a one-year commitment to the program, most of this year’s mentors have expressed their desire to remain involved in their mentee’s lives. Kelsey Baird (’13), a mentor, called her experience “valuable as it is fulfilling . . . and one of the best programs I’ve been involved in at Wake Forest.”
Use Poetry to Help At-Risk Youth Sort Out Who They Are
Poetry is powerful. Clinical psychologist Rebecca Chalmers sees that power whenever she uses poetry as a therapeutic tool.
“When young people share a poem they’ve written, and everyone says that it’s beautiful, that’s supporting who they are and how they’re able to intellectually and emotionally express themselves, and that feels so good,” says Chalmers, who practices in New York and has a Master of Fine Arts in poetry.
As a mode of expression, poetry is tailor-made for teens. “Poetry is very immediate and about the self and helps sort out ‘who I am’ in a way that speaks to them,” Chalmers says. And working on poetry with a group of other youth can feed teens’ need to relate, she says. “By the time they’ve written something and shared it with other group members and gotten that supportive feedback, they form such a bond.”
Texas Teens Dancing Against Drugs, Alcohol
We're spending the week in San Antonio for the Reclaiming Futures Leadership Institute (which you may already know if you're following @RFutures on Twitter). For those not on Twitter, we'll be posting updates here on the blog and on Facebook.
This afternoon, local teens from SACADA (San Antonio Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse)'s HYPE group (Helping Youth Prevention through Entertainment) used choreographed hip hop dances to promote their healthy, drug-free lives. One dance featured one teen's struggle to resist peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol and ended with him saying a powerful NO and walking away. It was followed by a lighter number where they taught our treatment, judicial, community and program fellows how to do the electric slide!
When asked to share their reasons for joining the group, HYPE members mentioned the importance of being substance free and how good it felt to be making a difference for their peers and younger students. Reclaiming Futures isn't their normal audience. HYPE can often be found dancing for local elementary schools and speaking with students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
HYPE members received not one, but TWO, much deserved standing ovations. Check them out!
Working for a Better Future: Improving Public Safety by Employing Youth
In Washington, D.C., a robust and holistic employment program for youth is key to building positive life outcomes for the District’s teens and creating safer communities. In our most recent research brief, Working for a Better Future: How expanding employment opportunities for D.C.’s youth creates public safety benefits for all residents, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) describes how youth unemployment in D.C. ranges between 1.6 and 2.3 times the national average and how increases in youth employment rates have been linked to decreased rates of arrest in the city.
Having a job has been shown to be a “protective factor” against crime and arrests for youth. Jobs help young people gain experience in the work world and effective job assistance programs provide youth with mentoring, life skills training, and a connection to their community.
Conversely, unemployment can have detrimental effects. Youth who are disconnected to institutions of education or employment represent an annual taxpayer cost of $13,900 and a social cost of $37,450. Investments in job assistance programs, however, are a fraction of this expense, and help cut back the taxpayer and social costs while setting a young person up for a lifetime of success. The brief mentions examples from across the country of effective youth workforce development programs that have yielded positive results including public safety benefits, positive life outcomes for youth and cost savings, including programs like YouthBuild, YearUp, Strive and Job Corps being utilized in the District.
Mentoring: Best Practices for High Risk Youth
As Reclaiming Futures sites look for ways to connect youth with long-term supports, many of them turn to one-on-one mentoring programs. Several sites are utilizing law students from local universities as their sources for these mentors, while other sites try to build up connections with the natural helpers in a youth‘s life, such as a parent or relative.
Mentoring has been shown to be an effective intervention for working with high-risk youth. An evaluation of the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters mentoring program by Public/ Private Ventures (P/PV) demonstrated that mentored youth were:
- 46% less likely than controls to initiate drug use
- 27% less likely to initiate alcohol use than controls
These findings were even more significant for minority participants who were 70% less likely to initiate drug use and 50% less likely to initiate alcohol use.
So what makes certain mentoring programs more successful than others?
The SparkOpportunity Challenge: Jon Bon Jovi Wants to Hear Your Ideas!
We all know that the economy is in a dismal place and unemployment is high. The latest jobs numbers are disheartening. If you’re up on recent research like Opportunity Road, then you know that young people are being hit especially hard. In fact, one in six young people ages 16 to 24—nearly 7 million kids—are out of school and unemployed.
