Grant: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for up to a four year total of $15.6 million to fund STOP Act grants aimed at preventing alcohol use among underage youth in communities across the nation.
The STOP Act program was created to strengthen collaboration among communities, the Federal Government, state, local and tribal governments in order to enhance effective efforts for reducing alcohol use among youth. This mission includes disseminating timely information to communities about state-of-the-art practices and initiatives that have proven to be effective in preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth. The STOP Act program enhances, not supplants, effective local community initiatives for preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth.
Amount: SAMHSA anticipates providing funding up to $50,000 annually in individual grants for up to 78 grantees for up to a four year period. Actual amounts may vary, depending on the availability of funds.
Eligibility: The application must be submitted by domestic public and private non- profit entities that are current or former Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grantees and who have not previously received a STOP Act award.
Application: Requests for a complete application package for SP-12-003 can be made from SAMHSA at 1-877-SAMHSA7 [TDD: 1-800-487-4889]. The required documents may also be downloaded from the SAMHSA Web site at http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/.
Contact: For questions about program issues contact Dan Fletcher at (240) 276-2578 or email dan.fletcher@samhsa.hhs.gov.
For information on grants management and budget issues contact Virginia Simmons at (240) 276-1422 or email virginia.simmons@samhsa.hhs.gov.
PCCD’s Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County
Grant: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) is now accepting concept papers to fund programs that benefit children of Luzerne County. Priority consideration will be given to projects that are data-driven and supported by research as to their effectiveness. The goal of the initiative under this solicitation is to support programs that benefit the health, safety and general welfare of children of Luzerne Count, and must be applicale and/or accessible to children residing in Luzerne County.
Funder: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Funding Available: $2,166,750.
Contact: All questions must be sent by email to Wendy Poston at wposton@pa.gov in order for all potential applicants to benefit from this process. Answers will be available to all parties who register to receive them through the email process.
More grant information can be found here, click on Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County under Funding Announcement Title.
Starting on July 1, 2012, all Boston public transportation systems will be banning alcohol-related advertisements from subway cars, trains, and buses. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) said that ad revenue will “drop by about $1.5 million in the first year of the alcohol ad ban.” New York City and Chicago, two other cities with major public transit systems, will still run equipped with alcohol advertisements.
MBTA already bans advertisements for “tobacco, firearms, violence and nudity.”
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth is accepting Request for Proposals (RFPs) to fund Healthy Communities Action Team (HCAT) grants.
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth announces its 2nd Healthy Communities Action Team (HCAT) RFP funding opportunity.
Virginia organizations (schools, faith centers, community service boards, clubs, etc.) are eligible to submit proposals. Individual grant awards will not exceed $40,000 per year/$80,000 total for two years. The grant period will be from July 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012.
Deadline: March 27, 2012.
For more information, please view the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth website.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be evaluating healthy and safety risks of “dissolvables,” which are smokless tobacco products. Dissolvables can come in the form of flavored mints, dissolvables strips to put on the tongue, or smokeless tobacco sticks. These products are not used to prevent further tobacco use but to aid nicotine cravings in places where smoking is banned.
The FDA is investigating if these products put children at risk for nicotine addiction or poisoning. Two companies will be test marketing smokeless tobacco products in different cities in the country – R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will be testing Camel brand Orbs, Strips, and Sticks, all smokeless tobacco products. The other company, Star Scientific Inc., will be testing Ariva and Stonewall, two dissolvable tobacco products.
To read more about the FDA’s evaluation, click here.
The Training Schedule has been updated with new online training dates for the month of February. There is also another Classroom Management Strategies Webinar scheduled for Wednesday, January 29th at 2pm ET. If you missed this past Tuesday’s webinar, you can certainly attend this one. Click here to reserve a spot!
Alcohol distributors are limited to having a certain amount of exposure on ordinary mediums such as radio, television, and print. Their advertisements are meant to resonate to an audience that is legally allowed to consume alcohol. However, there are different constraints on the Internet, that allow them to reach younger audiences, especially on social media websites.
David Jernigan is the Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He believes that young people are being exposed to alcohol-related advertisements and imagery mostly on the Internet through social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Jernigan states that the alcohol advertisements on the Internet are “far more than I think most parents or adults are aware of.” He deemed the Internet “the wild west without a sheriff.”
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the organization in charge of responsible advertising and marketing of alcoholic beverages, set forth new guidelines for alcohol companies to follow if they have social networking websites open to public view. Some of these guideline include “age-gating” before a person is allowed to enter the site. The legal age for the consumption of alcohol in the United States is 21 and older. The Council believes that “Social networking sites are used primarily by adults, which makes these platforms responsible and appropriate channels for spirits marketers.” However, considering that 22% of Facebook users are between the ages of 13 and 20, Jernigan hopes for tighter content controls as today’s technology becomes more advanced and it’s users become smarter.
This week we have a three-day long webinar series to kick start the new year. Come to one or come to them all. View the Training Schedule if any suit your interest. Or, just click on the links below to register faster…
The Superbowl is not only known for football but also for the memorable television commercials that companies spend millions of dollars trying to vie for a spot during this grind iron championship. Along with anticipated advertisements come criticism or praise from the millions of viewers who watch the game with family and friends.
The Monday following the Superbowl, marks the day also known as the Drug-Free Action Alliance’s (DFAA) Big Bowl Vote. It is the opportunity for young teens to take a survey on the commercials shown during the big game. The reason for this survey is to better understand student preferences and measure appeal to alcohol advertising.
After this survey is conducted, DFAA will collect and summarize the data. The data will be used to educate people about the effects alcohol advertisements have on young people. Since social media plays a big role in the life of today’s teen, DFAA will encourage young people to tweet about the commercials they see during the Superbowl. To visit DFAA’s official Big Bowl Vote website, click here.
Comprehensive tests and evaluations show increased knowledge about decision-making amongst youth, a reduction in risk factors and an increase in protective factors.
The Prevention Center at Penn State examined the return on investment of seven of these research-based programs supported by the PCCD. They determinded that not only did these prevention programs pay for themselves, but actually represented a potential $317 million return to the Commonwealth in terms of reduced corrections costs, welfare and social services burden, drug and mental health treatments, and increased employment and tax revenue.
Botvin LifeSkills Training showed the highest per dollar return yielding more the $25 for every dollar invested. An estimated 20,000 Pennsylvania middle school students currently receive the Botvin LifeSkills Training program at approximately 100 sites statewide.
Federal funding for prevention has declined dramatically over the past few years and schools are finding it more and more difficult to fund prevention programs. All the more reason for communities and schools to use their prevention funds wisely. During these difficult economic times, it is important to choose programs that have the potential to pay for themselves through crucial cost savings.
Effective communication is the respectful exchange of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs between a speaker and a listener in such a way that the listener interprets the message the same way the speaker intended it.
Non-Verbal
Speaker and Listener
Maintain Eye Contact.
Facial Expressions, such as smiling and nodding should show interest.
Your body language and gestures should be confident but inviting.
Find a physical distance that has you near enough to talk to each other easily but not so close that you feel crowded.
Verbal
Speaker
Your words should match your body language.
Ask both specific and open-ended questions.
Don’t monopolize the conversation.
Keep your tone of voice clear and respectful.
Listener
Use Active and passive listening.
Let the other person finish sentences; don’t interrupt.
Summarize what you have heard and check for understanding.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award $10 million to enable national organizations to provide mentoring services to special high-risk youth populations.
The goal of the program is to reduce juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, truancy, and other problem and high-risk behaviors.
Funding priority will go to groups that have mentoring programs ready for implementation. Only national programs may apply.
Deadline is February 25, 2009
Click here to for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
On Thursday, DemopolisMiddle School located in Marengo County, Alabama hosted its first awards ceremony for their students who participated in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
Almost 200 students took part in the LST Middle School program which promotes healthy alternatives to risky behavior through activities designed to teach students how to resist peer pressures, develop greater self-esteem and cope with anxiety. Throughout the program, students learned a series of skills such as decision making, assertiveness and effective communication to help them make healthy choices and avoid risks.
While the program is now in its second year in Demopolis, this is the first year that all sixth-graders took part in the program, which will soon be brought to JohnEssexSchool and the Linden City Schools system.
Every dollar invested in substance-abuse prevention yields $10 in savings, according to researchers from Iowa State University who recently presented their findings to the United Nations.
Researchers Richard Spoth, director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at Iowa State, and colleague Max Guyll told attendees at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime/World Health Organization meeting in December that studies of PPSI’s Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) and Life Skills Training Program (LST) demonstrated significant cost benefits.
The research estimated how many cases of drug use each intervention prevented, then compared the cost of each successful intervention to the cost savings to the community. Spoth and Guyll said that ISFP yielded a $9.60 return for each $1 invested in preventing alcohol disorders, while LST has a $9.98 return on investment in terms of preventing methamphetamine use.
The International Narcotics Control Board has asked Spoth to help develop a report on the state of the art of prevention. The reports on ISFP and LST are available online.
Effective July 1, 2009, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will award grants up to $100,000 to local law enforcement agencies. These grants will enable the selected agencies to expand their present efforts in addressing alcohol-related problems through a comprehensive ABC program that will encompass a wide range of strategies.
If your agency is selected, your sworn officers assigned to the project will work closely with ABC investigators and receive training in ABC law, alcohol enforcement strategies, and community resources.
Click here for more information and to read the official grant announcement.
Recently, Congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) introduced the Support 21 Act of 2009, a bill that would strengthen local and national efforts to prevent underage drinking. Rep. Roybal-Allard announced the bill during CADCA´s 19th annual National Leadership Forum, the nation´s largest conference for community alcohol and drug prevention advocates and substance abuse professionals.
The Support 21 Act of 2009 (HR 1028) authorizes a new highly visible media campaign to educate the public about underage drinking laws and build support for their enforcement. It asks the National Academy of Sciences to provide a report to Congress about the influence of drinking alcohol on the development of the adolescent brain. The bill also authorizes supplemental grant funds to current and former Drug Free Community grantees to work with pediatric health care providers and parents to reduce underage drinking. Additional grants would also be provided to assist pediatric medical organizations in educating providers on best practices for screening their adolescent patients, doing brief interventions, and making appropriate referrals. Finally, the bill will establish a new focus in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on underage drinking surveillance and prevention.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is a great place to find information and resources to help faith-based and community organizations navigate the application process for federal grants. While there are no special grant programs dedicated solely to faith-based or community organizations, the center describes the grant programs open to them and updates information on grant announcements, workshops, and partnership ideas. Check the center’s materials and their guide to funding.
These funding opportunities may be applicable to the Botvin LifeSkills Training program, an evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention program with over 25 years of peer-reviewed research behind it.
While preparing grant applications can sometimes be a bit challenging, LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The White House Office of National Drug Control (ONDCP), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced the availability of new, Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program funds. ONDCP expects to award approximately $17 million – 130 new grants – to community drug prevention coalitions throughout the United States. The grant awards are subject to the availability of funds. The deadline to submit DFC grantee applications is Friday, March 20, 2009.
The DFC support program is a collaborative Federal program sponsored by ONDCP, and administered in partnership with SAMHSA. The program aims to establish and strengthen communities to prevent, reduce, and eliminate youth substance use and abuse. The DFC program was created in 1997 under the Drug Free Communities Act, and was reauthorized in 2001, and again in 2006. The latest reauthorization extends the DFC program for an additional five years, until 2012.
Applications for the Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program (No. SP-09-002) are available by calling SAMHSA’s Health Information Network at 1-877-SAMHSA7 or by downloading http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/2009/fy2009.aspx or www.grants.gov.
Funding Name: Tobacco-Use Prevention: Grades Six through Twelve
Eligible Applicants: local educational agencies
Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) funds support health education efforts aimed at the prevention and reduction of tobacco use. TUPE in grades six through twelve is funded through a competitive application process. Funds are awarded to local educational agencies that propose to replicate scientifically research-proven, effective programs.
Local educational agencies must be certified tobacco-free by July 1, 2008. Funding is available to districts, charter schools, consortium leads, and county offices of education that serve students in grades six through twelve.
The ESA Foundation supports positive programs and opportunities that make a difference in the quality of life, health and welfare of America’s youth. The Foundation strives to use the collective power of the interactive entertainment industry as a means of creating positive social impact in communities. The Foundation is currently accepting applications from organizations that provide youth programs in one or more of the following areas:
skills and personal development
general health and welfare
risk behavior prevention
education and/or multimedia arts/technology related or applied
Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that have
or will have projects/programs in two or more states in the US and serves youth between the ages of 7 and 18.
Contact The ESA Foundation for more grant- and program-specific details: http://www.theesa.com/foundation/application.asp
The White House formally announced today that Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske has been nominated as the new director of the ONDCP. While the position, more commonly known as the “drug czar” is no longer a part of the Cabinet, it still requires Senate confirmation.
The White House Release:
Gil Kerlikowske has been the Chief of Police for Seattle for 9 years where he has been credited publicly with bringing down crime rates to record lows. He is the current president of the Major City Chiefs Association, which is composed of the 56 of the largest enforcement agencies in the United States. He also served as Police Commissioner for the City of Buffalo, where he served until 1998, when he left to become the Deputy Director of the COPS program for the Department of Justice.
An estimated 16 new Mentoring grants will be awarded (approximating $75,000 per grant for up to two years) to drug and alcohol prevention community coalitions representing a cross-section of rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities. The actual award amount may vary, depending upon the availability of funds and the progress achieved by the awardees.
The purpose of the DFC Mentoring Program is to provide grant funds to effective current DFC grantees (mentors) to facilitate the development and/or expansion of new community drug prevention coalitions (mentees) which seek to prevent substance abuse amoung youth. By building the capacity of drug free community groups to assess the unique challenges facing their communities and assisting in the organization of a coalition-based response to those challenges, the mentoring system better prepares mentee groups to implement effective prevention strategies.
To be eligible for a DFC Mentoring grant, interested drug prevention community coalitions must have been in existence for five years; be a current DFC grantee or grantee applicant; have achieved measurable results in youth drug and alcohol prevention; have dedicated staff, volunteers, or members to assist the mentee coalitions; and must demonstrate consensus and community support from local key sectors and stakeholders, including youth, parents, businesses, media, law enforcement, government, and religious and civic organizations, among others.
To review the grant application or its requirements, or to learn more about the Drug Free Communities Support Program, click here. Mentoring grants are awarded through a competitive peer review process.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the U.S. Justice Department will award funds from the 2009 Recovery Act to support local youth mentoring programs.
The OJJDP FY 09 Recovery Act Local Youth Mentoring Initiative is currently accepting applications from nonprofits, government entities, schools and others for the program. Grants will support “local organizations that develop, implement, or expand local mentoring programs leading to measurable, positive outcomes for at-risk youth.”
Application deadline and funding amount have not yet been determined.
Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, developer of the highly acclaimed Botvin LifeSkills Trainingsubstance abuse and violence prevention program, was an invited speaker at a scientific meeting sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in collaboration with the U.S. Army and other national organizations. The two-day meeting, titled “Addressing Substance Abuse and Co-morbidities Among Military Personnel, Veterans and Their Families: A Research Agenda,” was held in Bethesda, MD, on January 6 – 7, 2009.Dr. Botvin described the LifeSkills Training program, summarized the 25 years of research supporting its effectiveness, and discussed the potential application of the LST approach for military personnel and their family.
The meeting focused on understanding the intervention needs of military personnel, veterans, and their families regarding substance abuse, as well as the potential of current prevention and treatment approaches for the military. Recent reports indicate that military personnel returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq experience serious challenges including traumatic brain injury (TBI), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. “The stress that these service members and their families are under can unfortunately lead to substance abuse problems,” Dr. Botvin noted. “This conference was an extremely important first step in applying the advances in prevention and treatment to this population,” he continued. The LST approach offers considerable potential. In addition to the school-based LST program, similar approaches have been developed for families and young adults in the workplace. Application of the LST model to the military would be an important new adaptation of this successful prevention model.
Participants reviewed existing prevention interventions to understand how to successfully conduct research in military and veteran settings. In a recent study of soldiers who had returned from Iraq, those screened several months after their return reported more mental health concerns and were referred at significantly higher rates for treatment than those at the initial post-deployment screening. Alcohol problems were frequently reported, but very few personnel were referred to alcohol treatment. Military operations have been described as particularly difficult for those in the reserve and National Guard. Deployed reserve and National Guard personnel with reported combat exposures are at increased risk of new-onset heavy weekly drinking, binge drinking, and alcohol-related problems. The National Institute on Drug Abuse plans on developing a new grant initiative to address the problem of substance abuse and related co-morbidities in the military.
The Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation is a direct funding supporter for children in the areas of health and wellness such as childhood disease research foundations, child safety organizations, and organizations that serve children with special needs.
The type of grants funded are:
Individual Project grants – These grants are generally for one-time purchases or to fulfill a short-term need, such as the purchase of materials or equipment.
Organization Program grants – These grants fund start-up or operational costs for ongoing programs. Examples include funds for research, health and wellness educational programs, or financial assistance for children and families in-need.
Grants will be a one-time contribution and generally range from $1,000 USD to $10,000 USD, but the average grant is $1,500. Grant requests should be in line with an organization’s overall budget.
Grants are reviewed several times during the year. The application deadlines for 2009 are at the end of April, July, and October, and January 31, 2010.
The Nationwide Foundation is dedicated to making strategic philanthropic investments to meet the critical needs of communities.
The Foundation seeks applications from organizations that address emergency and basic needs (food banks, disaster relief, and emergency), stabilization needs (rehabilitation programs and organizations that provide safety programs), individual development needs (youth mentoring) and community enrichment needs (higher education, civic improvement, arts and culture).
Ineligible applicants include organizations that are not 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, fundraising events, individuals, athletic teams, research, public/private primary/secondary schools, or lobbying activities. The Nationwide Foundation generally supports organizations located in areas with Nationwide associate populations.
The Tiger Woods Foundation strives to help young women and men reach their full potential by supporting community and family development efforts.
The Foundation is seeking grant applicants that focus on providing opportunities to underserved youth, ages 5-17, with the average grant range between $2,500 and $25,000. The Foundation is particularly interested in programs that enhance the learning process for youth, enhance youth development, and that focus on youth in urban American cities.
Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations that have been in place for at least one year and non-salary programmatic support for year round programs are eligible to receive this grant.
Investing in addiction prevention programs yields a 10-1 return for society, according to researchers from Iowa State University (ISU) who studied the Iowa Strengthening Families Program and the LifeSkills Training Program.
Researchers Richard Spoth, Ph.D., and Max Guyll, Ph.D. detailed findings from the “Prevention’s Cost Effectiveness: Illustrative Economic Benefits of General Population Interventions” and “Prevention of Substance-related Problems: Effectiveness of Family-focused Prevention” studies for a conference sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Health Organization.
“Effective and efficient prevention promises to save possibly billions of dollars per year, provided we can learn how to effectively implement it on a larger scale,” said Spoth, director of ISU’s Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute (PPSI).
According to a recent study from the 2008 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), the majority of teens reported that their parents had discussed the risks of alcohol or marijuana with them. However, significantly less teens reported speaking with their parents about inhalants or prescription drug abuse.
Need help opening up the lines of communications with your children? The
Botvin LifeSkills TrainingParent Program is designed to help parents strengthen communication with their children and prevent them from using drugs. This powerful prevention tool is ideal for parenting workshops or individual use at home. The comprehensive guide and DVD included in this program contain materials and exercises that help parents keep their kids away from threats of tobacco, drugs, and violence. These tools help parents prepare their children for a successful transition from adolescence to early adulthood.
Alcohol Awareness Month (AAM) began in 1987 and encourages the public to focus on alcohol-related issues. Evidence-based programs can help schools, families and communities prevent and reduce underage drinking.
The results of over 20 studies published in major scientific journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association consistently show that the Botvin LifeSkills Trainingprogram dramatically reduces alcohol use among other substances. These studies further show that the program works with a diverse range of adolescents, produces results that are long-lasting, and is effective when taught by teachers, peer leaders, or health professionals.
Click here to view a list of all studies for the LST program.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse seeks partnerships to implement and evaluate proposed systems-level changes to facilitate the dissemination, adoption, implementation, and sustainability of proven, innovative drug abuse prevention, treatment, and business policies and practices.
