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Project SUCCESS© (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) prevents and reduces substance use among at-risk, multi-problem high school adolescents. Developed and tested with youth 14 to 18 years old, the program places trained social workers in schools to provide a full range of substance use prevention and early intervention services. Social workers use a variety of intervention strategies, including:

  • Information dissemination
  • Normative and preventive education
  • Counseling and skills training
  • Problem identification and referral
  • Community-based processes
  • Environmental approaches

In addition, Project SUCCESS links the school to the community’s continuum of care, referring both students and families to human services organizations, including substance abuse treatment agencies.

Project SUCCESS helps adolescents with emotional, learning, and behavioral problems expressed in behaviors such as fighting, cutting class, and talking back to teachers. The program teaches resistance and social competency skills for:

  • Communication
  • Decision-making
  • Stress and anger management
  • Problem-solving
  • Resisting peer pressure

A master’s level social worker provides the school with a full range of substance abuse prevention and early intervention services to help decrease risk factors and enhance protective factors related to substance abuse. Program components include:

  • Prevention Education Series: The social worker conducts a six to eight session substance abuse prevention education program for as many 9th graders as possible through a health class or another appropriate class.

  • Individual Assessment: The social worker meets individually with students referred by the principal, assistant principals, guidance counselors, teachers, parents, or students themselves to determine the need for services related to substance abuse.

  • Individual and Group Sessions: When appropriate, the social worker will recommend that students participate in a series of individual or group sessions during school.  These would be time-limited from three to 12 sessions, depending on the participants’ needs.  Referred students attend one of seven different groups based on their developmental differences, substance use, and family history of substance abuse.  Groups with a focus on prevention target:
    • newcomers
    • non-users who are stressed by their choices
    • seniors who are ambivalent about graduating
    • children of substance abusing parents
    • students who are in recovery
    • students with issues that are hard to pinpoint without more time.

Groups with a focus on early intervention include:

    • substance abusers
    • children of substance abusing parents who are also substance abusers
    • substance abusers who are more concerned about problematic relationships with peers or parents.

Individual sessions are also scheduled as appropriate.

  • Parent Programs: Parents attend an evening dinner meeting with a speaker who discusses what they can do to prevent and reduce substance use.

  • Other Programs:  The social worker coordinates other universal activities for the entire student body and/or staff to help promote safe schools and healthy students. These may include Red Ribbon Week activities, a club for students who are committed to being substance free, or trainings for staff and faculty. 

  • Referral: School social workers refer students and parents who require treatment, more intensive counseling, or other services to appropriate agencies or practitioners in the community.

Adolescents participating in Project SUCCESS showed a significant 37% overall decrease in substance use as compared to adolescents in the comparison group who did not participate in Project SUCCESS. Of the adolescents using substances, 23% of those in the Project SUCCESS program quit using, whereas only 5%in the comparison condition quit. For those adolescents who did not quit using substances, there was still a significant reduction in mean substance use ranging between 17% to 26.6% among Project SUCCESS participants.  They also showed a decrease in problem behaviors and decreased associations with peers who use substances.

Posttest data regarding use during the previous 30 days revealed that of students in the second year of Project SUCCESS (n=78) who reported using at pretest:

  • 33% (15 of 46) reported no longer using alcohol
  • 45% (18 of 40) reported no longer using marijuana
  • 23% (11 of 48) reported no longer using tobacco

Project SUCCESS was found to be effective with both genders, students from various ethnic groups, and across grade levels from the 9th to 12th grades. Project SUCCESS benefits not only students who participated directly in the program but also those students (the control group) who participate indirectly by associating with Project SUCCESS students.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) recognizes Project SUCCESS as a model program. SAMSHA’s Model Programs are well-implemented, well-evaluated programs, meaning they have been reviewed by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) according to rigorous standards of research. Developers, whose programs have the capacity to become Model Programs, have coordinated and agreed with SAMHSA to provide quality materials, training, and technical assistance for nationwide implementation. Model Programs score at least 4.0 on a 5-point scale on Integrity and Utility, based on the NREPP review process.

Youth First works in partnership with area schools to secure funding and to insure the highest quality coordination and implementation.  Youth First provides:

  • A trained Youth First social worker to implement the program, help with identifying students appropriate for the program, and work with the school to improve each student’s individual academic and behavioral performance.
  • Supplies, materials, and incentives for students.
  • Evaluation tools, data collection, and data analysis to measure outcomes.
  • Program coordination, including assistance in successfully integrating the program in respective school cultures and schedules.
  • Technical assistance as needed.
  • Collaborative efforts to secure future funding for the program.

 

 

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