Alcohol, Drugs, & Violence

Goal: Provide prevention and early intervention for aggression and drug and alcohol use.

Building on the existing Comprehensive Student Assistance Program (CSAP), two additional Drug/Alcohol Intervention Specialists will be hired to meet this goal. The CSA Program is designed to prevent early first use and to provide education about the health risks of alcohol and other drug use. CSAP currently provides part-time intervention specialists in 19 schools. New staff will provide services at two additional secondary schools. New and existing CSAP staff will implement Project Alert peer leadership program at 1 middle school and 1 high school. Program staff will also work with families to implement the Strengthening Multi-ethnic Families & Communities training.

Prevention and early intervention for violence will be addressed using a train the trainer model that incorporates newly developed anti-harassment and anti-bullying guidelines. Secondary schools staff will receive education and training on anti-harassment and dating violence reduction techniques. Trained school staff will then provide this training to secondary students and will also host anti-aggression workshops for their students. Elementary school staff will receive anti-aggression training using the Second Step and Steps to Respect curricula. A measure of success for the efficacy of the training will be the number of students who attend schools that received the anti-aggression training and report that they do not feel safe at school, using the 2000 School Climate Survey as a baseline.

“We are committed to raising our children so they can resolve problems without resorting to violence. These new grants focus our resources on the best ways to build safe schools that support the healthy development of our youth.”
-Tommy G. Thompson, Health & Human Services Secretary