The goal of this initiative is to enhance the quality of drug abuse prevention and treatment services through the implementation of evidence-based practices in ways that are likely to have replicable, sustainable, systemic impacts.
Click here to read the full grant announcement and view the multiple deadline dates
Are you implementing the substance abuse and violence prevention program Botvin LifeSkills Trainingin your schools? Then spread the word about you organization’s efforts to keep kids drug-free! Local media are always looking for success stories in the community.
Not sure how to get the word out?
Let your local news organizations, PTAs or government officials know about your dedication to substance abuse and violence prevention by sending them a press release.
It’s easy! Simply click here for a customizable press release that you can send via email or fax. Just upload your school’s logo, fill out your information and send.
The city of Kannapolis, NC is seeking applications from nonprofits with programs that would qualify for its 2009-2010 Community Development Block Grant fund allocation.
Funds are designated for activities that benefit low- and moderate-income residents in the city. These typically include programs that provide housing, child care, employment services, health services, drug-abuse prevention, mental-health services and education programs.
“We use these funds to help support nonprofits that provide services that fit within the city’s and HUD’s mission,” said Irene Sacks, director of business and community affairs. “These groups provide important services, from delivering hot meals to homebound residents to providing housing assistance to helping battle literacy issues in our community.”
Applications will be reviewed by the Community Development Commission and by city staff. The maximum grant amount is $5,000.
For more information or to request an application, contact Sherry Jones, the city’s community development program administrator, at sjones@ci. kannapolis.nc.us or 704-920-4332. Applications are also available to download from www.cityofkannapolis.com.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention is accepting applications to fund Partnerships for Success: State and Community Prevention Performance Grant (short title: Partnerships for Success).
This grant program is designed to provide eligible States and U.S. Territories with grant funds to achieve a quantifiable decline in State-wide substance abuse rates, incorporating a strong incentive to grantees that have met or exceeded their prevention performance targets by the end of Year 3.
Grant awards will be made to applicants with the established infrastructure and demonstrated capacity to reduce substance abuse problems and achieve specific program outcomes, as outlined in the RFA.
SAMHSA/CSAP intends to offer a performance incentive of $500,000.
Click here for more information and to view the official announcement
On this day in 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act which banned cigarette ads on TV and radio. It was one of the major bills passed by the U.S. Congress in response to the Surgeon General’s report that found cigarette smoking caused lung cancer and bronchitis.
The tobacco industry uses a variety of other marketing tools and strategies to influence people and attract new customers. The Botvin LifeSkills Training program addresses media influences and offers students techniques to identify, analyze and resist these influences. Here are some tips from the middle school program on how to resist media influence.
When you see or hear an ad that makes you want to go out and buy the product, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Did the ad convince me that I would be a better or happier person or improve myself in some way by using that product?
2. Do I feel that I would be more attractive if I followed the ad’s advice?
3. Do I feel that if I ignore the ad I will lose status with my friends or that something bad will happen?
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention is accepting applications for fiscal year 2009 for Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP Act) grants.
The purpose of this program is to prevent and reduce alcohol use among youth in communities throughout the United States. It was created to:
strengthen collaboration among communities, the Federal Government, and State, local and tribal governments
to enhance intergovernmental cooperation and coordination on the issue of alcohol use among youth
to serve as a catalyst for increased citizen participation and greater collaboration among all sectors and organizations of a community that first demonstrates a long-term commitment to reducing alcohol use among youth
to disseminate to communities timely information regarding state-of-the-art practices and initiatives that have proven to be effective in preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth.
Up to $50,000 award per year.
Click here for more information, eligibility requirements, and to view the full announcement.
Fifteen grants of up to $1,000 each will be awarded to service-learning projects focused on underage drinking prevention and vehicle safety, via a partnership between the State Farm insurance company and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Grants will go to teachers, school service-learning coordinators and community-based organizations that facilitate projects involving youths ages 5-25.
Applications for the Good Decisions program are due April 20, 2009.
The Office of Juvenille Delinquency Prevention has announced grants as part of their Tribal Youth Program.
OJJDP’s TYP supports and enhances tribal efforts to prevent and control delinquency and strengthen the juvenile justice system for American Indian/Alaska Native youth.
Since 1999, OJJDP has awarded 314 TYP grants to tribes throughout the country to develop and implement culturally sensitive delinquency prevention programs, interventions for court involved youth, improvements to the juvenile justice system, alcohol and substance abuse prevention programs, and mental health program services.
The Office Depot Foundation focuses on making a difference in children’s lives by supporting activities that serve, teach and inspire children, youth and families. The Foundation strives to enhance communities by supporting civic organizations and activities that address community needs.
Selected applicants will receive a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $10,000. The average award grant is apporximately $1,000. Eligible applicants include schools, libraries, government agencies or established 501(c)(3) organizations whose efforts make a differnce in children’s lives and/or build communities.
The Intel Corporation is committed to maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in the U.S. communities where the company has a major presence, through grants, donations, sponsorship, and other forms of philanthropy and giving.
Education Grants:
Intel has a strong interest in supporting K-12 and higher education, and community programs that deliver the kind of educational opportunities that all students will need to prepare themselves to succeed in the 21st century.
Community Site Grants:
Intel will provide grants, donations, and philanthropic support to additional programs that improve the quality of life in its site communities. Each request will be evaluated on the basis of the services offered and the program’s impact on the community, its focus on diversity and multiculturalism, its impact on the youth of our community, the cost-effectiveness of the program and its ability to be effectively measured and replicated, and the potential for Intel employee involvement.
Deadline: Rolling
Click here for more information on all Intel Grant opportunities.
In an effort to fight the meth epidemic in Plymouth, Indiana, the Bowen Center is implementing the Botvin LifeSkills Training program. Throughout the school year, students in 13 elementary, middle and junior high schools will receive four to eight LST sessions which teach personal self management skills, general social skills and drug resistance skills. Rather than merely teaching information about the dangers of drug abuse, Botvin LifeSkills Training promotes healthy alternatives to risky behavior. Studies testing its effectiveness show that LST cuts methamphetamine use by 68%.
While the program is initially being implemented in elementary and middle school, the program has the potential to continue into high school and there is even a Parent Program which is designed to help parent and guardians strengthen communication with their children and prevent them from using drugs.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will award R34 research grants to support projects that facilitate the implementation of evidence-based practices in addiction treatment and prevention.
NIDA is especially interested in projects that “advance the field of implementation science while simultaneously building the capacity of systems and service providers to conduct process improvement research.”
Nonprofits, for-profit entities, schools, government agencies, and others may apply.
Through the Community Grants Program, Best Buy seeks to support non-profit organizations that provide opportunities to young teens related to education, life skills, leadership skills or relationship development.
Special consideration will be given to programs that are high quality and serve a diverse population, build social, academic, leadership and/or life skills in early adolescents (primarily ages 13-18), show positive results against a community need and reach at-risk children in working families.
This year, Best Buy Children’s Foundation will give $1 million through the Community Grants Program. Administered grants will average $5,000-$7,000. Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations that are located within 50 miles of a Best Buy store or Distribution Center.
Out of a perfect score of 4.0, LST received a near-perfect score of 3.9 for Quality of Research (the quality of the research evidence supporting the effectiveness of LST) and a perfect 4.0 for Readiness for Dissemination (the quality of the LST curriculum materials, web site, training, technical assistance, and overall support infrastructure).
NREPP is part of SAMHSA’s efforts to help community organizations and state and local officials make informed decisions about evidence-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders.
Community-based nonprofits can tap into an extra $1 billion in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) — part of the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The money is intended to be used to boost the economy by reducing poverty, revitalizing low-income communities, and helping families become self-sufficient. Funds can be used to address needs like housing, education, employment, nutrition, and emergency services.
The Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award grants of up to $500,000 under its 2009 Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Discretionary Program: Initiative to Reduce Underage Drinking.
The program “seeks to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages to and the consumption of alcoholic beverages by persons serving in the U.S. Air Force who are younger than 21 years old,” according to the grant announcement. “The initiative will provide funds to local civilian communities to implement research-based and promising practices to enforce underage drinking laws and prevent underage service personnel from consuming alcohol in collaboration with active duty bases implementing the underage component of the Air Force’s Culture of Responsible Choices program.”
Application deadline is May 21. Only state agencies that administer the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws block grant may apply; a list of eligible agencies is posted online.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is seeking to partner with local grantmakers to fund projects that reduce violence in specific racial, ethnic, tribal, gender or sexually based, or rural/frontier communities.
The Local Funding Partnerships Program to Reducing Exposure to Violence, part of the foundation’s Vulnerable Populations program, is seeking “new, community-based, and culturally appropriate” programs “reflecting how language skills, significant cultural differences, education, income, and discrimination affect health outcomes.”
Applicants must be nominated by a “diversity-focused funder that is principally concerned with the population to be served.” A dollar-for-dollar matching grant is required, although 25 percent may come in the form of in-kind services.
Up to $1 million in grants is available in the 2009 grant cycle. Up to eight matching grants of between $50,000 to $200,000 each will be awarded.
Proposals may be submitted at any time throughout 2009 for consideration on May 1, 2009; September 1, 2009; and January 5, 2010.
For more details, see the complete call for proposals on the RWJF website.
To achieve optimal results, the Botvin LifeSkills Trainingprogram must be implemented carefully and completely. Just as important as what is taught is how the program is taught. The teaching techniques of facilitation and feedback, coaching of cognitive and behavioral skills, and behavioral rehearsal ensure that students fully understand and can demonstrate the key skills taught in the curriculum.
LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
Call 800-29304969 to find out more about training workshops or to request a training.
click here for a list of scheduled trainings in your area
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has announced a Field Initiated Demonstration Program.
The purpose of the program is to foster innovations and advancements in juvenile justice-related practice at the local, state, and tribal government levels. The program’s goal is to demonstrate the practical implications for policy and practice of innovative programs that enhance juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
HHCD is also actively involved in the Prevention Systems Committee of the Louisiana Drug Policy Board and the New Orleans Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. The organization works to transform communities in New Orleans by providing help, hope and healing to individuals and families so they can live healthy, productive and contributing lives.
The workshop consists of three sessions from the LifeSkills Training Parent Program. In addition to a short orientation, sessions also cover family communication, parental monitoring and being a good role model.
“The sessions that we do in the parent project, we talk about what parents need to raise children and what support they need,” said Heather Sanderson, a program coordinator for the city.
The workshop, held at City Church in Fairfield, was advertised with a Mother’s Day theme, however it was open to mothers, fathers and adults of all ages who want to make a difference to children. The workshop included lessons on communicating effectively with kids, including techniques for non-verbal communication “and how to avoid misunderstandings and assumptions,” Sanderson said.
It is a spin-off of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program that the city holds for area kids. The traditional LifeSkills program incorporates science-based teaching to give kids the skills to resist using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD). Sanderson said between 600 and 700 kids graduated from the most recent LifeSkills program.
CADCA’sGOT OUTCOMES! Coalition of Excellence Awardsare for coalitions that are effective change agents in their community – they have contributed to community-wide declines in their substance abuse problems. These model coalitions have undergone a comprehensive community assessment, used these data to develop a community-wide plan, implemented a truly comprehensive response to their local substance abuse problems, and as a result, can document the community changes they have helped bring about and their contributions to population-level substance abuse outcomes. If you think your coalition has what it takes, apply for the GOT OUTCOMES! Coalition of Excellence Award.
Awards will be given out in the following categories:
Milestones Award (community-level changes in intermediate outcomes)
This award is for newer coalitions (in existence for less than 5 years) that can demonstrate they are making progress toward long-term outcomes as indicated by measurable, population-level changes in intermediate outcomes (i.e., community risk and protective factors). Coalitions in this category have not yet achieved reductions in their long-term outcomes but can show that they are on the right path to success. Coalitions must demonstrate that their community plan is feasible and that the dominoes are falling down (e.g., reduction in perceived availability of marijuana as an intermediate outcome linked to the long-term outcome of reduction of 30-day marijuana use).
Coalition in Focus Award (multiple strategies toward reducing use for a single substance)
This category is for coalitions that have successfully focused in on addressing a SINGLE substance abuse problem. These coalitions can show how they have contributed to community-wide declines for a specific substance. Applicants may be coalitions with a single focus (e.g., underage drinking coalition or a meth coalition) OR coalitions focused on addressing multiple substances but have had particular success at addressing a specific substance. Coalitions must show how they have implemented multiple strategies to address the targeted substance or substance-related problem (e.g., reduced teen drunk driving accidents by conducting server stings using youth, implementing a conditional use permit ordinance, implementing an evidence-based alcohol education program in the schools, and “stepping up” enforcement of underage drinking policies).
Coalition of the Year Award (multiple strategies toward multiple aims)
This is the premier award for anti-drug coalitions. This category is for advanced coalitions that can demonstrate their contribution toward population-level reductions in substance abuse rates for multiple substances (e.g., underage drinking, meth use, prescription drug abuse, etc). These coalitions are targeting multiple substances and/or substance-abuse related problems in their community and have developed community-wide plans to address each of the targeted problems. Coalitions have implemented a comprehensive set of evidence-based strategies that include program, practice and policy changes and can show measurable community-wide declines in targeted substance abuse problems over time.
For questions, contact Evelyn Yang, Acting Deputy Director for Evaluation and Research at CADCA’s National Coalition Institute, at 1-800-54-CADCA (1-800-542-2322), ext. 243, or e-mail eyang@cadca.org.
The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award grants of up to $500,000 to support family drug court programs.
The OJJDP FY 09 Family Drug Courts Program supports efforts to “build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to develop and establish drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues.”
The program must provide services to the children of the parents in the program as well as to the parents.
States, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally-recognized tribal governments acting directly or through agreement with other public or private entities may apply for funding.
The Senate voted 91-1 to approve Kerlikowske’s nomination as director of the ONDCP. During his confirmation hearing, Kerlikowske promised a balanced, science-based approach to fighting illicit-drug use and faced few difficult questions from lawmakers.
“We are very optimistic that Director Kerlikowske will support President Obama’s prevention efforts as a way to combat not only drug abuse but also unemployment and crime,” said Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, an internationally known expert on drug abuse prevention and developer of the highly effective LifeSkills Training prevention programs. “Now more than ever, it is imperative that we focus our efforts on science-based prevention, which has been proven to reduce drug use and offers the potential for significant cost savings over time.”
Kerlikowske will not serve as a member of the presidential Cabinet but rather, he will have a strong ally in Vice President Joseph Biden, who helped shape federal drug policy while in the Senate. Kerlikowske who was the Chief of Police for Seattle for 9 years, supports combating drug use and crime with enforcement, prevention and treatment.
Historically the ONDCP has focused its prevention efforts on comprehensive drug policies and activities that include evidence-based prevention and early intervention programs. These programs have resulted in fewer first-time illicit drug users, significant reductions in youth drug use, and an increased perception of the adverse health and social consequences associated with drug use. Recently, the ONDCP announced plans to award $17 million in grants to community drug prevention coalitions across the country.
Now, as a result of a budget bill passed by the Pennsylvania Senate that would slash state funding, these programs could be in danger. The state Senate budget bill, would cut $4.7 million for evidence-based prevention and intervention programs, $3 million for research-based violence prevention programs, and $3.13 million in state support for Weed and Seed.
This action could mean fewer support services for at-risk youth and their families, an alarming increase in problem and risk behaviors among youth, and ultimately, more youth entering an already stressed criminal justice system.
Citizens are encourage to contact their local member of the House of Representatives and vote ”no” on Senate Bill 850.
“Last week CADCA sent a legislative alert encouraging you to fax letters to your members of Congress to ask them to make a minimum funding level of $294.8 million for the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program, which is the FY 2009 enacted level, a top appropriations priority. If you have not already responded to this alert, please click here to use CADCA’s Capwiz system and fax your legislators.
In his fiscal year 2010 budget request, President Obama recommended eliminating the entire State Grants portion of the SDFSC program. His budget also proposes adding $100 million to the National Programs portion of SDFSC for competitive grants to LEAs. This new program would result in a limited number of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) being funded.
If Congress implements this draconian cut, the current school based prevention infrastructures would be decimated in almost every LEA in the nation. Eliminating this program also has major implications for the field at large, because it serves as the portal into schools for other substance abuse prevention programs, as well as helping LEA data collection efforts through student surveys.
Our field cannot afford to see the SDFSC program zeroed out or cut below the current funding level of $294.8 million. Although we have faced similar cuts in the past, if this program is going to survive, we cannot be complacent. Without sustained and aggressive advocacy from the field, this program could be lost forever. Both Congress and the Administration must hear from the field en masse if we have any hope of restoring the program.
As the appropriations process moves forward, CADCA will send out legislative alerts at key points to have the maximum influence. No two alerts will be the same, so it is critical that the field responds to every alert.”
The U.S. Department of Justice will award competitive grants of up to $150,000 to Weed and Seed Communities to support efforts to fight crime, drugs and gangs.
The Justice Department’s Community Capacity Development Office’s FY 10 Weed and Seed Communities Competitive Program provides discretionary grant funding to nonprofits and government agencies in communities that were not previously approved Weed and Seed sites but have been so designated by Congress.
Weed and Seed communities must “work to reduce crime and improve the quality of life for residents in a community primarily through the redeployment of existing public and private resources, addressing both crime and social related problems that without proper intervention often lead to violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity,” according to the Justice Department.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) announces the availability of supplemental funds to support the expansion of methamphetamine prevention services and grant activities.
The purpose of this program is to allow the current 12 Prevention of Methamphetamine Abuse grantees to continue working and building on their previous activities and programs funded in announcement SP-06-005.
Eligibility for this funding opportunity is limited to the 12 methamphetamine prevention grantee funded under the FY 2006 Prevention of Methamphetamine Abuse RFA.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) hosts “The Power of Change,” a conference to address issues related to civic and character education, crisis planning, mental and physical health, substance abuse, violence prevention, and more. There is no registration fee for the Aug. 3-5 conference in Maryland, so register early as space is limited.
LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
June 2, 2009
Hampton Inn Philadelphia Airport
8600 Bartram Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19153
• Review the theory and research behind the LST Middle School Program
• Practice teaching strategies using lessons from the curriculum
• Learn instructional and classroom management strategies for successful program implementation
• Enhance your skill capacity to teach the LST curriculum with program fidelity.
Training certificates awarded. Breakfast and lunch provided. Seats are reserved on a first come, first served basis. For information on cost, materials and accommodations, click here.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) seeks exploratory/developmental grant applications to develop collaborations integrating developmental neuroscience and adolescent drug abuse treatment.
The primary goal of this funding opportunity is to facilitate translational research that ultimately integrates findings from research on brain development, cognition and neuroscience into the development of innovative and effective, developmentally sensitive drug abuse treatments for adolescents.
$1.5 million is available to support multiple awards up to $200,000.
RARITAN TWP. — County middle schools are invited to apply for a grant-funded prevention program that teaches skills to reduce the use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs and violence.
Botvin LifeSkills Training will be available in the fall for grades 6-8. Students will learn and practice skills such as decision making, assertiveness and effective communication.
LST is an evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention program with more than 25 years of peer-reviewed research. It was developed by Gilbert J. Botvin, professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College and director of Cornell’s Institute for Prevention Research.
Yesterday the Senate passed a bill that will empower the government to regulate cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. The legislation empowers the FDA to regulate the tobacco industry. The bill will go to President Obama for signing.
Under this new law, the FDA has the power to order removal of hazardous ingredients, restrict the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, clamp down on sales to young people, require stronger warning labels and stop use of characterizations such as ‘light’ or ‘low tar’ that give people the impression of lower health risks.
In addition the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will regulate the following:
• Immediately, tobacco makers can no longer make claims that their products pose fewer health risks.
• Cigarettes marketed as “light,” “low” tar or “mild” will be banned within a year.
• Within nine months, the FDA must publish marketing restrictions that will take effect six months later.
• Within 12 months, new warning labels will be placed on smokeless tobacco products.
• Within 15 months, tobacco companies must disclose the ingredients in their products.
