The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention provides technical assistance and training to 147 school districts and communities that receive grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Upcoming SS/HS Grantee Events:
October 28-29, 2008
New Grantees Meeting
Recent SS/HS Events:
August 27, 2008
Social and Emotional Learning and Student Benefits: Research Implications for the SS/HS Core Elements
September 18, 2008
Gang Prevention Strategies in Latino Communities
For other SS/HS events, click here.
Welcome New Grantees
Congratulations on your Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grant award! The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention (National Center) is eager to offer support, information, and resources as your school district works to provide students with a safe and nurturing learning environment.
On our Web site, you will find technical assistance specialist (TAS) contact information, and resources for implementation, sustainability, evaluation, and evidence-based interventions. The Web site can be an important addition to the technical assistance services you receive from your TAS.
Visit the SS/HS Grantee Survival Guide for the First 6 Months at http://www.promoteprevent.org/new-grantee-map/map.html. This welcome site, published by the National Center, maps out planned meetings and recommended activities for the first six months of the grant.
The National Center Redesigns Its Virtual Library
The Promote Prevent Library housed at http://library.promoteprevent.org has been redesigned to better suit the needs of SS/HS grantees. Resources are now organized by concise categories that are relevant to work being done through the initiative. The library is updated monthly as new resources become available; hundreds of new resources have recently been added. Users can easily find resources by browsing the 11 main categories or by entering keywords.
SS/HS Evaluation Toolkit
The SS/HS Evaluation Toolkit gives grantees access to tools, information, and resources to design and implement an evaluation that provides information for the improvement of the program while fulfilling federal reporting requirements and obligations to the cross-site National Evaluation. The four sections of the Evaluation Toolkit guide project directors through the evaluation process, from hiring an evaluator to communicating evaluation results to help sustain the program. Visit the toolkit at http://www.promoteprevent.org/resources/evaluation_toolkit.
Cultural and Linguistic Competence (CLC) Toolkit
The National Center has published a toolkit on Cultural and Linguistic Competence that is based on a model of three interconnected arches that represent organizational structure, engagement, and services/activities/interventions. Together, the three arches provide the support needed to create a solid foundation for the SS/HS initiative. The toolkit includes benchmarks that grantees can use to gauge their level of implementation in each of the three areas. It also includes corresponding resources that grantees can use to move their initiatives to the next level of implementation.
Visit the toolkit at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Resources/clc/index.html.
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.
Creating Safer School Environments
The Consortium to Prevent School Violence Web site was launched November 13, 2007. It can be accessed at http://www.preventschoolviolence.org. The Consortium to Prevent School Violence (CPSV) is committed to reducing school violence nationally. The Web site provides fact sheets, research briefs, training PowerPoints, video materials, and Web links to relevant resources.
The Consortium is primarily a volunteer effort. CPSV is focused on advocacy that promotes effective implementation of positive school violence prevention practices, and fostering technical assistance, information dissemination, and professional development based on high-quality scientific research. CPSV promotes open access where researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in schools and surrounding communities are an integral part of the Consortium’s work.
The position statement of the Consortium to Prevent School Violence describes four key elements of an effective approach to creating safer schools: balance, communication, connectedness, and support. They recommend that schools
- Use a balanced approach to safety and appropriately allocate resources
- Build trust within the school and with the larger community to encourage open communication
- Create a connected social unit and reach out to marginalized students
- Create support systems within the school community to address students’ mental health needs and incidents of bullying and intimidation; and garner support from local law enforcement, mental health agencies, and politicians for assistance.
Our resource page Preparing and Responding to Crises in Schools also provides information on this important topic.
