Project Northland

Project Northland is a multilevel, multi year program proven to delay the age at which young people begin drinking, reduce alcohol use among those who have already tried drinking, and limit the number of alcohol-related problems of young drinkers. Designed for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (10 to 14 years old), Project Northland addresses both individual behavioral change and environmental change. Project Northland also strives to change how parents communicate with their children, how peers influence each other, and how communities respond to young adolescent alcohol use.

*info taken from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website:

http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/template_cf.cfm?page=model&pkProgramID=11&section=description

Strengthening Families Program

The Strengthening Families Program I (SFP-I) involves elementary school aged children (6 to 12 years old) and their families in family skills training sessions. SFP uses family systems and cognitive-behavioral approaches to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems. It builds on protective factors by improving family relationships, improving parenting skills, and increasing the youth's social and life skills. SFP offers incentives for attendance, good behavior in children, and homework completion to increase program recruitment and participation.

*info taken from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website:

http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/template_cf.cfm?page=model&pkProgramID=14

Life Skills Training

Life Skills Training (LST) is a program that seeks to influence major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation and early use of substances. Life Skills has distinct elementary (8 to 11 years old) and middle school (11 to 14 years old) curricula that are delivered in a series of classroom sessions over 3 years. The sessions use lecture, discussion, coaching, and practice to enhance students' self-esteem, feelings of self-efficacy, ability to make decisions, and ability to resist peer and media pressure.

LST consists of three major components that address critical domains found to promote substance use. Research has shown that students who develop skills in these three domains are far less likely to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors. The three components each focus on a different set of skills: Drug Resistance Skills, Personal Self-Management Skills, and General Social Skills.

*info taken from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website:

http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/template_cf.cfm?page=model&pkProgramID=9

Brief Strategic Family Therapy

Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) is an effective, problem-focused, and practical approach to the elimination of substance abuse risk factors. It successfully reduces problem behaviors in children and adolescents, 6 to 17 years, and strengthens their families. BSFT provides families with tools to decrease individual and family risk factors through focused interventions that improve problematic family relations and skill building strategies that strengthen families. It targets conduct problems, associations with anti-social peers, early substance use, and problematic family relations.

*info taken from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website:

http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/template_cf.cfm?page=model&pkProgramID=34