• Within two years, the FDA must issue rules on graphic warnings for cigarettes that will cover half the pack. The labels will take effect 15 months later.
The National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) and the National Prevention Network (NPN) have issued a call for applications for the 2009 National Exemplary Award for Innovative Substance Abuse Prevention Programs, Practices, and Policies (2009 Exemplary Awards).
Recipients of the award will be recognized at NPN’s annual Research Conference on September 17 in Anaheim, California.
To qualify for an Exemplary Award, applicants must meet the following criteria. You must be:
A prevention program, practice, or policy;
Able to document success in a logical, quantifiable manner; and
Nominated by a national organization that is familiar with your work
Click here for more information and to view the application packet.
LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
• Practice teaching strategies using lessons from the curriculum
• Learn instructional and classroom management strategies for successful program implementation
• Enhance your skill capacity to teach the LST curriculum with program fidelity.
Training certificates awarded. Breakfast and lunch provided. Seats are reserved on a first come, first served basis. For information on cost, materials and accommodations, click here.
The grant application deadline is fast approaching for the Strengthening Communities Fund, which will award $50 million in grants to nonprofit organizations as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — the Obama administration’s bailout legislation.
Program funding is intended to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations, whether secular or faith based, to address the broad economic recovery issues present in their communities, including helping low-income individuals secure and retain employment, earn higher wages, obtain better-quality jobs, and gain greater access to state and Federal benefits and tax credits.
SCF funding will include grants of up to $1 million to organizations that provide capacity-building training, technical assistance, and competitive financial assistance to nonprofits.
Click here for more information and to view the program’s website.
The Indian Health Service (IHS) announces competitive grant applications for the Methamphetamine & Suicide Prevention Initiative (MSPI) for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Urban Program communities.
The purpose of the MSPI-U is to expand community-level access to effective, Urban AI/AN methamphetamine and/or suicide prevention and treatment programs. Resources will enhance evidence-based or practice-based methamphetamine and/or suicide prevention or treatment programs and/or community mobilization programs.
Click here for more information and to view the official grant announcement.
SDFSC Programs for Native Hawaiians awards grants to organizations primarily serving and representing Native Hawaiians to plan, conduct, and administer programs to prevent or reduce violence, the use, possession and distribution of illegal drugs, or delinquency.
Eligible applicants are those organizations primarily serving and representing Native Hawaiians for the benefit of Native Hawaiians.
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
Why attend a training?LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
• Practice teaching strategies using lessons from the curriculum
• Learn instructional and classroom management strategies for successful program implementation
• Enhance your skill capacity to teach the LST curriculum with program fidelity.
Training certificates awarded. Breakfast and lunch provided. Seats are reserved on a first come, first served basis. For information on cost, materials and accommodations, click here.
Now that the FDA can regulate the tobacco industry, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act aims at protecting our children. A few key provisions include:
Tobacco companies cannot advertise within 1,000 feet of a school or playground area.
Outdoor tobacco ads and those aimed at teen readers will be limited to black and white with no images
All flavored cigarettes are banned (except for menthol)
Tobacco companies cannot distribute free samples and all giveaways/sponsorships are banned from events
The government will study implications of raising the minimum age to buy tobacco
The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee has voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities program.
The bill calling for the elimination of this program still has to be approved by the Full House Appropriations Committee and on the House floor. In addition, the Senate has not yet considered the bill, so there is still time to restore much needed funds.
By using the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) CapWiz system, you can fax the members of your congressional delegation immediatly. If you are unaware of the name of your member of Congress, their system can find it.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has announced that a team of four research institutions, with $50 million in funding from the U.S. Army, will carry out the largest study of suicide and mental health among military personnel ever.
Study investigators hope to quickly identify risk and protective factors for suicide among soldiers and provide a science base for effective and practical interventions to reduce suicide rates and address associated mental health problems.
The study will use several strategies to generate information on risk and protective factors:
The Army already has a rich archive of data on its personnel. Study investigators will work to consolidate information from different databases and use this resource to identify possible suicide risk and protective factors.
Investigators will undertake a retrospective case-control study in which individual soldiers who have attempted suicide with or without fatal outcomes (cases) will be matched with individuals with similar demographic characteristics (controls). Comparison of information gathered on cases and controls should provide clues to risk and protective factors.
A survey for which 90,000 active Army personnel representative of the entire Army will be contacted will provide information on the prevalence of suicide-related behavior and risk and protective factors. When possible, saliva and blood samples will be collected for genetic and neurobiologic studies.
All 80,000 to 120,000 recruits who enter the Army in each of the first three years of the study will be asked to participate in a survey similar to the all-Army survey above.
The Jostens Foundation is accepting applications for their Community Involvement Grants.
Jostens supports strong communities and healthy children and families. the foundation’s main focus is to fund programs that help youth become healthy and productive adults.
Award amounts ranges from $500 -$10,000. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) or agencies that are members of the Federal or any State, County or local Municipal government.
The Charles Lafitte Foundation is seeking applicants for their Healthy Living Grants.
The Charles Lafitte Foundation supports innovative and effective ways for people to help themselves and others around them lead healthy and satisying lives.
The Foundation’s areas of interests are education, youth advocacy, and medical research.
Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status.
On Friday, July 17th, the Full House Appropriations Committee voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations is tentatively scheduled to mark up its version of the bill that contains funding for this program on July 28th. We can still try to get the funds restored but WE NEED YOUR HELP AGAIN!
Please take five minutes out of your day TODAY to contact the members of your congressional delegation (both senators and your representative). You can reach them by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your member’s office. (If you don’t know who the members of your congressional delegation are, you can find out by going to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/ and entering your zip code.)
When connected, please deliver the following message:
- I understand that the Full House Appropriations Committee voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program
- The House Report says it would rather concentrate funding on targeted interventions, funded through the national programs portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program
- This is a huge problem and a gigantic mistake because the national programs gives very large grants to a very limited number of local educational agencies who will not be able to sustain these grants when the grant period is over
- In addition, over 90% of school districts, including mine, DON’T receive money from the national programs and probably never will
- Therefore, if the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program is eliminated and there will be no prevention infrastructure in place in the vast majority of schools in the country, including ours, to provide K-12 students with messages and effective programming to counter emerging and embedded drug trends as well as bullying and violence prevention issues
- Please tell your boss that it is critical that the funding for the Safe and Drug Free Schools program be maintained and we need their support
The Wal-Mart Foundation supports programs and initiatives addressing education, workforce development, economic sustainability, and health and wellness. For health and wellness in particular, the Foundation looks to improve access to healthcare, promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors, and reduce disparities.
Grant awards range from $1,000 to $5,000. Eligible applicants include organizations with tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3), recognized government entities, volunteer Fire Departments, K-12 Public Schools/Districts, Charter Schools, Colleges, Universities, Private Schools with tax-exempt status, and faith-based organizations.
The Wachovia Foundation provides Community Needs Grants to support organizations working to improve communities with low- to moderate-income. In particular, the Foundation strives to improve education, community development, and environmental health, ensure access to health and human services, and to bolster civic engagement.
Award amounts may vary. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3), have broad community support, and can demonstrate fiscal and administrative stability.
A new report by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University shows that over 15% of all state government’s budgets go to substance abuse and addiction and its consequences. If this were its own state budget category, it would rank second behind spending on elementary and secondary education.
Worse, 94% of this spending goes to pay for the enormous hidden burden of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug problems on a wide range of state services like health care and criminal justice — while less than 3% goes toward prevention programs that would help.
Now is your chance to make a difference! Ask your local government to act on this report, and find out how much money your state is spending to “shovel up” the consequences of substance abuse and addiction. Review this sample letter, fill in your information at the right, and click “send this message.”
Yesterday the Senate Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. The Full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled vote on the bill tomorrow.
Please call your Senators TODAY.You can reach them by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your member’s office. (If you don’t know who your Senators are, you can find out by going to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/ and entering your zip code.)
When connected, please deliver the following message:
- I understand that the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program
- This is a huge problem and a gigantic mistake because is will decimate the substance abuse and violence prevention infrastructure that is currently in place in our state
- This is a major problem, especially since data from the most recent Monitoring the Future survey is already showing that attitudes are softening, and that more 10th graders are smoking marijuana than cigarettes
- If the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program is eliminated students in grades K-12 will not receive the messages and effective programming to counter emerging and embedded drug trends as well as bullying and violence prevention issues
The CIGNA Foundation provides grants to projects that focus their efforts on five priority areas including: 1) the health of women, children and families, 2) obesity awareness and prevention, 3) patient/doctor communications and health literacy, 4) elimination of gender and ethnic disparities with health care, and 5) maintenance of healthy minds and bodies.
The foundation will pay particular attention to projects demonstrating creativity, responsiveness, and that are beneficial and achievable.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Safe Start Center has published “Healing the Invisible Wounds: Children’s Exposure to Violence.” The guide, which is available in English and Spanish, offers informative tips on how to recognize the signs of children’s exposure to violence and helpful advice on helping children thus exposed. Exposure to violence is a pervasive problem that crosses all ages, and the guide provides specific information pertaining to children of various ages, as well as a list of useful resources. Resources: “Healing the Invisible Wounds: Children’s Exposure to Violence” and related resources, including a Quick Reference Guide, are available at http://www.safestartcenter.org./
Ronald McDonald House Charities is accepting applications for its Children’s Health Grant program to support projects that directly improve the health and well-being of children and youth (ages 0-21), address a significant funding gap or critical opportunity, have a potential long-term impact, and produces measurable results.
Award amounts vary. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit organizations.
LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
Practice teaching strategies using lessons from the curriculum
Learn instructional and classroom management strategies for successful program implementation
Enhance your skill capacity to teach the LST curriculum with program fidelity.
Training certificates awarded. Breakfast and lunch provided. Seats are reserved on a first come, first served basis. For information on cost, materials and accommodations,click here.
Trainings are subject to cancellation until officially confirmed by the home office. Please do not book your travel until you recieve confirmation from us.
Space is limited! Register before October 19, 2009!
ONLINE TRAINING NOW AVAILABLE!
For more information, contact Wendy Armstrong at 1-800-293-4969 ext 213 or email warmstrong@nhpamail.com
As you are likely aware, the full House, as well as the Senate Appropriations Committee have voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. Although Congress is currently in recess, there is still time to weigh in with the members of your congressional delegation, as most of them will be spending extended periods of time in their home state and district offices. During this time, it is critical that your members hear from you about the importance of restoring funds to this program.
To that end, CADCA has developed a recess guide, designed to help you maximize your opportunities to weigh in with your congressional delegation; either by setting up appointments to meet directly with your members of Congress, or working with your local government to introduce a resolution in support of restoring funding to the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program, and presenting it to your federal representatives.
Grapevine-Colleyville is the latest North Texas school district to drop out of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, and if its exit is any indication, the pioneering anti-drug abuse program for students is not as popular as it once was in the region.
The district elected not to renew its junior-high DARE contract for the 2009-10 school year, district spokeswoman Megan Overman said, opting instead to extend its elementary-level LifeSkillsprogram into the middle schools.
Other local districts have also dropped the DARE program over the past decade. Nationally, DARE’s critics have said the program is ineffective and even counterproductive by quoting high usage figures that make drugs seem like a route to popularity for at-risk kids who are seeking to fit in. Other critics say that it is difficult to authenticate DARE’s results and that its information has sometimes been inaccurate.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Office Of Applied Studies (OAS) is issuing a new guide providing updated information on the procedures used by that office to calculate allocations for some of the key block and formula grants the agency administers. The grant programs addressed in this new guide entitled Block Grants and Formula Grants: A Guide for Allotment Calculations include:
• The Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant
• The Mental Health Services Block Grant
• Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Formula Grant
• Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness Formula Grant
The guide provides a non-technical overview of the new calculation procedures, detailed descriptions of the four sets of formulas, and the data used in the process. Flow charts and other background information are also provided to give a clearer overall understanding of the calculation procedures and how they affect these grant programs.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced that sales of tobacco to underage youth (those younger than age 18) have continued to decline, and have reached historic lows under the Synar Amendment program – a federal and state partnership program aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors.
The Synar Amendment requires states to have laws and enforcement programs for prohibiting the sale and distribution of tobacco to persons under age 18.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have for the third year in a row achieved a major Synar program goal – a less than 20 percent non-compliance rate among tobacco product retailers. This stands in sharp contrast with the situation 12 years ago at the Synar program’s inception when the highest reported non-compliance rate was 75 percent.
Reducing the illegal sales rate of tobacco to minors through enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors is one of the specific tobacco objectives (objective 27-14) in Healthy People 2010, the nation’s disease prevention and health promotion goals and objectives for the decade. FFY 2008 Annual Synar Reports: State Compliance, which includes compliance rates for each of the States and the District of Columbia, is available at http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/synarreportfy2008.pdf.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) this week awarded $60 million in Drug Free Communities (DFC) Continuation Grants to 565 DFC coalitions and five DFC Mentor Continuation coalitions. These grants will assist local community coalitions as they work to prevent and reduce youth substance use.
The Drug Free Communities program is directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in partnership with the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The DFC program provides coalition matching grants of up to $625,000 over five years to community organizations that facilitate civic participation in local drug prevention efforts. Coalitions are comprised of community leaders, parents, youth, teachers, religious and fraternal organizations, health care and business professionals, law enforcement, and the media. As DFC continuation grantees, the new awardees are within a five-year cycle, and successfully met the statutory eligibility, programmatic and fiscal requirements necessary to receive continuation funding.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will be announcing the awarding of the new Drug Free Communities grantees in late August. For more information on the DFC Program, visit: www.ondcp.gov/dfc.
The Middletown Substance Abuse Prevention Council, co-chaired by the city’s Youth Services Bureau and the Rushford Center, will offer a mini-grant program for drug prevention initiatives.
The grants provide a max funding level of $1,000 and may be used to support any substance prevention or youth development program in the community.
Additional information is available at www.middletownyouthservices.com or by calling Justin Carbonella, Youth Services coordinator, 860-347-8594, Ext. 4517
Most teens are not regular drinkers, but those who do drink on a monthly basis are frequently imbibing in order to get drunk, according to a major finding of the 2009 Teen Survey released today from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
About one in three U.S. 12- to 17-year-olds taking part in the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV said they had previously consumed alcohol, and of these about one in four said they had a drink within the previous 30 days. Among those who had used alcohol in their lifetime, 17 percent said they usually drank to get drunk, compared to 68 percent who said that getting intoxicated was not usually their intent.
However, one-third of teens who were monthly drinkers said that they typically drank to get drunk, and 65 percent said they had gotten drunk at least once during the past month. Further, about one-third of monthly drinkers who didn’t intend to get drunk wound up getting intoxicated, anyway, according to researchers.
Click here to view the full article and to downlad the report.
Last week SAMHSA launched a new website dedicated to current information on funding for the treatment, prevention and intervention of substance abuse and mental health issues. The website will also feature archives of funding-related reports, pertinent news and much more information.
The Weekly Financing News Pulse includes a roundup of grant announcements, health funding news, details on Congressional hearings and analysis.
Using blog-style posts, the SAMHSA Financing COE website offers original COE content as well as news, reports, briefs, scholarly article citations, legislation, and data sets regarding the financing of M/SU treatment and prevention. Stay tuned for site updates coming soon.
Loudoun County has received a three-year foundation grant to continue its tobacco prevention programs.
The $112,010 will be used to support one part-time instructor to provide tobacco prevention programing to at-risk elementary, middle and high school-age youths.
Prevention and intervention staff will serve 150 at-risk youths ages 8 to 18 in grades 3 to 12. They will use the LifeSkills Training program, which focuses on changing children’s attitudes and norms about drug abuse.
In response to recent reports showing that Britian has a high rate of binge-drinking and teenage pregnancy, author Sonia Sodha voices her opinion on what needs to be done.
“Rather than more hand-wringing and sensationalist reporting, stated Sodha, we should be actively looking for the right solutions to these problems-and ways to prevent them in the first place.”
Ms. Sodha mentioned using Botvin LifeSkills Training as a strategy. “This has had excellent success rates-reducing alcohol and substance abuse by 50-75%…and every dollar spent on the program saves the state and society $25 in the long run through reductions in crime, antisocial behavior and other problems.”
The Verizon Foundation has created a grant program to help schools and community agencies increase their literacy and education success, as well as achieve and sustain health and safety, specifically by teaching students how to avoid becoming abusers or victims of domestic violence.
Proposals will be considered from eligible tax-exempt organizations in certain 501(c)(3) subsections as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Proposals will also be considered from elementary and secondary schools (public and private) that are registered with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
Awards will be $5,000 to $10,000.
Click here for more information and to view the full announcement.
Caroline County Public Schools has been awarded a $53,460 one-year grant funded by the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation (VTSF) to continue the LifeSkills Training Program at Caroline Middle School during the 2009-2010 school year for the students in grades 6-8. This is the second grant awarded for the LifeSkills Trainng Program from VTSF, a division of the Virginina Foundation for Healthy Youth.
Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, Rebecca Broaddus, stated “We are pleased that the VTSF has funded our grant request for the upcoming school year. This program teaches valuable strategies and skills that our students can apply in their own lives.”
A new study has found that a community-based prevention program, which targeted schools, families and youth-focused programs, reduced consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, and curbed delinquent behavior.
Students in areas where the Communities That Care (CTC) program was not implemented were 60% more likely to start using alcohol, 79% more likely to start smoking cigarettes, and 134% more likely to start using smokeless tobacco (95% CI 1.34 to 4.09) between 7th and 8th grade, according to an online report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The evidence-based substance abuse prevention program, Botvin LifeSkills Training, was one of the programs that was given to the middle schoolers.
A recent study, which followed 270 teenagers who had become occasional smokers before high school, found that 58 percent made it a daily habit by 12th grade. According to the study published in the journal Pediatrics, the likelihood of that happening depended partly of friends and parents.
When friends or parents smoked, teens were more likely to become daily smokers. However, when their parents displayed a “positive family management style”- monitoring monitoring their comings and goings, doling out reasonable punishments and rewarding good behavior, teens were less likely to become habitual smokers.
Teens whose parents kept tabs on them and were non-smokers themselves had a 31 percent chance of becoming daily smokers. The odds were 71 percent among teenagers with parents who smoked and were more lax in managing their kids behavior.
The US Attorney General has announced more than $129 million in Recovery Act and Fiscal Year 2009 have been awarded for mentoring services to help prevent at-risk youth from becoming involved in delinquency.
These grants will help steer young people away from criminal activities by providing them with healthy life alternatives, positive role models and direct contact with caring adults,” stated U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has created a comprehensive initiative for the $650 million allotted for chronic disease prevention efforts in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The goal of this initiative – Communities Putting Prevention to Work – is to reduce risk factors, prevent/delay chronic disease, promote wellness in children and adults, and provide positive, sustainable health change in communities.
Communities Putting Prevention to Work will address the leading preventable causes of death and disability, namely obesity and tobacco use, by expanding the use of evidence-based strategies and programs, mobilizing local resources at the community-level, and strengthening the capacity of states. As a result of these efforts, powerful models of success are expected to emerge that can be replicated in other states and communities.
The cornerstone of the initiative is the Community Program ($373 million), with cooperative agreements to be awarded to communities through a competitive selection process.
WHITE PLAINS, NY –Botvin LifeSkills Training delivered an intensive training workshop on the LifeSkills Training High School program at the 3rd Annual Georgia School of Addiction Studies (GSAS): “Keys to Change: Prevention, Treatment & Recovery” conference held in Savannah, Georgia, from August 31 through September 4, 2009.
The day-long workshop, titled, “LifeSkills Training: Delivering Prevention to Older Adolescents and Young Adults in School and Community Settings” was presented to Savannah-area prevention, treatment, and juvenile justice providers. The training incorporated hands-on, interactive learning activities that explored effective prevention education for older adolescents in the classroom, treatment, or juvenile justice setting. Those participants who successfully completed the workshop were certified to deliver the Botvin LifeSkillsTraining High School program.
“The LST High School Provider Training program prepares health educators in school and community settings to effectively deliver best practices in substance abuse prevention education to older adolescents,” said Lead Trainer Alayne Macarthur. ”Participants had a hands-on opportunity to practice and share the teaching techniques that are most effective in engaging high school students to learn health-protective knowledge, skills, and attitudes in competency areas such as setting goals, decision-making, managing stress and anger, media influence, family communication, risk-taking, and building healthy relationships.”
