National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention

The National Conference, Strengthening Our Future: Developing Healthy Children and Youth, Strong Families, and Safe Communities, held April 26-30 in Kansas City, Missouri was attended by more than 600 grantee participants representing over 150 communities across the nation. We hope you enjoyed this opportunity to learn from peers and professionals in the field, network with other sites, National Center staff, and government project officers, and experience Kansas City.

A few final wrap-up points:

Building and Leveraging Social Capital
Julie Majors and George Lopez
Weslaco Independent School District - Weslaco , Texas
Safe Schools/ Healthy Students Program

The Study of Implementation in School-Based Preventive Interventions
A new research paper by Mark Greenberg and Celene Domitrovich of the Prevention Research Center, and Patricia Graczyk and Joseph Zins of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) addresses the science and practice of implementation of evidence-based programs. Greenberg, et al. present a theory-driven model for studying the implementation of programs in school-based settings, review strategies for practitioners to facilitate effective program delivery at three distinct program phases; pre-adoption, delivery, and post-delivery, and pose questions to the field which are under-researched or yet to be researched. To obtain The Study of Implementation in School-Based Preventive Settings: Theory, Research and Practice, email news@promoteprevent.org

Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Efforts to Engage Families
The Harvard Family Research Project's Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots is a series of reports compiling information from the Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database . "Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Efforts to Engage Families" examines how programs are collecting data on engaging families, identifies common evaluation questions, and outlines performance measures that programs use to assess their strategies for engaging families. The Snapshot emphasizes a variety of approaches programs take to understanding how families fit into their programming, from the types of data they collect to what they hope to learn from the data. To access the Evaluation Snapshot (and the Evaluation Database), visit http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/afterschool/resources/snapshot4.html

Article Highlights the Grandparent-Grandchild Relationship in Parenting
Featured on SAMHSA's Website, A Family Guide to Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy and Drug-Free, "Building a Grand Relationship Helps Keep Youth Drug-Free" discusses the role of grandparenting in raising today's youth. Drawing from an AARP survey on grandparent-grandchild relationships and a report from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the article offers grandparents eight tips to help them support their grandchildren in remaining drug-free. To access the article, please visit http://family.samhsa.gov/get/family_time/grandparent.aspx

For a complete listing of events, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/events/national_events.htm

July
July 6-9, 2004: New York, NY
Seventh Annual Summer Institute: "Educating Minds and Hearts: Safe Schools, Healthy Character Development, Academic Success, and Social Emotional Education" The Center for Social and Emotional Education and The City University of New York (sponsors). This Institute focuses on ways educators can establish effective, high quality social emotional education (SEE) and character education programs in schools.
http://www.csee.net

July 10-15, 2004: Stevens Point, WI
National Wellness Institute 29th Annual National Conference
Conference programs, workshops, and featured speakers will introduce "best practices" along the theme "Creating Optimal Wellness Environments," ready for use in multidimensional settings - health care and healing, underserved populations, and community wellness.
http://www.nationalwellness.org/TheConference2K4/index.php

August
August 26-28, 2004 : San Diego , CA
Fifth Annual National Leadership Conference
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (sponsor)
The conference title is: "Recognizing Our Collective Responsibility: Kicking Things up a Notch.".
http://www.dgimeetings.com/NLC/index.htm

September
September 5-8, 2004 : Alexandria , VA
VOICES IN ACTION - Youth Violence Prevention Symposium
STOP the Violence - Students Taking on Prevention (sponsor)
This conference is intended for everyone who is concerned with youth violence on the local, state, and national levels. Workshop and Roundtable Discussion proposals are now being accepted.
http://www.fccla.com/fcclastop/whatsnew/whatsnew.html

For a complete listing of funding opportunities, please visit http://www.promoteprevent.org/resources/funding_resources/default.asp

June
Title: Challenge Grants
Funder: Corporation for National & Community Service
Description: The purpose of these challenge grants is to assist nonprofit organizations in securing previously untapped sources of private funds to build sustainable service and volunteer programs. Organizations receiving funds under this notice must either greatly expand services by engaging citizens in meeting community needs or offer new services through expanded citizen engagement.
Award: $500,000-1,000,000
Eligibility: The Corporation encourages all eligible non-profit organizations, including faith-based and secular community organizations, intermediary organizations, associations of volunteer centers, Indian tribal organizations and community foundations.
Deadline: June 8, 2004
For more information: http://www.nationalservice.org/whatshot/PDFs/04ChallengeNotice.pdf

July
Title: Presidential Freedom Scholarships
Funder: Corporation for National and Community Service
Description: The program and scholarships awarded are intended to highlight and promote service and citizenship by students and to recognize students for their leadership in these areas.
Award: $1000
Eligibility: Recommendations should be for students in their junior or senior year of high school
Deadline: July 16, 2004
For more information: http://www.nationalservice.org/scholarships

Title: Schools as Centers of Community: A National Search
Funder: KnowledgeWorks Foundation
Description: The national search is looking for schools that exemplify the growing trend in school design/construction toward greater community use and receptivity to community resources that support student and community success.
Award: One entry will be awarded a $5000 grant and the Foundation's "Award for Excellence"
Eligibility: All existing public schools in addition to schools currently in the process of being designed and developed.
Deadline: Entries will be accepted through July 23, 2004
For more information: http://www.kwfdn.org/ProgramAreas/Facilities/builder.html

August
Title: Research-Based Programs on Violence Prevention and Intervention
Funder: American Psychological Foundation
Description: The goals of these research-based programs are to encourage the transfer of psychological science with regard to violence and its prevention and intervention strategies; support the implementation of innovative community-based programs within difference social settings; and provide seed money to establish promising interventions proposed by community-based organizations or to continue community programs that are already successful.
Award: Up to $20,000
Eligibility: Applicants (primary investigators) must be psychologists holding a doctoral degree engaged in research-based program implementation related to violence prevention. Special consideration will be given to programs with a strong foundation in violence prevention and intervention research and those that show promise for broad-based community support.
Deadline: August 15, 2004
For more information: http://www.apa.org/apf/rfpviolprev.pdf