National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention

New Project Resource Guide for SS/HS Grantees
The National Center has published a guide to help grantees review the progress of their grant and engage partners in both the leadership and management aspects of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative. It reflects the experiences of over 200 SS/HS sites in achieving program outcomes and creating systems change. The narrative discusses the unique phase of start-up and delineates its key tasks, concerns, partnerships, and events. Subsequent sections focus on implementation, partnership and collaborations, evaluation, and sustainability. The Project Resource Guide can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Publications/ProjectResourceGuide.html.

Restorative Justice Resource Page
As a follow-up to the Restorative Justice teleconference conducted by the National Center in November (https://learn.aero.und.edu/pages.asp?PageID=109422), we have compiled a Resource Page on the topic for all who are interested in learning more. The page includes an annotated list of online publications, Web sites, organizations, and other materials related to restorative justice and how it serves as an alternative to traditional disciplinary action. Visit the Resource Page at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Resources/briefs/restorative%20justice.html.

Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Mentors
The National Center maintains and periodically adds to a collection of Center Briefs on topics and issues that are relevant to the work of grantees. The most recent publication, Recruiting and Retaining Mentors, addresses the advantages and challenges of effectively recruiting, selecting, and retaining mentors. Recruiting and Retaining Mentors acknowledges that it can be especially difficult for programs to recruit men, mentors of color, and people in rural areas. It offers strategies to help meet these challenges while also addressing other issues such as the careful matching of mentors and mentees to produce better outcomes and the importance of offering mentor support from peers and supervisors. This Center Brief is available at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Publications/center-briefs/prevention_brief_mentoring.pdf.

For other Web resources related to mentoring, please visit our Mentoring Resource Page at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Resources/briefs/mentoring%20resources.html.

Webinar Series for 2007 SS/HS Grantees
In January and February 2008, the National Center and Federal Project Officers are hosting a three-part SS/HS Webinar series for 2007 SS/HS Grantees. The Webinars cover the following topics:

All materials from this Webinar series are available at https://learn.aero.und.edu/pages.asp?PageID=110904.

The following is a summary of key findings from the fields of education, mental health, violence prevention, and/or youth substance abuse prevention.

Implementing EBIs in the Real World
Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are often evaluated in relatively small-scale settings and benefit from the involvement of the program developers and monies funding the evaluation. Implementing EBIs in the “real world” without the benefit of these resources can be challenging. Yet research demonstrates that the effectiveness of EBIs depends upon the quality of their implementation.

A team from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health recently studied a large school district in Maryland that used a framework developed by H. S. Adelman and L. Taylor to implement Keep A Clear Mind (KACM), a substance abuse prevention program.

Adelman and Taylor’s framework has four stages:
1. Creating readiness (obtaining community and stakeholder support)
2. Initial implementation (supporting staff as they implement the program)
3. Institutionalization (developing the structures necessary for local problem-solving and sustainability)
4. Ongoing evolution and renewal (through ongoing evaluation and data-based decision-making)

The study found that, by using Adelman and Taylor’s framework, the Anne Arundel County Public School System implemented KACM in multiple schools, achieved positive student outcomes, and sustained the program despite district budget cuts and personnel changes.

The research team recommends “that school districts implementing substance abuse prevention programs on a large scale use the Adelman and Taylor framework or other similar stage model to guide their work.”

This Research Note is a summary of “Taking School-based Substance Abuse Prevention to Scale: District-wide implementation of Keep A Clear Mind”—Keri Jowers and Sherry Gately. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, September 2007, 51(3) 73–91.

To read more about implementation frameworks, see Summary of Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature, a Center Brief published by the National Center available at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Publications/center-briefs/Implementation_Brief.pdf.

A recent article on implementation by Adelman and Taylor can be found in the National Center July 2007 E-Newsletter at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Publications/
enewsletters/2007/jan07.html#granteesatwork.

This section highlights a few updates from the prevention field. Please go to http://library.promoteprevent.org for more news items and resources.

Catching Early Warning Signs for Effective Dropout Prevention
Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs With Appropriate Interventions, a report published by the National High School Center, discusses effective ways in which school systems can focus their dropout prevention efforts. The report describes key school-level indicators of students most likely to drop out of high school, for example, grades, retention, attendance, and classroom behavior and engagement, claiming that they are better predictors of dropout than fixed status indicators such as gender, race, and poverty. If schools want to be effective in preventing dropout, they must focus prevention efforts on students identified by these key dropout indicators and target at-risk populations at their specific grade levels, beginning as early as sixth grade. Lastly, the report outlines steps that schools should follow if they want to build an early warning system for students on the verge of dropping out. This publication is available at http://www.betterhighschools.com/docs/nhsc_approachestodropoutprevention.pdf.

The Impact of After-School Programs That Promote Personal and Social Skills
This report, published by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), explores the effect of after-school programs that attempt to foster personal and social skills in youth. For this study, the authors reviewed reports and studies providing information on 73 programs with components that target personal and social skills in areas such as problem-solving, conflict resolution, self-esteem, and responsible decision-making. The authors report that “youth who participate in after-school programs improve significantly in three major areas: feelings and attitudes, indicators of behavioral adjustment, and school performance” and that programs using evidence-based skills training approaches are consistently successful in producing positive outcomes for youth. Read the full report at http://www.casel.org/pub/articles.php.

Engaging Administrators in School Emergency Management
In conjunction with the release of its Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant application (see Grant Opportunities below), the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools has released various publications to support school emergency management efforts for 2008. Engaging Administrators in School Emergency Management emphasizes the importance of engaging district and school-based administrators in proactive emergency management because they can “articulate support by providing the fiscal resources and time needed to plan for emergencies and to train all district personnel.” The publication reviews six strategies that are helpful for bringing administrators on board so that collaboration and response planning can take place before, rather than during or after, an emergency. This publication is available at http://rems.ed.gov/views/documents/HH_Vol2Issue5.pdf.

For other publications related to emergency management, visit the Web site for the REMS Technical Assistance Center at http://rems.ed.gov/index.cfm?event=publications.

The Grant Opportunities page is updated regularly with announcements of current public and private grant competitions. Here is one of the listings you will find:

Title: Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS)
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
Description: The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) is a grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that is designed to “provide funds to LEAs to strengthen and improve their emergency response and crisis plans, at the district and school-building level. Grantees are required to address all four phases of crisis planning: prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.”
Average Award: $100,000 for small districts (1–20 school facilities); $250,000 for medium-sized districts (21–75 school facilities); and $500,000 for large districts (76 or more school facilities).
Eligibility: LEAs, including charter schools that are considered LEAs under state law
Deadline: February 19, 2008
For more information: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/
01jan20081800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-120.pdf

We regularly add to a detailed listing of conferences and events occurring within the National Center and across the nation. For example,

Date: March 26–29, 2008
Location: Miami, Florida
Title: 19th National Youth Crime Prevention Conference & International Forum
Sponsor: Youth Crime Watch of America (YCWA)
Description: Challenging and motivating youth to make their communities and schools safer places is an effective strategy to reducing delinquency and youth victimization. In recognizing that youth play a key role in the crime prevention effort, this conference brings together youth aged 12–22 and the adults who work with them for four days of workshops, off-site educational fieldtrips, and roundtable discussions. Throughout the conference, participants will find inspiration, valuable skills, prevention knowledge, and national resources in the fight against crime, violence, and drugs.
Web site: http://www.ycwa.org/youthcon/index.html