The annual Georgia School of Addiction Studies offers a unique opportunity for professional development, information exchange, and networking. It is designed to address the need for knowledge and skill development through advanced training.
“This was the first year that the Georgia School had a workshop on a federally recognized evidence-based curriculum, and we couldn’t be happier,” said conference organizer and Georgia State Prevention Specialist Christopher Wood. “The LifeSkills Training workshop was completely full and participants who attended expressed a very high level of satisfaction with the workshop.”
The Western Tidewater Community Services Board is working to instill smart-decision making and healthy lifestyles of local children.
Students in selected classrooms at J.P. King Middle school in Franklin, Virginia will be participating in the Botvin LifeSkills Training Program for the first time this school year.
Corrine Walker, the educational and training services manager for the WTCSB, stated “LifeSkills Training provides valuable skills to help children learn to lead healthy lifestyles and avoid peer pressure as teens”. Additionally, LST help students to cope with anxiety, communicate better, and build friendships.
In a new report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, Teenagers who eat dinner with their families five times a week are significantly less at risk of alcohol, tobacco or other drug use compared to teens who sit down for family dinner fewer than three times weekly.
The Importance of Family Dinners V report found that youths who infrequently ate dinner with family members were twice as likely to use alcohol or marijuana and one-and-a-half times more likely to use alcohol. They also were more apt to expect to try using illicit drugs in the future, the survey found.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released the results of its 2000 National Survey on Drug use and Health (NSDUH). The findings included some encouraging trends about teen drug use, as well as some key issues to watch.
Among youth aged 12-17, the survey shows the significant decline in overall past-month illicit drug use from 2002 to 2008, from 11.6 percent in 2004 to 9.3 percent in 2008. Additionally, the number of teens who reported past-month use of prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs decreased significantly during this time frame, from 4.0 percent in 2002 to 2.9 percent in 2008.
The Fourth Annual National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week, Oct 4-10, 2009 encourages communities nationwide to work together to increase awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying on all children.
Families, students, schools, organizations and other groups can unite with PACER to prevent bullying in several ways. Activities and materials such as contests, toolkits, and online bullying prevention training are available on to help reduce bullying in schools, recreational programs, and community organizations.
To ensure that your school particpaes in National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week, click here.
Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, as of September 22, 2009 it is illegal to sell cigarettes with characterizing fruit, candy and clove flavors.
There is also a new website and hotline for community members and organizations to receive information and report retailers who sell flavored cigarettes.
View the FDA flavored tobacco website here, or visit the main FDA tobacco products Web page at: www.fda.gov/tobaccoproducts.
The site contains a Letter to Tobacco Controls Groups on Cigarettes Containing Certain Characterizing Flavors. This provides information on how to report violations of the ban.
The Jackson County Tobacco Education Committee (JCTEC) in Altus, Oklahoma, had donated the Botvin LifeSkills Training Curriculum to the Altus Intermediate School and all five elementary schools.
“We are happy to provide this curriculum to Altus Public Schools, in hopes of reducing tobacco use in youth”, stated JCTEC Chair, Wendell Browne. “Our committee goal is to educate youth about the insidious nature of the tobacco industry and arm them with the skills to say NO to tobacco use.
Students in grades 2-6 will use the curriculum. “We are really excited to start the Botvin LifeSkills Training program, said Dr. Nancy Evans, director of curriculum for Altus Schools. “This prevention program is tested and proven effective at reducing unhealthy behaviors amoung our youth.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that local communities and tribal governments may apply for $373 million in cooperative agreements for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, shepherded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “This initiative will make disease prevention and health promotion top priorities in states and communities across the country,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Grant recipients will receive funding for two years to change health-related systems and environments, such as implementing bans on indoor smoking. Evidence-based prevention programs for youths and adults will be funded.
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
The purpose of the ESA Foundation is to promote positive programs and opportunities that make a difference in the quality of life, health and welfare of America’s youth. The Foundation is committed to using the power of the interactive entertainment industry to create a positive social impact across the country.
Youth programs must be focused in one of the following areas: skills and personal development; general health and welfare; risk behavior prevention; education and multimedia arts/technology.
To make a grant request, organizations must have 501(c)(3) status, seek funding for a specific project or program that is or will be in two or more states in the United States, and serve youth ages 7-18.
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
Byron Garrett, CEO of the national PTA, has publicy critisised the nation’s proposed budget cuts to the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program.
Garrett noted the recent beating death of a 16 year old Chicago honor student and how cuts to the program will end up costing communities in the long run. ”We cannot balance the budget for any community, any state or the country on the backs of children who don’t get to vote,” the CEO stated. ”We simply can’t do it. We can think we can, but we will shortchange ourselves and we do it time and time again.”
President Obama has nominated New Mexico Health and Human Services secretary Pamela Hyde to become the next administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Hyde, who has 30 years of experience in healthcare management and consulting — much in the mental-health arena, has served in a variety of public posts, including as a state mental health director and state human services director.
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, stated “Ms. Hyde has worked tirelessly to improve access, quality, and accountability of health and human services programs for the residents of her state.”
The Lawrence Foundation is focused on making grants to support education, health, human services, and other causes, with the opportunity to support other diverse areas on an occasional basis. The foundation is unusual in that it makes both program and operating fund grants.
Any U.S.-based IRS 501(c)(3) qualified charitable organizations, or public schools and libraries, are encouraged to apply.
Click here for more information and to submit an application.
The Center For Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) oversees implementation of the Synar Amendment, which requires States to have laws in place prohibiting the sale and distribution of tobacco products to persons under 18 and to enforce those laws effectively. Across the Nation, States have made great strides in reducing retailer violations of the law as required by the Synar Amendment. Here are the resources available:
The national weighted average rate of tobacco sales to minors (RVR) as reported by States and the District of Columbia in their FFY 2008 Annual Synar Reports is now 9.9 percent – the lowest RVR in Synar’s 12-year history. Visit: http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/synarreportfy2008.pdf
Fact Sheet
This fact sheet provides an overview of the Synar Amendment and its implementing regulation, including requirements of the regulation, penalties for non-compliance, evaluation results and recent accomplishments. Visit: http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/fctsheet.aspx
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University’s (CASA’s) National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents, 2009, found that teens are equally likely to say that cigarettes or marijuana are the easiest for them to buy.
Slightly more than one-fourth (26%) of teens said that cigarettes were the easiest for someone their age to buy and the same percentage cited marijuana. The third most prevalent response was prescription drugs (16%), followed by beer (14%). Ten percent of teens reported that they thought all four substances were equally easy to buy.
Research shows that 75 percent of current illegal drug users and 79 percent of heavy alcohol users are employed with many of them admitting to using illegal drugs or alcohol before or during work hours. Join the nationwide effort to prevent workplace drug use by participating in National Drug Free Work Week, held Oct. 19-25, 2009.
Held annually in October, Drug-Free Work Week is a public awareness campaign that highlights the dangers of workplace drug use and the benefits of drug-free workplace programs, and encourages workers with alcohol and drug problems to seek help. Workplace programs such as the Botvin LifeSkills Training Health and Wellness Program help young adults develop the self-management skills they need to succeed. The Botvin LST Health & Wellness program is unique in its approach, focusing on both the work and home life; problems in one area can dramatically impact the other. The program focuses on prevention, helping people before problems develop.
U.S. states and territories may apply for a share of $120 million in prevention and wellness cooperative agreements that will be awarded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The cooperative agreements are part of the previously announced, $650-million Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, which will fund public-health efforts to prevent smoking and fight obesity, as well as improving nutrition and increasing physical activity.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the money “will assist states and territories in the implementation of proven prevention and wellness programs that will save lives and lower health care costs for all Americans.”
Cooperative agreements will be awarded for statewide policy and environmental change, tobacco cessation through quitlines and media campaigns, and special initiatives to create health-promoting policies and environments. For the first two components, money awarded to each state and territory will be based on population size and number of smokers. For the third component, states will apply for special funds through a competitive process based on the potential health impact of the proposed activities.
Funded projects will emphasize state-level policy and environmental changes that will help communities and schools support healthy choices, according to the announcement. Grantees will have two years to complete their work. “State health departments are the backbone of the public-health system and are uniquely positioned to support and leverage local efforts for chronic disease prevention and control,” noted CDC director Thomas Frieden, M.D.
Deadlines for additional projects that are part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative will be announced soon. For more details, see the Grants.gov website.
A study published in the October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) concludes that the most popular cable TV shows to kids seem to have the most alcohol advertising.
The study conducted by UCLA and the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) researched 600,000 alcohol ads aired on cable between 2001 and 2006 and found that shows with the highest percentage of viewers ages 12 to 20 had the largest number of alcohol ads. Ads for beer, liquor and alcopops increased in connection with the youth audience percentage, but wine ads dwindled.
The article on the study can be found at the below link on the AJPH website:
It all started with one letter from a prevention specialist in Bend, Oregon. On a recent back-to-school shopping trip, Cameo Chambers found t-shirts promoting binge drinking in her local Old Navy store. The shirts carry messages such as “Beer Pressure – Worth Giving In To!” and “Sloshball Champions – Staggerin Falls, Hi.” She wrote to the company and shared her concern with Oregon Partnership, a statewide organization dedicated to ending substance abuse and suicide. In response, Oregon Partnership has launched a campaign to have the shirts removed from stores. CADCA encourages all coalitions to follow suit and write to Old Navy’s parent company, Gap, Inc, requesting that they remove the shirts from store shelves.
In a letter to Glenn Murphy, CEO of Gap, Inc, Old Navy’s parent company headquartered in San Francisco, Oregon Partnership said the sale of such items to a young customer base is repugnant and goes against the company’s pledge of social responsibility.
“Oregon Partnership and other anti-drug coalitions around the country will not let go of this,” said Pete Schulberg, Oregon Partnership’s Communications Director. “Other retail chains have stopped the sale of these t-shirts because they know that promoting binge drinking to young people is something they don’t want to be a part of.”
In a written reply to OP’s request Chris Wingenfield of Gap Customer Relations said “at Old Navy, we strive to offer merchandise that appeal to a wide range of interests….it is never our intention to offend our customers and we apologize for any concerns related to our product.”
The price of the t-shirts was lowered to $5.00 on the weekend before the start of most public schools in the state. “It is obvious to us that Old Navy is marketing the shirts to the back-to-school crowd, which is irresponsible and hypocritical,” Schulberg said.
During last year’s holiday season, the store prominently displayed t-shirts with a Christmas tree and the words “Let’s Get Lit.” Another showed an elf drinking from a keg.
This is not the first time a popular chain has sold something that glamorizes alcohol or drug use. Other national chains have sold similar items in the past but have discontinued their sale after receiving complaints from coalitions throughout the country.
During a recent commentary on CNN, forensic clinical psychologist, Dewey Cornell, stated that the recent beating death of a 16-year old in Chicago highlights the critical need for schools to implement evidence-based violence prevention programs. He questions the White House proposal to cut funding for school-based violence and substance abuse prevention.
Cornell explains that school-based prevention programs designed to reduce student violence have been shown to be effective in scientific studies. He notes that when programs were fully implemented and carefully monitored, they reduced aggressive behavior such as fighting by about 50 percent.
Following the Chicago incident, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder held a conference in Chicago and pledged new federal support to reduce youth violence, a move that Cornell calls ironic considering that the Administration has proposed cutting the Safe and Drug Free Schools program.
To learn more about the Safe and Drug Free Schools program and to find out what you can do to help prevent its elimination, see CADCA’s Save Our Safe and Drug Free Schools Program Toolkit.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will award a total of $125 million to states in supplemental funding for the Healthy Communities program, focusing on three priority areas: tobacco control, behavioral risk factor surveillance systems, and diabetes control and prevention. The money comes from the federal Recovery Act of 2008.
Recovery Act funds must be used for obesity, nutrition, physical activity and tobacco control strategies to change systems, develop and implement policies, change the environment in which eating, tobacco use, and physical activity occur, and impact population groups rather than individuals within the two-year timeframe for this award.
For more information and to view the full grant announcement, click here.
A report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), shows evidence that secondhand smoke can trigger heart attacks and urges those with heart conditions to avoid exposure to tobacco smoke.
The report, which was requested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Reasearcher Neal Benowitz stated, “If you have heart disease, you really need to stay away from secondhand smoke. It’s an immediate threat to your life.”
Researchers found “clear and consistent” evidence that smoking bans cut the rate of heart attacks, according to statistician Stephen Feinberg of Carnegie Mellon University, a member of the IOM committee that compiled the report.
According to data from the 2008-2009 PRIDE Survey, middle and high school students who set clear rules for them are less likely to report using illicit drugs.
Middle and high school students who parents set clear rules for them “a lot” or “often” were less likely to report using illicit drugs in the past year (12% and 21%, respectively) than students whose parents never set clear rules (49%).
Click here for more information and to view the survey data.
A Washington University study finds that brain changes caused by drinking before age 15 could predispose adolescents to a lifetime of alcohol dependency.
Arpana Agrawal, Researcher for the Washington University School of Medicine, stated that early drinking “may induce changes in the highly sensitive adolescent brain, which may also modify an individual’s subsequent genetic vulnerability” to addiction.” Also found in the study was evidence that the age of first alcohol use correlated with a higher number of alcohol dependency symptoms.
Click here for more information and to view the full article.
A National Institutes of Health sponsored study find that communities, which use science-based approaches, can significantly reduce adolescents’ problem behaviors, including tobacco and alcohol use and delinquent acts, up to 33%.
For the study, 24 small and medium-sized towns in seven states were randomly divided into 12 towns that implemented the “Communities That Care” activity (https://preventionplatform.samhsa.gov/) and 12 similar towns that did not. The CTC work started by targeting children in the fifth grade. By the eighth grade, CTC community children were 32% less likely to have begun using alcohol, 33% less likely to have started smoking or begun using smokeless tobacco, and 25% less likely to have started delinquent behavior, according to their self-reports on surveys.
Click here for more information on the study conducted.
A survey of the Northern Virginia area shows that many underage youth can obtain alcohol from adults-whether it is from their parents or strangers who agree to buy alcohol for them.
Teams of adults and youth from Northern Virginia have now joined together to launch the first regional Sticker Shock campaign. The Sticker Shock campaign is part of the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria (SAPCA)’s efforts to educate adults who might be tempted to purchase alcohol legally and provide it to minors.
Groups of youth and adults have visited more than 100 Northern Virginia stores to place “warning” stickers on multi-packs of wine coolers, beer, and other alcohol products. The stickers highlight the penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors.
The United States Soccer Foundation’s 2010 Program and Field Grants provides funding, equipment, and services for soccer programs in the U.S., and is particularly interested in funding organizations that incorporate a youth-development elements such as anti-violence, drug prevention, and healthy lifestyles into their programs.
Program grants are available for projects that do not contain a construction element. Eligible expenses include uniforms, player and team equipment, games and practice travel costs, facility rental costs, registration costs, and coach and referee training fees.
The Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) announces the availability of federal funds through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Fund Program through the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Grant Funds are available for new projects only.
This grant solicitation is a two-phase process.
Some of the limitations that apply to these funds include:
maximum awards will be $75,000, including matching funds;
federal grant funds may be used to pay no more than 95% of an approved project; the remaining 5% of the approved project costs must be paid by the grant recipient with cash from non-federal sources.
Successful applicants will receive funding for 12 months, beginning July 1, 2010.
Click here for more information, required forms, and submission instructions.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
Attorney General Eric Holder recently commended the American Academy of Pediatrics for their effort in addressing the problem of children and violence.
Noting the recently published findings from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence, Mr. Holder described them as a “wake-up” call that cannot be ignored.
Do you know a young person who has done excellent work with your coalition and in your community? Then, nominate them for CADCA’s Outstanding Youth Award. The winner will receive free registration for CADCA’s 20th Annual National Leadership Forum and will be presented with the award on stage during the Award’s Luncheon.
The Outstanding Youth Award recognizes an outstanding young person for service to a coalition and preventing substance abuse.
To be eligible, the nominee must have completed CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Initiative (NYLI).
Grants will be made in the following categories: State Commission and National Competitive including Professional Corps and Fixed-Amount Grants; State and National EAP; States and Territories without Commissions; and Indian Tribes.
Program priorities for 2010 include addressing unmet needs in the areas of education, housing, veterans, economic opportunity, clean energy and environment, and health (including access to health care, disease prevention and health promotion initiatives, and health literacy).
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
The Kaiser Foundation is now accepting nominations for its 2010 National Awards for Excellence, which recognize Canadian addiction and mental-health related programs and advocacy in six distinct categories.
The winner in each category will receive C$10,000 to give to the charity of their choice.
Click here for more information and to view each category.
The Mary Byron Project created the Celebrating Solutions Awards to showcase and applaud local innovations that demonstrate promise in breaking the cycle of violence.
Programs that serve as models for the nation, can be offered $10,000 cash awards in recognition of the pioneering efforts.
The program must be part of a non-profit or government agency.
Deadline is November 17, 2009.
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Corning Inc. Foundation supports youth-related projects and organizations, including community-service programs for students, YMCAs, and youth centers in company locations.
Non-profits in company communities are eligible for funding.
Deadline is open. Click here for more information.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation currently partners with diversity focused funders and other local grantmakers to fund projects to reduce violence in specific communities such as those defined by race, ethnicity, tribe, gender, sexual identity or rural/frontier location.
Projects must be new, community-based and culturally appropriate, reflecting how language skills, significant cultural differences, education, income and discrimination affect health outcomes. Community members should be engaged in planning and leadership.
Application deadline is January 5, 2010
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The RGK Foundation awards grants in the broad areas of Education, Community, and Medicine/Health.
The Foundation’s primary interests within Education include programs that focus on formal K-12 education (particularly mathematics, science and reading), teacher development, literacy, and higher education.
Nonprofits are eligible.
Application deadline is December 4, 2009
Click here for more information and to view the full grant announcement.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Campbell Soup Foundation is providing grants to local champions that inspire positive change in communities throughout the United States where Campbell Soup Company employees live and work.
The Foundation focuses on the areas of hunger relief, wellness, education and community revitalization.
Award amounts vary. The Foundation limits grants to nonprofit organizations which are tax-exempt.
Click here for more information and to apply for funding.
Deadline: Rolling
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Heath Behavior News Service has reported a study which found that plainer cigarette packages make smoking less appealing to teenagers.
Melanie Wakefield, Ph.D., who co-authored the Australian study, stated “We found that when branding is progressively removed from a cigarette pack, adolescents not only perceive the packs to be less attractive, they associate the brand with people who have less favorable attributes.”
Using three popular Australian cigarette brands, the researchers looked at how adolescents perceived cigarette packs and what their expectations were about cigarette taste. The packs showed a gradual diminishment of brand information on the front and a progressively larger-sized health warning. Researchers randomly assigned each teen to rate one of 15 pack conditions.
Click here for more information and to view the full article.
The Regional Education Services Agency (RESA VIII) recently trained teachers in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program. Educators in attendance hailed from Pendleton, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Mineral, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
Teacher feedback was very positive. Comments included: “Using magazine advertisements is a creative way to make students aware of marketing techniques used by companies”; “The LifeSkills curriculum provides a lot of skills needed by adolescents to enhance their ability to make wise decisions”; and “Actually letting the students interact in behavioral rehearsals is a good hands-on way to practice.”
Jane Lynch, Executive Director of RESA VIII, stated “This program is implemented in the grades where students are most influenced with peer pressure. The LifeSkills program is the only curriculum currently being implemented across the entire state in the field of prevention.
Social-change activists in the U.S. and Canada under age 25 may be nominated for the Do Something Awards, established to honor young “world changers.”
Individuals, not groups, may be nominated. Four winners will be named in 2010, and each will receive $10,000 or $5,000 as an educational scholarship. One grand-prize winner will receive $100,000 for their group or cause.
Click here for more information and to view the grant announcement.
In a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), there is evidence that secondhand smoke can trigger heart attacks. The report also suggests that those with heart conditions should avoid exposure to tobacco smoke.