The consequences for these young people and their families are severe, as are the costs to our nation as a whole. We’re missing out on the talents of millions of young people at a time when we have serious shortages of skilled workers.
It’s fitting, then, that the White House Council for Community Solutions—a coalition of leaders in business, government, art and philanthropy—chose disconnected youth as its focus, and has called on government and the private sector to step up and prioritize these issues.
Using Graffiti to Improve Teen Outcomes in Denver
Graffiti is a common sight in the neighborhood around the Access Art Gallery in Denver – not inside, hanging on the walls – but scribbled, pasted or painted on nearly every dumpster and wall for blocks.
“There’s a lot of kids going back and forth through the neighborhood. There was tagging all over the place,” says Damon McLeese, the gallery’s executive director.
Like many places across the country, Denver’s streets show scars of vandalism: Stickers on street signs, scrawls of fat-tipped markers across doorways, and spray paint arching down from seemingly impossible heights.
But where many businesses would have seen an unstoppable scourge of youth defacing private property, McLeese saw an opportunity for a project that would redirect some of the kids’ creative energies and help improve the community.
2011's top 20 stories on juvenile justice and adolescent substance abuse, part 2
Continuing the countdown of the top 20 most popular stories on juvenile justice and adolescent substance abuse of 2011:
#15. Why police need to better understand trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Lisa H. Thurau explained why it's so important for police officers to understand the effects of trauma on children.#14. Webinar: The School-to-Prison Pipeline
In this webinar, Judge Steven Teske explained how one school district worked to reduce referrals to juvenile courts while simultaneously addressing disruptive behavior. (The archived webinar is available for viewing.)#13. "Beyond 'Scared Straight'" returns to promote a discredited juvenile justice intervention (roundup)
Ahead of the second season of "Beyond 'Scared Straight,'" we shared coverage discrediting Scared Straight and its methods.#12. Why more cops in schools is a bad idea
A new report from the Justice Policy Institute found that an increase in the presence of law enforcement in schools coincides with increases in referrals to the juvenile justice system, especially for minor offenses like disordly conduct.#11. Teen brain development: neural gawkiness
Chris Sturgis explained what goes on in the child and teenage brain and how we can use that knowledge to help youngsters keep out of trouble.
Stay tuned for the TOP TEN most popular stories..
Generic anti-bullying classes found to be ineffective and more -- news roundup
Juvenile Justice Reform
- California counties to pay the state $125,000 to house juvenile offenders
California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the state has to pull the trigger on a series of mid-year budget cuts due to low tax revenues. One of those reductions shaves $67 million from the state’s juvenile justice budget. The cut will force counties to foot the bill for Juvenile Justice wards in state custody, at a cost of $125,000 per youth. Alameda County could be put in a $6.2 million bind. - Kentucky looks for better way to help young offenders
Kentucky officials are looking for better ways to deal with youth who commit noncriminal offenses such as skipping school or running away. Research shows that detaining status offenders is the least effective and most expensive option. State leaders admit the system needs improvement. - Oregon will stop holding juvenile offenders in adult prison
After federal auditors questioned the practice, Oregon has stopped temporarily holding youth in adult prisons. The Partnership for Safety and Justice, which works on criminal justice issues, won legislation in the 2011 session to encourage local authorities to hold youth in juvenile facilities while they await trial. - New Report: Generic anti-bullying classes found to be ineffective
OJJDP has issued a report in which bullying in schools is examined and recommendations are made for the best ways schools can provide support to bullying victims. The study found generic curriculum is an ineffective substitute for student-focused engagement strategies. - Ohio Courts use internet for greater connectivity
Ohio’s Coshocton County’s Common Pleas Court, Juvenile and Probate Court and Municipal Court are using the internet to share information more easily with the public and other courts. The Common Pleas Court launched a searchable database for the public that features basic information on open and closed cases with the court. - South Carolina law enforcement officers complete DJJ gang, violence prevention training
Recognizing that many kids face significant pressure to join a gang, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice has partnered with the Gang Resistance Education and Training program in multiple communities across the state to bring the curriculum to local elementary and middle school youth.
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment
- New government program aims to protect children from accidental drug overdoses
A new government program aims to protect young children from accidental drug overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the “Up and Away and Out of Sight” program, to teach parents how to keep medications out of the hands of young children.