Requested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the report stated there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and that people with cardiovascular disease could risk heart attack with less than an hour’s exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
“If you have heart disease, you really need to stay away from secondhand smoke. It’s an immediate threat to your life,” said researcher Neal Benowitz of the University of California at San Francisco. Benowitz added that everyone, in fact, should avoid secondhand smoke, since many people who have heart disease are not aware of the problem if they have never had a heart attack.
According to researchers, governments should outlaw alcoholic-beverage firms from sponsoring sporting events and sports teams.
Researchers, from Australia’s Newcastle University and The University of Manchester in Great Britain, stated that the alcohol industry has ignored their 2008 report showing a link between alcohol sponsorship of sports and high-risk drinking among participants.
Researcher, Kerry O’Brien, states “Sport administrators are sending mixed messages to participants and fans when, on the one hand, they embrace and peddle alcohol via their sport, while on the other they punish individual sport stars and fans when they display loutish behavior while intoxicated”.
Recent grants totaling more than $7.9 million will allow an Iowa State University youth drug prevention program to expand to help youngsters and families across the United States.
The Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at ISU is the home of PROSPER, a program developed by scientists at ISU and Penn State to create evidence-based prevention programs in Iowa and Pennsylvania. PROSPER is short for Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience.
Richard Spoth, director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute, said what makes PROSPER unique is that all of the programs it implements are based on scientific results.
Evidence-based prevention programs, such as Botvin LifeSkills Training, have shown the greatest success in the reduction of negative youth behaviors, such as delinquency, violence and substance abuse. In addition, such programs reduce financial burdens on taxpayers, such as prison, drug treatment and social service costs.
The Botvin LifeSkills Training Program is recognized on the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations review of prevention programs as well as the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence Blueprints Model and Promising Programs.
Click here to learn more about the criteria used to judge model programs.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has released the final application for more than $4 billion from the Race to the Top Fund, which will reward states that have raised student performance in the past and have the capacity to accelerate achievement gains with innovative reforms.
To qualify, states must have no legal barriers to linking student growth and achievement data to teachers and principals for the purposes of evaluation. They also must have the department’s approval for their plans for both phases of the Recovery Act’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund prior to being awarded a grant.
Click here for more information and to view the official grant announcement.
Members of Congress continue to work at a fast and furious pace to come to an agreement on healthcare reform legislation, but we need your help now if we want to get substance abuse prevention included in this critical legislation. If you haven’t already, click here to respond to CADCA’s current legislative alert.
Responding to this legislative alert will ensure that the final version of healthcare reform includes language that:
1) explicitly includes substance abuse prevention in the definition of community based prevention; and
2) explicitly includes substance use disorders as part of the definition of chronic disease, condition or illness.
Please respond to CADCA’s legislative alert as soon as possible to ask members of Congress to explicitly include substance abuse prevention in the definition of community based prevention, and substance use disorder in the definition of chronic disease, condition or illness.
For additional information, please contact Kelly Lieupo, Director of Public Policy, at 703-706-0560 ext. 241, or via e-mail at klieupo@cadca.org.
In the wake of several recent highly-publicized stories about violence among school-aged children, a new report shows that school districts participating in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative substantially improved the safety of their students. According to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), over a three-year period, school districts participating in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant program reported fewer students involved in violent incidents, decreased levels of experienced and witnessed violence, and improvements in overall school safety and violence prevention.
Key findings from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students National Evaluation include:
A 15 percent decrease in the number of students involved in violent incidents during the grant period (from 17, 800 in year 1 to 15,163 in year 3).
A 12 percent decrease in the number of students reporting that they had experienced or witnessed violence from year 1 of the grant period to year 3.
Most staff at grantee schools reported that the Initiative had made their schools safer. By year 3 of the grant, 84 percent said the Initiative had improved school safety, 77 percent said it had reduced violence on campus, and 75 percent said it had reduced violence in the community.
Grants of up to $150,000 are available for initiatives that use Health Impact Assessment (HIA) techniques to help policymakers assess proposed projects and programs in terms of their impact on health consequences and costs.
The Health Impact Project — a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts — will award grants of $25,000 to $150,000 to demonstrate the effectiveness of HIAs and promote their use in policymaking at all levels of government. Certain applications for grants of more than $150,000 also may be considered on an exceptional basis. Programs must be completed within 24 months.
Application deadline is open. For full details, see the RWJF website.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The United State Senate unanimously confirmed Pamela Hyde as Administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
“Pamela Hyde has worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of New Mexico to expand access to health and human services programs and improve their quality,” said Secretary Sebelius. “With over 30 years of experience in both the private and public sectors, Pamela’s health policy expertise and management experience will be invaluable to our Department. She will be an outstanding leader at SAMHSA, and I look forward to working with her in this new role.”
Valparaiso, Indiana Mayor Jon Costas has announced new initiatives to help fight the city’s continuing drug problem.
One of the main programs to be used is Botvin LifeSkills Training, which will be first presented to students as young as 8 years old at the Valparaiso Parks Department, Valparaiso Family YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club. It will also be taught to all Valparaiso middle school students.
Rocco Schiralli, Executive Director of Porter-Starke Services, praised the program saying that unlike many other drug prevention and education prgrams, LifeSkills had 30 published studies showing that it works.
The Ohio Department of Health and the Healthy Ohio initiative recently awarded six area health care providers with a cooperative 2010 Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Grant.
We are exceptionally pleased to have been awarded this grant and to have the opportunity to reach the area’s school-aged children with prevention measures, as well as cessation programming for individuals who are currently smoking,” said David Pollick, Health Commissioner, Sandusky County Health Department.
The health departments will focus on youth prevention, while the hospitals are focusing on tobacco cessation programs. The Botvin LifeSkills Training Program will be presented to schools
“The program is free to schools and will address alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, and other skills necessary for making healthy decisions,” Tim Hollinger, Health Commissioner for the Huron County General Health District, said.
The substance abuse prevention field has a historic opportunity to weigh in with Congress to help ensure the prevention field is eligible to compete for billions of dollars from the funds contained in the healthcare reform bills currently being debated.
Both the House and Senate versions of healthcare refornm contain several funds, which authorize billions of dollars for various prevention funding.
However, unless the final healthcare reform bill contains language that:
1) explicitly includes substance abuse prevention in the definition of community based prevention; and
2)explicitly includes substance use disorders as part of the definition of chronic disease condition or illness, our field will not be ebligible to compete for these funds.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Fax the members of your congressional delegation. CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically fax CADCA’s sample letter on this issue to your legislator’s from its website.
To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capqwiz.com/cadca/home/
Recent findings by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Virtual Media Resources, show that alcoholic beverages popular among youths are more likely to be advertised in magazines with high youth readership.
“Alcohol companies are deceiving us,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health and a co-author of the study. “Contrary to their public statements, they are targeting youths through their advertising. They are saying one thing, but doing another.”
The study compared alcohol advertisement placements in 118 magazines from 2002 to 2006, specifically looking at the relationship between a magazine’s youth readership and the probability of youth alcoholic beverage types — defined as those consumed by a large proportion of youth — being advertised in each magazine.
The researchers found that in magazines with the highest levels of youth readership, youth alcoholic beverage types (e.g., premium beer, low calorie beer, rum, vodka, and flavored alcohol beverages) were more than four times more likely to be advertised than non-youth types (e.g., gin, brandy, whiskey, and scotch). As youth readership increased in a magazine, so did the number of youth alcoholic beverage advertisements.
The Peyback Foundation was established by professional football player Peyton Manning in 1999 to promote the future success of disadvantaged youth (ages 6 to 18) by assisting programs that provide leadership growth and opportunities for children at risk.
Grants will range from $1,500 to $10,000 each. Requests for grants are accepted only from agencies and organizations actively working to advance the welfare of disadvantaged children in Indiana, Tennessee, and New Orleans metropolitan areas.
Deadline is February 1, 2010
Click here for more information and to apply for funding.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging.
Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently stated that tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year. WHO anticipates the number to rise if countries don’t take stronger measures to fight smoking.
The new report on tobacco use and control stated that nearly 95% of the global population is unprotected by laws that ban smoking. 600,000 people die every year from secondhand smoke.
The finding also describe countries’ various strategies to curb smoking, including protecting people from smoke, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, and raising taxes on tobacco products. These were included in a package of six strategies WHO unveiled last year, but less than 10 percent of the world’s population is covered by any single measure.
According to the annual America’s Health Rankings report, the U.S. healthcare system does not put forth the effort in preventing illnesses caused by smoking and other unhealthy behaviors.
According to the findings, smoking, poor dietary habits and lack of exercise are costing the U.S. billions of dollars in health care costs.
Reed Tuckson, M.D., the executive vice president and chief of medical affairs at UnitedHealth Group, stated “Over the past 20 years, our national health care system has helped extend the length of life, but not the quality of life. Making progress against smoking and obesity is a critical step to successfully tackling the health reform our nation wants to achieve.”
The Mobile County Health Department’s TEEN Center was recently awarded a youth tobacco-prevention mini-grant from the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The TEEN Center has chosen to use the funds to implement the Botvin LifeSkills Training curriculum.
Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy, announced today the results of a new national study of teenagers substance abuse and their attitudes toward drugs and drug use.
The annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) study of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders shows decreases in some grades in the use of cocaine, methamphetamine, and hallucinogens, there is a prevalence of teens abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Additionally there are issues with young people’s perceptions of the harms associated with smoking marijuana, using Ecstasy, drinking alcohol, and using smokeless tobacco.
“Considering the troublesome data from other national and local surveys, these latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use”, stated Kerlikowske.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has published a Notice of its Proposed Plan for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 in the December 1, 2009, Federal Register. The Proposed Plan describes discretionary program activities that OJJDP proposes to carry out during FY 2010.
Taking into consideration comments received and its final FY 2010 appropriation, OJJDP will develop a Final Plan describing program activities that the Office intends to fund during FY 2010.
Comments on the Proposed Plan must be received by January 15, 2010, and may be submitted online or mailed to OJJDP. As security protocols can significantly delay OJJDP’s receipt of mail, online submission of comments is recommended to ensure their consideration.
The Sprint Character Education Grant Program accepts applications for funding of programs promoting leadership, youth volunteerism, character education, and school pride.
Grants will fund the purchase of resource materials, supplies, teacher training, and equipment that facilitates character education for K-12 students, such as the Second Step or Steps to Respect programs.
Public schools may apply for individual school grants up to $5,000, and public school districts can apply for district-wide grants up to $25,000.
The grant application period begins January 4 and ends February 5, 2010.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking local community-based organizations to conduct demonstration programs to demonstrate the feasibility and effect of pairing two complementary strategies for reducing teenagers’ access to alcohol: Social Norming and High Visibility Enforcement. Social Norming is the process of flooding a target population with information designed to correct their misperceptions about the frequency and acceptability of specific activities. High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) pairs extensive publicity of concentrated enforcement with police activity focused on violators of certain laws.
PerformTech, Inc., is providing logistical and technical support to NHTSA in this effort. PerformTech will award two 29-month, $200,000 contracts for conducting these demonstration programs. To view the announcement and obtain details about how to receive the RFP go to:
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
Researcher Ivana T. Croghan of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Research Program and colleagues have found out that women who smoke more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, are at increased risk of developing breast cancer. However, women can still improve their odds if they quit smoking.
The research compared 1,225 women with breast cancer to 6,872 who did not have the disease, looking at smoking history and other known risk factors for cancer. These findings sharply contradict past studies that found no link between smoking and breast cancer.
Read more about the published study in the September/October 2009 issue of the Breast Journal.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is offering partial funding for public-health conferences in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention, education programs, and applied research.
The CDC will award $100,000 in Public Health Conference Support Program grants to support up to 8 conferences. Eligible applicants include nonprofits, schools, government entities, tribes, faith-based groups, community groups, and others.
The Wells Fargo Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations focusing on education and health and human services, with special emphasis on the elimination of the “achievement gap”; increasing access to higher education for underrepresented groups; and ensuring access to both health education programs and quality healthcare for individuals and families.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The RGK Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that provide services in the areas of Community, Education and Medicine/Health. Specific areas of focus include: children and family services, early childhood development, parenting education, after-school educational enrichment programs, promotion of the health and well-being of children, and programs that promote access to health services.
Grants range from $10,000 to $25,000. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations with 501(3)(3) status. Organizations are invited to submit an electronic letter of inquiry that will be reviewed on a rolling basis. After review, organizations may be invited to submit a formal proposal.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
According to research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), about 70 percent of 12-14 year olds see a great risk in smoking a pack of cigarettes or more daily, compared to 40 percent who saw a risk in binge drinking and about 24 percent who perceived smoking marijuana monthly as a great risk.
The report, drawn from findings in the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, also found that roughly half of adolescents believed that using cocaine monthly or trying LSD once or twice was very risky.
“We are on the right track with cigarette smoking and need to keep raising awareness among teens about the dangers of other substances,” said SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde. ”Understanding that perception of harm is a strong predictor of potential substance use among young people can help guide the development of substance prevention messages.”
The Plan is divided into 10 thematically organized sections, each of which cuts across OJP’s bureaus and offices and represents a challenge identified by the criminal and juvenile justice fields.
The George Gund Foundation provides funding for nonprofits in the following categories:
Arts
Economic Development
Education
Environment
Human Services
Special Projects
Green Building Policy
Click here for more information and to apply for funding.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Boston Foundation supplies funding for non-profit organizations in the Greater Boston area that focus on:
Improving outcomes for Boston residents across the education pipeline
Increase the health and well being of Greater Boston residents
Click here for more information and to apply for funding.
Deadline: Rolling
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The William Penn Foundation offers funding for non-profit organizations in the metro Philadelphia area that focus on:
School Readiness
Public Education
Youth Development
Click here for more information and to view eligibility guidelines.
Deadline: Rolling
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
The Starbucks Shared Planet Youth Action Grants are designed to help young people realize their natural potential to reinvent their local communities. The Starbucks Foundation accepts applications from organizations that provide young people (ages 6 to 24) with a continuum of service opportunities in social entrepreneurship.
Grants will range from $10,000 to $25,000. To be eligible, US applicants must be tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
According to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study in the journal Addiction, teens who frequently listen to music that contain references to marijuana are more likely to use the drug than their counterparts with less exposure to such lyrics.
Brian Primack, M.D.,Ed.M., M.S., lead author of the study, stated “Based on an analysis of survey data from 959 ninth-graders, we found that students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use, even after controlling for confounding factors. This suggests that there is a real link between the marijuana lyrics and marijuana use.”
To accurately estimate marijuana exposure in music, researchers used an improved process to calculate the exposure, which incorporated student report of music exposure and favorite artists as well as intensive content analysis of the top 794 songs from 2005, 2006 and 2007 based on Billboard Magazine’s year-end charts.
Click here to learn more and view the research findings.
Instead of their usual elaborate Super Bowl advertisements, Pepsi has chosen a different approach this year.
Pepsi will launch RefreshEverything.com on January 13, 2010. On the site, consumers list projects they feel can improve communities, with voting open to all.
Categories for funding include health, arts, education, the planet, and neighborhoods.
Submissions are accepted from January 13 to January 24, 2010.
Three workshops for groups interesting in applying for the next round of Drug Free Communities (DFC) Grants have been scheduled to take place within the next month, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
The free workshops will be held on Jan. 26 in Fort Worth, Texas; Jan. 28 in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Feb. 12 in National Harbor, Md. The latter workshop will be held in conjunction with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America National Leadership Forum at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.
Attendance is optional, and attendees must pay for their own travel-related expenses. To register, visit https://www.cmpinc.net/dfc/registration.html. For those who cannot make it to the workshops, the proceedings will be recorded and posted to the DFC website by the end of January.
The 2010 DFC Request for Applications will be released in a few weeks, ONDCP officials said.
The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) in coordination with the International Association of Chiefs of Police has published a new edition of its “Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence.”
Designed to assist local communities, the guide describes the roles of the school, community, families, law enforcement, and justice system in working together to take effective action to address school violence.
SAMHSA has issued a call for applications for its 2010 Science and Service Awards, a national program that recognizes community-based organizations and coalitions that have shown exemplary implementation of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse interventions.
Awards will be made in each of the five categories:
Substance abuse prevention
Treatment of substance abuse and recovery support services
Mental health promotion
Treatment of mental illness and recovery support services
Co-occurring disorders
To be eligible for an award, an organization must have successfully implemented a recognized evidence-based intervention.
LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops prepare teachers, school counselors, prevention specialists, community youth educators, and other program providers to effectively implement the state-of-the-art prevention education activities and teaching strategies found in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program with confidence and fidelity.
Each LifeSkills Provider Training Workshop plays an important role in enhancing the confidence and skill capacity of participants, resulting in optimal implementation of the Botvin LifeSkills Training program.
Click here for a listing of our 2010 workshops for the year. You can choose a training location and register online, or call 1-800-293-4969 to speak with our Training Department. If you do not find a scheduled workshop in your area, please click on Request a Training
Smoke Free RFP Announcement: Paso del Norte Health Foundation is pleased to invite eligible agencies to submit proposals for funding of tobacco control programs through A Smoke Free Paso del Norte Initiative’s (SFI) competitive process. Successful applicants will provide evidence-based programs in support of Foundation efforts to eliminate tobacco use among adolescents within the Paso del Norte region.
For more information, contact Enrique Mata, Senior Program Officer at 915-544-7636 or emata@pdnhf.org
Click here to download the Smoke Free Paso del Norte Request for Proposals.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they’ve done on the effects of the ingredients.
Companies have long acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. The new information will help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive. It will also use the data to develop standards for tobacco products and could ban some ingredients or combinations.
While the FDA must keep much of the data confidential under trade-secret laws, it will publish a list of harmful and potentially harmful ingredients by June 2011. Under the law, it must be listed by quantity in each brand.
Drug and alcohol abuse educators these days have a more scientific approach based on results. Longview schools discontinued programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and have begun using research-based government funded programs. With that transition, drug education curriculum also has changed.
“To truly be effective in altering the behavior of young people (a program) must be factual and it must provide them with tools they can use for their life,” said Susan Erwin Morgan, executive director of East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (ETCADA).
Educating children at every age is critical, Morgan said. ETCADA offers three programs for students — LifeSkills Trainingfor elementary students, Youth Connection for middle school students and Project Toward No Drug Abuse, an intervention program for alternative school students and juvenile detention centers.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced that the 2010 DFC Request for Applications (RFA) is now available at http://www.samhsa.gov/Grants/2010/SP-10-005.aspx
The Drug Free Communities (DFC) Program funds community coalitions addressing youth substance use. Any coalition, that meets the statutory eligibility requirements may apply for DFC funding.
If you have questions related to the content of the RFA, please call the hotline at 240-276-1270 or email your questions to dfcnew2010@samhsa.hhs.gov. If you have financial or grants management questions, please call Barbara Orlando at 240-276-1422 or email her at Barbara.orlando@samhsa.hhs.gov.
The deadline for applying is Friday, March 19, 2010.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth Request for Proposals
One Year Program Grants for Tobacco Use Prevention & Cessation Programs with Youth in Virginia
Term of Grant Awards: July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011
This is an online application process. No hard copies of the RFP will be available. All organizations considering responding to this RFP MUST attend one of four MANDATORY OFFEROR’S CONFERENCES. Visit Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth’s website for more information: http://www.healthyyouthva.org/funding.asp
Completed proposals are due by March 29, 2010 by 11:59 p.m.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
On Tuesday, February 2nd, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., OSDFS Staff will host a webinar to discuss the grant opportunities available in 2010. Each OSDFS Discretionary Grant Program Manager will provide details about their program and information about how to apply for each grant.
The following OSDFS 2010 Discretionary grant opportunities will be included in the webinar:
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS)
Higher Education Institutions for Emergency Management Plans
Elementary and Secondary School Counselors
Grants for the Integration of Schools and Mental Health Systems
Building State Capacity for Preventing Youth Substance Use and Violence
Grant Competition to Reduce Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Models on College Campuses
Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program
Carol M. White Physical Education Program
There is no pre-registration for this event. On the day of the webinar, call-in participation will be limited to the first 500 callers.
The webinar power point presentation will be available at:
Topic: OSDFS DISCRETIONARY GRANT OPPORTUNITIES Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Time: 2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00) To join the online meeting (Now from iPhones and other Smartphones too!)
Despite the research on the negative effects of alcohol use on young people, many parents still believe that teen drinking is a right of passage. Many take the approach of trying to teach responsible drinking by letting their teenagers have alcohol at home. However, a new study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, shows that this approach is ineffective.
In a study of 428 Dutch families, researchers found that the more teenagers were allowed to drink at home, the more they drank outside of home as well. What’s more, teens who drank under their parents’ watch or on their own had an elevated risk of developing alcohol-related problems. Drinking problems included trouble with school work, missed school days and getting into fights with other people, among other issues.
The findings, say the researchers, put into question the advice of some experts who recommend that parents drink with their teenage children to teach them how to drink responsibly — with the aim of limiting their drinking outside of the home.
The Botvin LifeSkills Training Transitions program is a highly interactive, skills-based curriculum designed to promote positive health and personal development. This program helps adolescents navigate the transition from high school into the workforce and higher education. LST Transitions helps students in achieve competency in the skills that have been found to reduce and prevent substance use and violence.
The LifeSkills Training Transitions program uses a developmentally appropriate integrated approach designed to strengthen student abilities in the following areas:
Personal Self-Management Skills
Provides students with strategies for decision-making and managing stress.
General Social Skills Enables students to strengthen their communication skills and build healthy relationships.
Drug Resistance Skills
Empowers students to understand the consequences of substance use and risk-taking.
Program Structure
Grades 11-12
Consists of 6 class sessions
Approximately 40-45 minutes each session
Taught either as an intensive mini-series or on a more extended schedule
VALPARAISO | Helping early teens stay away from dangerous substances and make healthy life choices is the focus of a new program kicked off Monday at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
Natalie Muskin-Press, a chemical dependency and addiction therapist with Porter-Starke Services, had sixth-grade students trace their hands, then jot down positive words to describe themselves along each finger.
In the palm, students then listed two or three things about themselves they’d like to improve.
Discussion during the activity was about self-image. We act like the person we think we are, Muskin-Press said, but sometimes it’s easier to listen to the negatives than to the positives.
While the primary focus is early prevention of substance abuse, the program also is meant to help students with situations such as depression and anxiety, said Elliott Miller, Porter-Starke program director.
Enhance Your Ability to Effectively Implement the Botvin LifeSkills Training Program
Review the theory and research behind the LST Program
Practice teaching strategies using lessons from the curriculum
Learn instructional and classroom management strategies for successful program implementation
Enhance your skill capacity to teach the LST curriculum with program fidelity
Training certificates awarded. Breakfast and lunch provided. Seats are reserved on a first come, first served basis. For more information on costs, materials, and accommodations, click here.
Please note: Trainings are subject to cancellation until officially confirmed by the home office. Please do not book your travel until you have received confirmation from us. Space is limited. Click here to register.
Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST) has been selected as a “Top Tier” program by The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy. The Top Tier initiative, which is being followed closely by Congress, focuses on identifying and validating social programs meeting the highest standard of evidence of effectiveness. LST is a substance abuse and violence prevention program that has been extensively tested and proven to produce “sizeable and sustained effects” on teen tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use. Research shows that the LST program can reduce substance use by as much as 80% and produce effects that last for up to 10 years. LST is the only classroom-based substance abuse prevention program selected for “Top Tier” honors.
Several recent Congressional actions have sought to focus funds in certain federal social programs on models and strategies meeting the “Top Tier” evidence of effectiveness — that is, programs “that have been shown, in well-designed randomized controlled trials, to produce sizeable, sustained effects” on participants and/or society. To assist policymakers in implementing these provisions effectively, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Coalition launched an initiative to identify models meeting this evidence standard.
BACKGROUND: Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) just introduced the Drug Free Communities (DFC) Enhancement Act of 2010 (S. 3031) to help communities deal more effectively with major emerging drug trends and local drug crises.
WHAT DOES THE ACT DO?
The DFC Enhancement Act of 2010 authorizes $5 million per year for fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to allow current or former DFC grantees to apply for supplemental funds of up to $75K on a dollar for dollar matching basis for up to four years
Eligible applicants must be able to document, using local data, that there is an emerging local drug issue or a local drug crisis within the community
For the purposes of the Act:
the term emerging local drug issue means, with respect to the area served by a coalition, a sudden increase in the use or abuse of a particular drug in the community as documented by local data
the term local drug crisis means, that with respect to the area served by a coalition, the use of a specific drug at levels that are significantly higher than the national average in the area, over a sustained period of time, from a baseline determined by locally collected data.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Using CADCA’s CapWiz system, fax the sample letter to your Senators to ask them to be co-sponsors the DFC Enhancement Act. The more Senators who sign on as co-sponsors, the more likely the bill is to ultimately pass.
TIMING: Please fax your Senators as soon as possible.
CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically fax CADCA’s sample letter on this issue to your legislators from CADCA’s website. To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.
If you would like to personalize your letter with examples from your community, please email dkurosky@cadca.org for a MS Word version of the sample letter.
Grant: Social Innovation Fund – To provide seed money to effective, innovative nonprofits working in low-income communities to address social challenges that fall under these categories: economic opportunity; youth development and school support, including preparing America’s youth for success in school, active citizenship, productive work, and healthy and safe lives; and promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing the risk factors that can lead to illness.
Funder: Corporation for National and Community Service.
Eligibility: Intermediaries (existing grantmaking institutions) applying alone or in partnership with another grantmaking institution, such as a state commission or the chief executive officer of a unit of general local government.
Deadline: April 8 (final proposals).
Amount: $50 million will be split among seven to 10 intermediary organizations, which must match grants one to one in cash. Intermediaries will competitively select nonprofits to receive sub-grants of at least $100,000, which must also be matched.
The Governor’s Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (GOSAP) is pleased to announce the 2010-2011 Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SADFSCA) Grant Program. The Request for Proposals (RFP) outlining the program components and specifics is now available and may be reached at http://www.gosap.virginia.gov. GOSAP SADFSCA grant programs are intended to supplement the SADFSCA funds that flow directly from the Virginia Department of Education to every local school division for youth substance abuse, gang involvement and violence prevention programming. For this award cycle, grants will be awarded to programs which emphasize prevention of gang involvement, realizing that early initiation of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use is a risk factor for youth gang involvement. In addition, community needs assessments regarding youth substance abuse, gang activity and violence may seek GOSAP SADFSCA funds.
Organizations who intend to submit a proposal for this funding are required to have a representative attend one of the three RFP Workshops. Workshops are being held in Wytheville on March 19, 2010, in Williamsburg on March 22, 2010, and in Fredericksburg on March 23, 2010.
Please feel free to forward this email to any group who may be interested in this grant opportunity. Please also feel free to post this announcement and links on appropriate web pages.
If you are not able to reach the web site, or still have questions after reading the RFP and information on the web site, please contact Joy Harris at the VCU Center for School-Community Collaboration at (804) 828-1482 or ljharris@vcu.edu.
The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education announces the release of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse program grant application (CFDA 84.184A). The Notice Inviting Applications was published in the Federal Register on March 2, 2010. The FY 2010 grant application package may be downloaded from the following Department of Education’s websites: http://e-Grants.ed.gov or
The purpose of the Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse program is to support efforts by local education agencies (LEAs) to develop and implement innovative and effective projects to reduce alcohol abuse in secondary schools..
This Grant Competition eligibility is limited to local educational agencies (LEAs), including charter schools that are considered LEAs under State law that do not have an active grant under this program (CFDA 84.184A), and consortia thereof.
The estimated available funds for this grant are $3,311,000 with the estimated average size of awards being $368,000 and the estimated number of awards being 9.
For additional information visit the Federal Register announcement at:
For specific questions regarding the Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse program, please contact the Competition Manager, Nicole A. White at nicole.white@ed.gov.
National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) is a nationwide initiative, coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health to raise awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Read more about NWGHAAD.
When women are faced with HIV/AIDS, their physical health is not the only issue at hand. Often accompanying the physical illness associated with the virus are mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety.
The Office on Women’s Health has two publications—one for health professionals and one for consumers—that focus on building positive awareness about women’s mental health. They address environmental and cultural barriers to seeking help and suggest gender-appropriate strategies for recovery.
Teen dating violence is a growing public health issue. In a nationwide survey of students in grades 9-12, nearly one in 10 students reported being hit or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend at least once in the past 12 months.
Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Preventionis a 60-minute, interactive training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence.
Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in partnership with Liz Claiborne Inc., Dating Matters also will highlight the importance of promoting healthy relationships.
Dating Matters takes place in a virtual school setting, complete with navigation through school hallways and classrooms. A teacher’s whiteboard will present information in a user-friendly way and provide navigation, help, and interactive resources for use throughout the course.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration announced approximately $67 million in grant funds for the Workforce Investment Act Indian and Native American Program.
Of the $67 million, approximately $53 million is available to fund a Comprehensive Service Program for adults. Approximately $14 million is available for a Supplemental Services Program for youth. The adult program will provide quality employment and training services that prepare Native Americans to gain employment in today’s competitive workforce. Program participants will include unemployed, underemployed and low‑income individuals.
The youth program will offer summer and year-round employment and training activities for American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian youth between the ages of 14 and 21. Program resources are targeted to at-risk individuals who face substantial barriers to educational and employment success. This population includes high school dropouts and youth who are in need of basic skills training.
Awards under the Comprehensive Service Program are anticipated to range from approximately $16,000 to $5.8 million each. Awards under the Supplemental Services Program are anticipated to range from approximately $1,073 to $3.1 million. Final award amounts in each category will be determined, in part, by census data.
Wyoming Substance Abuse Prevention -The Division places priority on working with individuals, communities, and other state agencies on prevention activities based in current outcomes research. We support a variety of activities and policy changes with a goal of educating young people and adults and encouraging them to make healthy choices about their use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
Recent trends that influence the models and choices we make in prevention are 1) a focus on evidence-based prevention activities, those based on solid theory validated by research, and those interventions supported by a body of knowledge and expert consensus, and 2) the necessity of outcome goals and measurements.
The National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) is a founding partner of the National Youth Violence Prevention Campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and to educate students, teachers, school administrators, counselors, school resource officers, school staff, parents, and the public on effective ways to prevent or reduce youth Violence.
This weeklong national education initiative involves activities that demonstrate the positive role young people can have in making their school and community safer.
Click here to learn more about preventing youth violence and delinquency through a universal school-based prevention approach.
The Lawrence Foundation focuses on grants to support education, health, human services, and other causes, with the opportunity to support other diverse areas on an occasional basis. The foundation is unusual in that it makes both program and operating fund grants.
U.S.-based IRS 501(c)(3) qualified nonprofits or public schools and libraries are encouraged to apply. Submit a grant application using the Common Grant Application. The Lawrence Foundation has issued a general waiver for all grant seekers applying to their foundation, which means they will not be charged to apply to The Lawrence Foundation using this Web-based application.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding.
Note: A transcript of this call will be posted at a later time. By participating in this conference call, you agree that any communication you make during the call or questions you ask may be recorded in the official transcript.
Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost-Benefit Analysisis a SAMHSA report designed to help policymakers and other stakeholders use the results of cost-benefit analysis as an information tool for decision-making and for selecting the substance abuse prevention programs that address their needs, given available resources.
The report states the Botvin LifeSkills Trainingprogram has a cost-benefit ratio of 21:1 and yields net benefits of $4,380 per pupil. Cost benefit is defined in this report as the ratio between expenditures to deliver a program and the reduced social costs over time as a result.
Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco to Protect Children and Adolescents
FDA is issuing a final rule that contains a broad set of federal requirements designed to significantly curb access to and the appeal of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents in the United States.
Published March 19, 2010, the new rule becomes effective June 22, 2010, and has the force and effect of law. Among other things, the rule:
Prohibits the sale of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to people younger than 18,
Prohibits the sale of cigarette packages with less than 20 cigarettes,
Prohibits distribution of free samples of cigarettes,
Restricts distribution of free samples of smokeless tobacco, and
Prohibits tobacco brand name sponsorship of any athletic, musical or other social or cultural events.
On Saturday, March 13, the Obama administration released ”A Blueprint for Reform,” for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This would give states incentives to adopt college- and career-ready standards and reward schools for producing dramatic gains in student achievement. The proposal challenges the nation to embrace educational standards that would put America on a path to global leadership.
The blueprint provides incentives for states to adopt academic standards that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and create accountability systems that measure student growth toward meeting the goal that all children graduate and succeed in college.
Regarding the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, there is a description of the new data-driven program entitled Safe, Successful and Healthy Students, on p. 31. We welcome your thoughts, comments, and questions about it.
Botvin LifeSkills Training Parent Programand both levels of the animated, interactive Elementary CD-ROM were recently awarded the influential PTPA Media Inc.’s Seal of Approval for excellence in parenting products. The winners of the prestigious Seal of Approval were selected based on the product’s value, functionality, quality, and appeal to families, children, and parents.
For more information on the award-winning LifeSkills Training Parent Program or the award-winning LifeSkills Training Elementary CD-ROMs, please visit www.lifeskillstraining.com
As many of you are aware, funding for the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program was eliminated in FY 2010. As a result, the substance abuse prevention infrastructure that exists in schools throughout the country will be severely cut, if not eliminated on June 30, 2010 when the program’s funding ends. State governments will not be able to replace the federal SDFSC funding, and therefore most schools will no longer have the funding or capacity to implement substance abuse prevention/intervention programming.
It is for these reasons that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is urging her colleagues to restore funding for this critical program in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act. In a Dear Colleague letter sent out on March 31st, Senator Gillibrand asks her fellow Senators to join her in urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to restore $295 million to the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program in FY 2011.
WHAT YOU CAN DO Use CADCA’s CapWiz system to fax your Senators and ask them to sign on to the Dear Colleague sign on letter in support of restoring the State Grants portion of the SDFSC program.
TIMING It is imperative that you fax your Senators IMMEDIATELY, as the deadline for them to sign on to the letter is April 7th.
CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically fax CADCA’s sample letter on this issue to your legislators from its website. To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.
If you would like to personalize your letter with examples from your state/community, please email dkurosky@cadca.org for a MS Word version of the sample letter.
On Monday the ONDCP released the U.S. Demand Reduction Efforts Fact Sheet to highlight programs they support to prevent initial drug use, and treat those who already use. The Obama administration has requested greater support for demand reduction in the FY 2011 Budget. The budget reflects a 6.5% increase in requested funds (when compared to the 2010 enacted Budget), the largest increase in requested funds of all types of counter-drug programs.
More importantly, the administration is requesting a 13% increase in prevention funds for 2011. See below for the section on prevention:
Prevention is most successful when messages are conveyed at home (core values); reinforced in schools, workplaces, and community organizations (reinforcing values). They should link prevention and overall health, reflecting shared social norms (prevailing values).
Prevention Prepared Communities: The FY 2011 request includes $15 million for a pilot network of “prevention-prepared communities.” These offer continuous evidence-based interventions throughout adolescence. $5.6 million are requested for community specialists to develop prevention-prepared communities and increase State agency collaboration. Activities include State-level drug monitoring, technical assistance, and mentoring networks. Also, $2.0 million is requested to fund evaluations of the pilot program.
Research. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will invest $435.2 million in FY 2011 to research the effectiveness of drug prevention.
The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The FY 2011 request of $66.5 million targets youth and their parents through advertising and public outreach on television, radio, in magazines and on the internet. For more information go to: www.theantidrug.com.
Drug Free Communities (DFC) Program. The FY 2011 request of $85.5 million for DFC provides grants of up to $125,000 per year, for a maximum of 10 years, to local coalitions to mobilize communities against drugs. Similar coalitions funded in part through the State Department exist in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil and South Africa. For more information go to: www.ondcp.gov/dfc.
Health advocates all over the country will be celebrating April 5-11 as National Public Health Week. The theme for this year’s observance is “A Healthier America: One Community at a Time.” Sponsored by the American Public Health Association, that week is dedicated to public health and community-focused events that support this theme and public health initiatives, in general. As part of the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, there is a lot your coalition can do to bring forth the message of creating a healthier community. In connection to national events, your coalition can choose to participate in local area events or use online resources to create an event when the time is right for your community.
In 1995, former President Bill Clinton proclaimed the first full week of April as National Public Health Week. Each year since then, the public health community has celebrated this observance by focusing on an issue that is important to improving the public’s health. The American Public Health Association serves as the organizer of NPHW and develops a national campaign to educate the public, policy-makers and practitioners about issues related to that year’s theme. APHA creates comprehensive planning, organizing and outreach materials that can be used during and after the week to raise awareness.
The bill signed into law by President Obama on March 23 will create a national prevention council with the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy as a member and alcohol and other drug addictions listed as a national priority for that council’s report to Congress.
While much attention has focused on the new law’s impact on treatment and coordination with the general healthcare system, the healthcare-reform package also does much to advance the cause of addiction prevention because no child can be denied coverage for pre-exisiting conditions, nor can insurers drop coverage of people with preexisting conditions like addiction and mental-health problems.
HR 3590 “promotes evidence-based clinical and community prevention with increased funding; incentives for local governments to improve community wellness; grants for small businesses to provide comprehensive workplace wellness; science-based nutrition information for families; and health screenings with personalized prevention plans covered by Medicare,” according to U.S. Preventive Medicine, a prevention-services provider. “The legislation also includes a pilot program to provide at-risk populations who utilize community health centers with individualized wellness plans to include nutritional counseling, physical activity plans, alcohol and smoking cessation counseling, and stress management.”
A public health and prevention fund that will provide $15 billion over 10 years to support home, school, and workplace prevention is included in the law, as well. “This new legislation promotes the development of a national prevention strategy which would align the views of most Americans with the policy and funding necessary to move toward a culture of prevention, personal responsibility and wellness,” said Ron Loeppke, M.D., vice chairman of U.S. Preventive Medicine.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Office of Grants Review will be hosting a final Webinar to recruit peer reviewers for the 2010 Drug-Free Communities Request for Applications (both regular and mentoring) April 20 at 1 p.m. EDT.
If you are a current or former DFC grantee interested in being in the Peer Reviewer pool, please visit the Drug-Free Communities Support Program’s Web site: www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/dfc for information on how to participate.
Please make sure that you are available during the Peer Review period, May 13 to 27, 2010, and for a possible second round in early June.
To access the audio for the Webinar, please call: 800-779-1749
Passcode: DFC
To access the Webinar (PowerPoint), go to:
URL: www.mymeetings.com/nc/join/
Conference number: PW7154961
Passcode: DFC
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) has launched a Grants 101 Web page (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/grants101/) to assist applicants in navigating the challenges of a highly competitive application and grant award process. This portal page offers several resources, which are particularly useful for new applicants.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has posted a number of current solicitations on OJJDP’s Funding Opportunities Web page (http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/funding/FundingList.asp)
Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1987, this day serves as a reminder of the goals agreed to by member states of creating an international society free of drug abuse. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime selects themes for the International Day and launches campaigns to raise awareness about the global drug problem. This year’s theme is “Do drugs control your life? Your life. Your Community. No place for drugs.”
On April 15th, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the Drug-Free Communities Enhancement Act, sponsored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). The legislation builds on the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) program, which currently funds more than 700 community anti-drug coalitions nationwide and has been tremendously successful in reducing youth substance use and abuse to levels lower than national averages, by authorizing supplemental funds for current and former DFC grantees to enable them to more effectively address major emerging drug trends and local drug crises.
The DFC Enhancement Act authorizes current and former DFC grantees to apply for grants of up to $75,000 per year for up to four years to implement comprehensive, community-wide strategies to address emerging drug trends or local drug crises. Applicants can qualify for DFC Enhancement Act grants if their local data shows evidence of a sudden increase in drug use and abuse rates for a particular substance, or if rates of use and abuse for a specific drug are significantly higher than the national average for a sustained period of time. Grant applicants must submit a comprehensive community plan for addressing the emerging drug trend or local drug crisis. The Drug Free Communities Enhancement Act authorizes funding from 2011 through 2015.
*Grant: Youth substance use and violence – To build and sustain capacity to prevent youth substance use and violence and support collaboration between state educational agencies and other state agencies to prevent these problems.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education.
Eligibility: State educational agencies.
Deadline: June 7.
Amount: $8 million for 45 awards ranging from $125,000 to $250,000 each.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php
Jefferson County teachers listen to a presentation about LifeSkills Traininglast week in at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden. The district has trained more than 170 teachers in the LifeSkills program.
Provided by: Kristin Morin | YourHub.com
Article Contributed on: 4/28/2010 11:44:14 PM
Effective living is a growing part of the Jeffco Schools curriculum, and this year, thousands of Jeffco Public Schools students will learn about values, choices and their impact.
The LifeSkills Training curriculum was introduced in the spring of 2008, and included 285 students. In the 2008-09 school year, the program grew to 1,075 students, and a goal was set for 1,500 students for 2009-10, according to Mary Blair, district LikeSkills coordinator.
Instead, 5,000 students are now involved in the LST curriculum, far exceeding that goal.
Blair noted the increase reflects the dynamic teachers and counselors spreading the word about the program and encouraging other teachers to train in and teach the curriculum in their classes.
The program centers on three core areas incorporated into the academic curriculum, Blair said.
“Making good choices, minimizing risky behaviors and managing their social choices in a positive way,” she said.
Jeffco Schools was awarded a grant through Jefferson County Human Services to train additional staff, staff support, purchase curriculum and hire a coordinator.
The schools work with a subcommittee of the Criminal Justice Department to support the curriculum with the goal of reducing future criminal behavior, risky behavior and increasing graduation rates.
Blair, who retired last year from teaching family and consumer studies, was asked to head the program after a county grant came through.
She said the Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education is instrumental in training trainers and social workers who Jeffco staff in teaching the LST programs and she hopes for future grants to continue the training.
There is also a parent component to the curriculum, Blair said, with social workers from Jefferson County Mental Health teaching the skills to parents.
Sharon Murray, RMC president and CEO, said the training could help schools meet the new Colorado standards for health education.
“It takes it from just health information to giving students the critical thinking skills to practice good health-enhancing behavior,” she said.
For students, it trains having to stop and think about choices that can affect their lives before making them: reacting to peer pressure to take alcohol and drugs, for instance.
On Friday, April 30 Waynesville Elementary School received a mini-grant from the Mental Health & Recovery Centers of Warren County. Prevention Specialist, Charlie Hartman, has been working with the 3rd/4th grade teachers to provide BOTVIN LIFESKILLS TRAINING, an evidence-based prevention program. Skills include self-esteem, decision-making, smoking, advertising, stress management, communication skills, social skills, and assertiveness. This program has been provided to our building free of charge. Shown in the picture is Jean Hartman, Waynesville Elementary Principal, receiving the check from Charlie Hartman.
Below is a listing of College & Careers (and Juvenile Justice) grants that may be applicable to LST Transitions, a highly interactive, skills-based program designed to help adolescents navigate the transition into the workforce and higher education. LST Transitions helps students achieve competency in the skills that not only are key to success but also have been found to reduce and prevent substance use and violence.
*Grant: Promise Neighborhoods – For community-based programs to prepare at-risk youth for college and careers.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
Eligibility: Nonprofits and institutions of higher learning
Deadline: June 25
Amount: $10 million for 20 planning grants ranging from $400,000 to $500,000
*Grant: Second Chance Act evaluation and educational improvement – To evaluate and improve academic and vocational education for incarcerated adults and juveniles, and then recommend to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) the best practices for such educational programs.
Funder: DOJ
Eligibility: States, units of local government, territories and federally recognized Indian tribes; and other public and private entities.
*Grant: @15 community grants – To provide positive experiences to help teens excel in school, engage in their communities and develop leadership skills. Special consideration will be given to programs that serve a diverse population, reach at-risk children in working families and meet other priorities.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php
*Grant: Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth through Violence Prevention – To build capacity within specified U.S. cities to collaborate, plan, implement and sustain evidence-based youth violence prevention concepts, strategies, practices, programs and policies.
Funder: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php
Nonprofits working to meet the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of children may apply for grants from the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation.
The foundation supports dissemination of information about innovative programs and groups that benefit youth as well as information on groups and programs with an established track record of helping children. Programs should have the potential to help American children across a multistate region.
Applications are due July 15. For more details, see the complete RFP online (PDF).
As reported by the Times Herald Staff (click here to read the full article)
Norristown Area Communities That Care For Youth (CTC), a coalition dedicated to reducing those risk factors that could lead to adolescent drug use and violence and enhancing protective factors that shield them from such problems, wants parents to be mindful of the risk factors summer freedom can bring.
CTC Community Mobilizer Angela Bell said with all the free time kids have during summer months — especially with both parents working, as is often the case — they’re “more susceptible to peer pressure and more likely to make bad choices.
“If parents are mindful of that, they can try to do whatever they can to engage their children and teens in pro-social activities through the summer,” Bell said. “Tap the local resources, and find out what’s available in your community.”
The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has supported CTC for more than a decade, and more than 100 communities have been trained in this research-driven model.
The Evidence Based Prevention and Intervention Support Center (EPIS Center) in State College, funded by PCCD and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, directs outreach and advocacy efforts, provides technical assistance to communities and conducts original research to promote the use of prevention and intervention programs proven effective through scientific studies.
Brian Bumbarger, director of the EPIS Center, said, “One of the important risk factors for delinquency or youth drug use is poor parental supervision. And so especially when kids are at that early adolescent time when their parents become less of an influence on them and peers become more of an influence on them, it’s really important to make sure there are good, positive pro-social things for kids to do in the summertime, and to make sure there is adult supervision and guidance.
“It’s not just about keeping kids busy; it’s about keeping them busy and at the same time doing things that instill positive values in them.”
Bell, who’s been the Norristown CTC’s mobilizer since its August 2001 inception, said, “We have a combination of program and environmental strategies working toward the same goal: preventing delinquent behavior.” Program strategies include in-classroom LifeSkills Training, provided to fifth- through eighth-graders in Norristown Area School District, as part of their health curriculum; and nighttime parent education classes offered in conjunction with Family Services, CTC’s lead agency.
Without an initiative like CTC utilizing evidence-based programs, Bumbarger said, “a lot of money is otherwise wasted on things that don’t work, or directed to things that aren’t the root of the problem.
“We have some strategies in Pennsylvania that have been proven effective in reducing youth crime and drug use and at the same time improving academic achievement,” Bumbarger said. “That’s a great thing — except that since 2002, the funding level for those two initiatives (CTC and evidence based programs) in Pennsylvania has been cut by 93 percent.”
In 2002 these initiatives received about $17 million dollars from the state. By last year that figure was reduced to $3 million. For 2011 it’s proposed by and Gov. Ed Rendell and the House of Representatives to drop this funding by another 67 percent, Bumbarger said, bringing it down to just over $1 million.
“There are a number of community coalitions that have completely disintegrated, because there’s no funding for the community mobilization that needs to take place; they just fell apart. These initiatives operate on shoe string budget already, so when times get tough, they’re the first things to get cut — even though they’re some of the most important things in a community.”
Kelly Brown of Family Services said Norristown Area CTC has “been very fortunate to have an engaged and active board (that helps) … keep these efforts going.”
She said with the impact of state budget cuts, CTC has primarily relied on federal Drug Free Communities funds to stay afloat, but it’s the coalition’s determination to secure a diversification of funding — a mixture of state, federal and local — that she attributes to their survival in tough economic times.
“Everybody understands we need to make cuts,” Bumbarger said, “but it doesn’t make sense to cut the things that have been proven effective in changing something that actually saves taxpayer dollars (reducing crime).
“It’s the worst possible timing to be cutting prevention … because the very things that we know are at the root of youth delinquency, violence, drug use and school failure are the things that are going to get worse, because our economy is so bad,” Bumbarger said.
The National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors and The National Prevention Network with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention announces the grant competition for the 2010 National Exemplary Awards for Innovative Substance Abuse Prevention Programs, Practices, and Policies. The short title is 2010 Exemplary Awards
The awards are presented by NASADAD/ NPN with support from CSAP. Applications for the award are due by Monday, June 14th. Award winners will be announced during the NPN Research Conference in Denver, Colorado in the beginning of September.
The 2010 Exemplary Awards highlight innovation and showcase evidence-based, state-of-the-art substance abuse prevention programs in the United States
• Winners get $1650 mini-grant
• One or two members from the winning programs receive a trip to the NPN Research Conference in Denver Colorado, held at the end of August
*Grant: Youth health and well-being – For national programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children, address a significant funding gap or critical opportunity, have a long-term impact in terms of replication or reach, produce measurable results and are sustainable.
Preparing grant applications can be a bit challenging. Botvin LifeSkills Training offers several grant application tools to help you in applying for local, state, and federal funding: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php
*Grant: Peaceful Pathways: Reducing Exposure to Violence – For projects that increase well-being and improve health by removing the obstacles caused by violence.
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Eligibility: Partnership proposals must include an eligible nominating funder and a nonprofit applicant organization. Consult notice for complete details.
Deadline: Sept. 1.
Amount: Eight matching grants of between $50,000 to $200,000 each.
As reported by jointogether.org (click here to read full article)
On Friday, May 14 fueled in part by national healthcare reform, a quiet revolution has taken place in how the federal government conceives of prevention and funds preventive services. This could mean more money for programs that take a public-health approach to addiction and mental health problems. It can also mean less money for standalone programs that focus solely on alcohol and other drugs. The healthcare reform bill that was passed by Congress includes a plan to spend $15 billion on disease prevention. Many advocacy groups want that money to be spent on disease-specific interventions targeting problems like smoking and diabetes, while others have called for using the money on broader community health initiatives.
*Grant: National training and technical assistance center for youth in custody – To establish a center that will provide education, training and technical assistance for state, local and tribal departments of juvenile justice and corrections, service providers and private organizations that operate juvenile facilities.
As reported by the Advocacy (click here to read full article)
CADCA recently issued a legislative alert to ensure that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), formerly known as No Child Left Behind, explicitly includes substance use/abuse prevention. Given that the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities program has been eliminated, and the funding for this program runs out on June 30th. In his Blueprint for Reform, President Obama broadly outlines his proposal for how the ESEA reauthorization should be structured. In it, he recommends creating a new Successful, Safe and Healthy Students program, which would be a competitive grant program for both states and local education agencies (LEAs) under which a very limited number of State and LEA grantees could address school climate issues.
WHITE PLAINS, NY – On April 8, 2010, the world’s leading prevention scientists gathered for a panel discussion at the Blueprints Conference in San Antonio, Texas. The panel, titled “Blueprints: A 10-Year Retrospective and Look to the Future,” aimed to review a decade of violence and substance abuse prevention efforts and to anticipate the challenges ahead. More than 700 delegates, including professionals working in the area of juvenile justice, violence and drug abuse prevention for youth, attended this conversation.
In the last ten years, the evidence-based prevention programs that Blueprints has cited as models have become the gold standard for policy-makers as the only logical and cost-efficient means by which to reduce violence and substance abuse in communities. However, funding is still scarce.
“In order to improve the quality of health in America and reduce future health care costs, it is vitally important that policy-makers and decision-makers promote the use of the most effective prevention programs available based on scientific evidence of what works,” said panelist Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, developer of LifeSkills Training, a Blueprints model program for substance abuse and violence prevention. “Blueprints for Violence Prevention gives decision-makers the tools necessary to identify the most effective programs.”
Other panelists included Clay Yeager (Moderator); David Olds, Nurse-Family Partnership; Mark Greenberg, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Mary Ann Pentz, Midwestern Prevention Program; Jim Alexander, Functional Family Therapy; Scott Henggeler, Multisystemic Therapy; Delbert Elliott, University of Colorado; and Shay Bilchik, formerly with the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention.
Established in 1996 at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Blueprints for Violence Prevention program monitors the effectiveness of prevention, early intervention, and treatment programs in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse.
Click here to watch video: http://lifeskillstraining.com/blueprints.php
Grant: Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG): local and state programs – JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, including prevention and education, corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness protection.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: All states and territories and certain local governments, as specified.
Deadline: June 16 for state solicitations; June 30 for local solicitations.
Amount: Funds are allocated by state according to a statutory formula.
Grant: National Girls Institute – To establish an institute to advance the understanding and application of evidence-based programs for delinquent and at-risk girls.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: State, local and tribal governments; public and state controlled higher education institutions; and nonprofits.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., May 25, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The award-winning Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST) Parent Program is now available as an e-book: Princeton Health Press announced today its plan to make parent resources more accessible through the world’s most popular eReader, Amazon’s Kindle, as well as through the Kindle application for PCs, Mac, Blackberry and the Apple iPhone and iPad.
“The Kindle provides an exceptional reading experience and we’re pleased to offer our Parent Program through this platform,” said Craig Zettle, Vice President of Princeton Health Press. “In less than 60 seconds, parents can download the book and start to learn valuable skills that will help their children stay healthy and lead drug-free lives.” The comprehensive LST Parent Program fosters family communication through skill-building activities that can help parents teach their children to avoid the perils of alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse. Parents using the eReader edition will have access to a complimentary Parent Resource website from where they can download worksheets for interactive activities.
“Parents can dramatically reduce the likelihood that their children will develop problems with cigarettes, alcohol, or illegal drugs,” said author/program developer, Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin. “The LST Parent Program provides parents with the tools needed to help their children avoid drug abuse and cope with the many challenges of life.” The LifeSkills Training Parent Program is part of a comprehensive suite of new prevention materials based on the highly effective LifeSkills Training (LST) school-based alcohol, drug, and tobacco prevention program for adolescents. LST is included in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and has been selected for excellence by the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy.
HealthDay News reported May 19 that American University professor Kathryn Montgomery — author of the report, Alcohol Marketing in the Digital Age (PDF) — said that alcohol is being sold through “a multiplicity of platforms throughout the day and night that includes online, offline, mobile, digital, music, video — a whole range of different ways that consumers interact with new digital marketing.”
Adolescents are being bombarded with alcohol marketing online as firms exploit new-media tools and lax regulation to put their brand images and information in front of young drinkers, according to a new report.
Researchers said that the Federal Trade Commission needs to investigate an advertising space where loose regulations. Alcohol companies also are reaching out to consumers via social-networking platforms like Facebook, both directly and indirectly through consumers who are encouraged to tout their brands to others in the network.
On Wednesday, June 2, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., EDT, The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS) will be offering a webinar to the public for those individuals that will be submitting a discretionary grant application to the OSDFS office.
OSDFS Staff will provide tips and discuss common elements that should be addressed when submitting an application.
On the day of the webinar, call-in participation will be limited to the first 300 callers, and WebEx capacity is limited to the first 200.
Representatives Sander Levin (D-12th/MI) and Mary Bono Mack (R-46th/CA) have co-founded and will co-chair the new Congressional Caucus on Youth Drug Prevention. The mission of this newly formed Caucus is to:
educate members of Congress and federal agencies about the benefits of youth drug prevention (including the prevention of underage drinking);
raise awareness about the consequences of youth drug use among children, parents and families;
raise awareness about the effectiveness of comprehensive, community-wide approaches, including the involvement of parents, schools, teachers, and the media; and
ensure that substance use/abuse prevention is included in all appropriate authorizing and appropriations legislation, and garner support for such legislation.
In an effort to raise awareness about the need for increased youth drug prevention funding and appropriate policies, we’d like to see as many members of Congress as possible join the Caucus. The more constituents your member hears from, the more likely he/she is to join.
What You Can Do
Use CADCA’s CapWiz to fax a letter to you representative, asking him/her to join the Youth Drug Prevention Caucus.
CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically send a fax to your legislators from its website. To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.
Grant: Secure Our Schools – To establish and enhance a variety of school safety equipment and/or programs to encourage the continuation and enhancement of school safety efforts within communities.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: All local, state and tribal law enforcement agencies with primary law enforcement autho
rity within a partner primary or secondary school.
Deadline: July 2.
Amount: $16 million for grants of up to $1 million.
Grant: Evaluating girls’ delinquency – To document and measure the effectiveness of delinquency prevention, intervention and/or treatment programs in preventing and reducing girls’ risk behavior and offending.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: Public and private nonprofits.
Deadline: July 8.
Amount: Several grants ranging from $200,000 to $400,000 will be awarded.
For the first time, delegations from all 193 Member States of World Health Organization reached a consensus at the World Health Assembly in Geneva on a resolution to confront the harmful use of alcohol. Every year, the harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people, including 320,000 young people between 15 and 29 years of age. It is the eighth leading risk factor for deaths globally, and harmful use of alcohol was responsible for almost 4 percent of all deaths in the world, according to the WHO’s estimates for 2004.
In addition to the resolution, a global strategy developed by WHO in close collaboration with Member States provides a portfolio of policy options and interventions for implementation at national level with the goal to reduce the harmful use of alcohol worldwide. The resolution endorses the strategy and urges countries to complement and support national responses to public health problems caused by the harmful use of alcohol.
Ronald McDonald House Charities – Youth Health and Well-being Grants
Ronald McDonald House Charities invites applications for their Youth Health and Well-being grant program. Programs must be national or global in reach. Successful proposals will directly improve the health and well-being of children, address a funding gap or critical opportunity, produce measurable results, and be sustainable.
Grant amounts vary. Nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply.
Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation – Champion Fur Kids Health and Wellness Grants Build-A-Bear Workshop is offering grants to directly support children in the areas of health and wellness such as childhood disease research foundations, child safety organizations and organizations that serve children with special needs.
Grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 will be awarded. Nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply.
The award-winning Botvin LifeSkills TrainingParent Program is designed to help parents strengthen communication with their children and prevent them from using drugs. This powerful prevention tool is ideal for parenting workshops or individual use at home.
Grant: National Center on Parent, Family and Community Engagement – To create a center that will disseminate clear, consistent messages about parental and family engagement associated with improvements in young children’s learning.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Eligibility: Public and private nonprofits and for-profits.
Join Together reported on June 7, 2010 that Twenty percent of U.S. high-school students say they have taken prescription drugs without consulting a doctor, including one in four high-school seniors, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The biennial Youth Risk Behavioral Survey found that male and female students were equally apt to misuse prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Xanax, but white students were more likely to do so than Hispanics or black students.
Researchers also found that 72 percent of students reported they had used alcohol, 37 percent had used marijuana, 6.7 percent had used ecstasy, 6.4 percent had used cocaine, and 4.1 percent had tried methamphetamine.
July 4th falls on a Sunday this year, giving families a three-day weekend to celebrate, which also means that more people will be on the roads. Coalitions can play a big role in helping to prevent impaired driving and underage drinking through environmental strategies, social norming activities and by working with local police on enforcement activities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has developed a 4th of July Impaired Driving Prevention Planner to help community organizations plan their prevention efforts.
Impaired driving is one of America’s deadliest problems. In 2008, 37,261 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes. Out of that number 11,773 people were killed in traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. The July 4th holiday is particularly dangerous. For example, in 2008 during the July 4th holiday period there were a total of 491 traffic related fatalities. Out of that number, 43 percent involved a driver or motorcycle rider with a BAC of .08 or higher.
JoinTogether.org reports in a research summary that children living in communities that ban smoking in indoor public places are 39 percent less likely to have chemical biomarkers indicating exposure to tobacco smoke, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Researchers led by Melanie Dove analyzed the levels of cotinine — a nicotine metabolite — in the blood of 11,486 nonsmoking youth ages 3-19, comparing children living in counties with smokefree laws to those who lived in counties that lacked such laws.
Children living in nonsmoking homes had 43-percent lower mean cotinine levels, the study found. Researchers said that the home is the most common source for youth secondhand-smoke exposure; 20 percent of kids in the study lived with a smoker.
The study is published online in the journal Pediatrics.
Grant: Full-Service Community Schools – To coordinate academic, social and health services through partnerships between schools and community-based organizations.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education.
Eligibility: Consortia of local educational agencies and one or more community-based organizations.
Deadline: July 23.
Amount: $5 million for eight to 12 awards ranging from $275,000 to $500,000 each.
Grant: National Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center – To advance the capacity of states, tribes and communities to evaluate their activities and use the findings to enhance their juvenile justice activities and programs.
Grant: Youth development – To evaluate, replicate and disseminate innovative and effective programs that help disadvantaged youth reach their full potential.
Funder: Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation.
Eligibility: Program in the greater metropolitan areas of Baltimore; Boston; Madison and Milwaukee, Wis.; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C.
JoinTogether.org reports in a research summary that teens who drank a lot of alcoholic beverages and coffee, smoked, and got little exercise were more likely to suffer from migrane and tension headaches, according to German researchers.
EScienceNews reported June 6 that headaches are among the most common health problem reported by teens, and researcher Astrid Milde-Busch, M.D., and colleagues found a significant association between lifestyle factors and headache prevalence.
“Our study confirms [that] adolescents with any type of headache might benefit from regular physical activity and low consumption of alcoholic drinks,” said Milde-Busch, of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. “In teens suffering from migraine, a low coffee consumption should also be suggested.”
The study was published online in the journal Headache.
On June 10, 2010, the White House announced an Executive Order to establish the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council under the new healthcare law.
The purpose of the council is to develop a national public health strategy with specific goals for improving Americans’ health, and to recommend actions and timelines for accomplishing those goals. The council will be made up of Cabinet members and other top administration officials.
The council will also produce annual reports from July 1, 2010, through Jan. 1, 2015 that describe progress toward those goals. The reports are to contain a list of national priorities to address “lifestyle behavior modification,” including topics such as substance abuse disorders, smoking cessation, mental health and behavioral health.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced that all the states and the District of Columbia have continued to meet their goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth (those under 18).
In federal fiscal year 2009, for the first time ever, the data show a slight increase in the average national rate of tobacco sales to underage youth of about one percent. States goals, set under the Synar Amendment program – a federal and state partnership, are aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors.
The Synar Amendment supports the national Healthy People 2010 objective to reduce the illegal sales rate to minors through enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors.
The FFY2009 Annual Synar Reports: State Compliance, which includes compliance rates for each of the states and the District of Columbia, as well as a section on compliance rates for the U.S. Jurisdictions, is available at http://prevention.samhsa.gov/tobacco/synarreportfy2009.pdf.
CADCA.org reports on a small research study which indicates that the teenagers may experience the release of the brain’s pleasure-and-reward chemical dopamine more acutely than children or adults. Researchers said the findings could help explain why teens are more prone to risk-taking than people of other ages.
The study by UCLA researcher Jessica Cohen and colleagues involved 45 subject who were offered cash rewards for correctly performing a task. MRI scans showed that the dopamine-sensitive striatal area of the brains of the 14- to 19-year-olds in the study group “lit up” more strongly than those of other age groups when the reward was given.
The research was published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Jointogether.org reports in a news summary that restrictions on cigarette branding and new labeling requirements go into effect June 22 — part of the new federal Tobacco Control Act — HealthDay News reported June 17.
As of Tuesday, cigarettes may no longer be branded as “light,” “mild,” or “low”: cigarette companies are switching to color names instead to differentiate their brands. Cigarette packs also will have larger and more detailed warning labels, and cigarette companies will be barred from sponsoring cultural or sporting events.
Sales of tobacco products to anyone under age 18 will now be prohibited under federal law, as well, and cigarette vending machines will be limited to locations frequented only by adults.
William T. Grant Foundation
The Foundation offers service improvement grants to organizations that serve youth directly, such as after-school programs and youth-service organizations. These awards, which make up a modest portion of the our grantmaking, are designed to improve the quality of services for young people ages 8 to 25. Service improvement grants are capped at $25,000 and are available to organizations in New York City only.
June 21, 2010–A Weekly FAX from the Center for Substance Abuse Research reports on ‘U.S. High School Students Less Likely to Begin Drinking or Smoking Before Age 13 in 2009 Than in 1999’.
The percentage of high school students who first tried alcohol or cigarettes before age 13 has decreased over the past decade, according to data from the recently released 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
New York, NY, June 29, 2010 – Survey data released today by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America® and MetLife Foundation found that teenage girls are more likely than teenage boys to perceive potential benefits from drug use and drinking, making teen girls more vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse.
According to a new research analysis of the 2009 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), sponsored by MetLife Foundation, teen girls are more likely to associate “self-medicating” benefits with drinking and getting high.
According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), hospital emergency department visits involving underage drinking nearly double during the Fourth of July Holiday weekend. The study reveals that daily underage drinking-related visits to hospital emergency departments are 87 percent higher during the Fourth of July weekend than they are on an average day in July. The report estimates that on an average day in July, there are 502 hospital emergency department visits involving underage alcohol use. For the three day Fourth of July weekend however, the number of daily hospital emergency department visits jumps to 938.
July 1, 2010 CADCA.org reports on international drug use. In an effort to combat the growing problem of drug abuse and addiction around the world, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (CA -45) and Congressman Patrick Kennedy (RI-01) today introduced H.Res.1451, a bipartisan resolution praising the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
“Drug abuse and addiction is costing the lives of far too many young people around the world,” said Bono Mack. “We need aggressive domestic and international efforts that raise awareness about the dangers of drug abuse and put more emphasis on prevention and treatment. It is through our combined, aggressive efforts that we can end the cycle that is destroying communities and families across the U.S. and the globe.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are working together to educate consumers, public health partners, and the general public about new tobacco regulations that took effect on June 22, 2010. These regulations limit the sale, distribution, and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to individuals younger than18 years of age; require larger and stronger health warning labels to appear on smokeless tobacco advertisements and on smokeless tobacco products manufactured on or after June 22, 2010; and prohibit the tobacco industry from manufacturing for sale or distribution any tobacco products for which the label, labeling, or advertising contains the descriptors “light,” “low,” or “mild” (or any similar descriptor).
Read full report here (http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/uploads/media/Tobacco Regulations.pdf)
Jointogether.org reports on a news summary that the FDA’s new Center for Tobacco Products has had a busy first year — banning most tobacco flavorings and issuing regulations on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, among other steps — and the coming year promises to be equally active, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported June 27.
The center, headed by Lawrence Deyton, staffed with 100 employees, and funded by fees on the tobacco industry, will issue new rules on cigarette packaging and warning labels and decide the fate of menthol cigarettes in the coming months. Much of the agency’s early work has revolved around implementation of the 2009 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory power over tobacco products.
July 8, 2010 CADCA.org reports on prescription drug abuse. Since prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States, ONDCP launched a prescription drug abuse initiative aimed at preventing and reducing prescription drug abuse and emergency room visits resulting from that abuse.
A recent national survey of high-school students reported that among 12th graders surveyed, 7 of the top 10 abused substances are pharmaceuticals. Between 1997 and 2007, treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 400 percent. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of visits to hospital emergency departments involving the non-medical use of narcotic painkillers increased 111 percent. In addition, the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that most people who abuse these drugs are getting them from friends and family or from a doctor.
Jointogether.org reports on a research summary which links youth marijuana use and depression. A Dutch study has found that marijuana use before age 17 was associated with a 50-percent increase in the risk of later suffering an episode of depression, although researchers said that the association weakened when a history of conduct disorders was figured in, Reuters reported July 6.
Researchers said the findings don’t prove that youthful marijuana use leads to depression, or vice-versa. However, study author Ron de Graff of the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction said it is possible that drug use could affect the still-developing adolescent brain.
Youth today are inundated with all sorts of temptation: drugs, alcohol, tobacco and violent behavior. Each year, it seems that these temptations reach younger and younger children. To fight against children being drawn into destructive actions and behavior, programs
are being put into action to help these youngsters at even earlier ages.
Qwest Foundation® understands the long-term benefits of investing in education. The Foundation makes grants to non-profit organizations, primarily focused on promoting pre-k through grade 12 education.
Qwest Foundation awards grants to non-profit organizations that generate high impact and measurable results through community-based programs, and supports programs and initiatives that build lasting value for Qwest customers and the communities we serve.
CADCA.org reports on prescription drug abuse in a recent data analysis. The proportion of all substance abuse treatment admissions of those age 12 and older involving abuse of prescription pain relievers rose by more than 400 percent from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 9.8 percent in 2008, according to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
For example, among men the proportion of treatment admissions involving the misuse of prescription pain relievers rose from 1.8 percent in 1998 to 8.1 percent in 2008, while among women the proportion of admissions due to misuse increased from 3.5 percent in 1998 to 13.3 percent in 2008. Similarly, among those with an eighth grade education or less, the proportion of admissions involving misuses of prescription pain relievers jumped from 1.9 percent to 9.7 percent; while among those with more than a high school education, the proportion climbed from 3.8 percent to 12.1 percent during the same time period.
According to a new report from HHS’ Centers for Disease Control’s Office on Smoking and Health, Div. of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, understanding the trends in the prevalence of cigarette smoking among youths enables policy makers to target prevention resources more effectively. Every 2 years, CDC analyzes data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to evaluate trends in cigarette use among high school students in the United States.
This report updates a previous report and describes results of CDC’s 2010 analysis of YRBS data from 1991–2009 for three measures: ever smoked cigarettes, current cigarette use, and current frequent cigarette use. For ever smoked cigarettes, the prevalence did not change from 1991 (70.1%) to 1999 (70.4%), declined to 58.4% in 2003, and then declined more gradually, to 46.3% in 2009. For current cigarette use, the prevalence increased from 27.5% in 1991 to 36.4% in 1997, declined to 21.9% in 2003, and then declined more gradually, to 19.5% in 2009.
Grant: National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention (“ACEs”) – To set up these centers, which aim to reduce youth violence in defined high-risk communities by implementing and evaluating evidence-based prevention approaches. Funder: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eligibility: Public and private nonprofit universities and university-associated teaching hospitals. Deadline: Dec. 6. Amount: $5.2 million for up to four awards this fiscal year. Contact:http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=52740
On Tuesday, July 20 the Ascension Parish School Board voted 9-0 to enter into a contract with the Capital Area Human Services District that would bring a LifeSkills Training program to parish public high schools.
Coordinator of Student Services Linda Lamendola told the board that the agreement would mean a donation of $45,000 to the school district to provide the health service education program.
According to information Lamendola provided the board, the course would cover topics such as the value of good health, risk-taking, substance abuse, health and the media, managing stress and anger, better family communications and building healthy relationships.
July 22, 2010 CADCA.org reports on teenage binge drinking in a public health data analysis. Binge-drinking teenagers may be putting themselves at risk for future osteoporosis and bone fractures, according to researchers at Loyola University Health System. The new study found binge drinking disrupts genes involved in the bone formation of rats. The study is published in the July-August issue of the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.
Bone biologist John Callaci, PhD, one of the principle researchers in the study, cautioned that data from animals don’t directly translate to people, but the findings suggest that this could be a problem with humans. Bone mass is lost throughout adult life as part of the aging process. Thus, anything that inhibits the build up of bone mass during the critical years of adolescence and young adulthood could increase the risk of osteoporosis and fractures in later life.
HHS’ CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) has just released new student health and academic achievement resources that are based on an analysis of the newly released 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data.
JoinTogether.org reports on tobacco ads in stores and the influence they have on teens. Teens who regularly visit stores that display point-of-sale ads for tobacco products were twice as likely to try smoking — a finding researchers said argues for a complete ban on such advertising.
HealthDay News reported July 19 that researchers who surveyed 2,110 teens ages 11-14 found that — contrary to industry claims — point-of-sale ads are highly effective in motivating teens to smoke. Such ads represent 90 percent of all tobacco-industry spending on advertising.
Grant: Benefiting Women and Girls – To support projects that promote gender, racial, social, economic and/or environmental justice among women and girls, particularly those from vulnerable communities.
Funder: Open Meadows Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits with budgets of less than $150,000.
JoinTogether.org reports on Condon Moving from NIDA to ONDCP. Timothy P. Condon, Ph.D., the current assistant director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), moved this week to the Office of National Drug Control Policy to take on the role of science policy advisor. Condon has been NIDA’s deputy director since 2004 and had worked at NIDA since 1992, previously serving as chief of the agency’s science policy branch and as NIDA’s first associate director for science policy.
Dr. Condon’s role at NIDA as Deputy Director included developing, implementing, and managing NIDA’s research programs, particularly those with a translational emphasis, such as NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network, the Blending Research and Practice Initiative, a National Judicial Training Project, and the recent NIDAMED outreach program for physicians.
ChildStats.gov reports on the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released “America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2010.” This report continues a series of annual reports to the nation on the well-being of children in the United States. The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences, in cooperation with 21 other federal agencies, contributes indicators to the report and supports its production.
According to the report’s section on education, eighth graders’ average mathematics scale scores increased between 2007 and 2009, as did eighth graders’ average reading scale scores. Not all the report’s findings were positive, however; the proportion of youth aged 16-19 who were neither enrolled in school nor working increased from 8 percent to 9 percent between 2008 and 2009.
CADCA.org reports on prescription drug abuse. A lack of mandated training for physicians has helped end a U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal intended to curb misuse of prescription drugs, the New York Times reported July 23.
The FDA advisory committee voted 25-10 to reject the plan, with most members saying the proposal was not stringent enough to effectively cut the misuse of drugs like OxyContin, fentanyl, and methadone. The agency typically goes along with its advisory-council recommendations.
The plan urged doctors to get voluntary training in prescribing powerful painkillers but did not make it a requirement.
Visit our Funding Resources page for a newly updated list of foundations and organizations offering grants for prevention. Each section is now divided by state for easier navigation.
This continues our commitment to bring evidence-based prevention programs to schools, families, and communities just like yours! We strive to keep you informed of all the latest information and provide you with as many resources as possible.
Bayer USA Foundation – Community Health and Development Grants (Various locations)
The Bayer USA Foundation supports programs that enhance the quality of life, provide unique and enriching opportunities that connect diverse groups, and ensure preparedness for tomorrow’s leaders. The Foundation welcomes proposals from organizations focused on health and human services, education and workforce development, environment and sustainability, and/or arts and culture.
Nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply. The Foundation will fund organizations in California, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia.
The Countess Moira Charitable Foundation – Youth Organization Grants
The mission of the Countess Moira Charitable Foundation is to aid in the well-being of youth. In the past, the Foundation has supported charitable organizations that focus on the betterment of youth.
Award amounts vary. The Foundation makes grants to private nonprofit or public tax-exempt organizations. The Foundation will support operating, program, endowment and/or capital funding needs. The Foundation does not give grants for events or fundraisers.
CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are working to educate consumers, public health partners, and the general public about new tobacco regulations that took effect July 22, 2010. These regulations prohibit the tobacco industry from distributing or introducing into the U.S. market any tobacco products for which the labeling or advertising contains the descriptors “light,” “low,” “mild,” or any similar descriptor, irrespective of the date of manufacture. However, consumers may continue to see some products with these descriptors for sale in stores after July 22 because retailers are permitted to sell off their inventory.
The Kids In Need Foundation is offering grants to K-12 educators in the US to implement innovative learning opportunities for their students.
Grant awards range from $100-$500 each and must be used to finance creative classroom projects. Typically 200-300 grants are awarded each year. All certified K-12 teachers in the US are available.
Deadline: September 30, 2010
Please contact the Kids in Need Foundation for more information and to apply for this funding: http://www.kinf.org/grants/
Arnold, Brownberry, and Oroweat Breads, brands of Bimbo Bakeries USA, is accepting applications for the Get Ingrained Grants Program. The program will award people or organizations in the United States committed to bettering the health of their neighborhoods, towns, or cities.
Two grants of $15,000 each will be awarded. The grant program is open to US residents 18 years and older who lead or inspire health and wellness initiatives in their communities. To be considered for a grant, applicants must submit a brief essay describing a personal or organizational mission to improve health and wellness in their community through nutrition-based initiatives.
Deadline: October 4, 2010
Please contact Bimbo Bakeries USA for more information and to apply for this funding: http://www.getingrained.com/
CADCA.org reports on tobacco ads in stores. Teens who regularly visit stores that display point-of-sale ads for tobacco products were twice as likely to try smoking, a finding researchers said argues for a complete ban on such advertising.
HealthDay News reported researchers who surveyed 2,110 teens ages 11-14 found that — contrary to industry claims — point-of-sale ads are highly effective in motivating teens to smoke. Such ads represent 90 percent of all tobacco-industry spending on advertising.
Grant: National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention (“ACEs”) – To set up these centers, which aim to reduce youth violence in defined high-risk communities by implementing and evaluating evidence-based prevention approaches. Funder: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eligibility: Public and private nonprofit universities and university-associated teaching hospitals. Deadline: Dec. 6. Amount: $5.2 million for up to four awards this fiscal year. Contact:http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=52740
Grant: Fund for Southern Communities – Supports groups working for environmental justice, anti-racism, women’s rights, youth development, LGBTQ rights, worker’s rights, civil rights and disability rights and other varied issues through community organizing. Funder: Funding Exchange. Eligibility: Nonprofits and organizations that have a fiscal sponsor agreement in South Carolina, North Carolina or Georgia. Deadline: Sept 1. Amount: $1,000 to $5,000 each Contact:www.fundforsouth.org/apply_grant.htm.
CADCA.org reports on a teen survey on youth and drug infected public schools. Joseph A. Califano Jr., Founder and Chairman of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, will release the findings from CASA’s 15th annual back-to-school report, National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents at a press conference in Washington, D.C. Aug. 19.
This year’s survey reveals how the presence of gangs in schools relates to drugs in schools, increases the likelihood that a teen will smoke, drink or use drugs and have friends who engage in these behaviors, and gangs and drugs are likelier in public schools compared to private and religious schools. The report also takes a close look at the impact of family ties on a teen’s risk of substance abuse, the importance of parents knowing a teen’s friends, how teens get marijuana, and availability of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes and prescription drugs to teens.
ONDCP reports on the White House’s back to school message. Traditionally, August marks the end of summer and, for students, teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents, the start of the back-to-school season. Across the nation, families and communities are engaged in the time honored ritual of preparing for the upcoming school year. The start of class is an exciting time — a time for new opportunities and challenges. Back-to-school also presents a number of unique challenges in our collective efforts to keep young people healthy and drug-free.
CADCA.org reports on the decline of youth exposure to alcohol ads in magazines.
Youth exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines declined by 48 percent between 2001 and 2008, according to a new study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Although 325 alcohol brands advertised in magazines in 2008, just 16 brands accounted for half of the advertising placed in publications more likely to be seen per capita by youth than by adults. Leading the list were Patron Silver Tequila, Absolut Vodka, Kahlua Liqueurs, Ketel One Vodka and Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey.
The report, which is available at www.camy.org shows that alcohol companies have largely met the industry’s voluntary standard of not placing ads in magazines with 30 percent or more youth readership. That standard was adopted in 2003.
HealthDay reported Aug. 11 that researchers in SAMHSA’s public health surveillance system analyzed 2008 data and found that one-third of drug-related ER visits among patients aged 12-20 involved alcohol. Of these, males accounted for 53 percent of patients aged 12-17 and 62 percent of patients aged 18-20.
Grant: IMPACT 2010 – To support organizations working in arts and culture, youth development, civic engagement, education, health and human and social services to the benefit of the New Orleans region. Funder: The Greater New Orleans Foundation. Eligibility: Nonprofits and tax-exempt organizations that serve the Greater New Orleans region. Deadline: Sept 3 (LOI). Amount: Multiple grants of about $20,000 each. Contact:www.gnof.org/programs/community-impact/.
Grant: Prevention of youth smoking and substance abuse – To support projects focused on environmental strategies for the prevention of smoking and other substance abuse among Kentucky’s youth ages 10 to 18. Funder: The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Eligibility: Nonprofits, government agencies and for-profits with tax-exempt status. Deadline: Sept 10. Amount: Multiple grants of up to $10,000 each. Contact:www.healthy-ky.org/duedates.aspx.
JoinTogether.org reports on Amphetamine Misuse. Young adults who misuse amphetamines have a three-fold risk for tears in the aorta — the body’s largest artery – compared with nonusers, Reuters reported Aug. 17.
Researchers at the University of Texas examined the medical records of 31,000 Americans ages 18–44 hospitalized between 1995–2007 and found that patients who abused amphetamines had three times the risk for aortic dissection than patients who did not, even after controlling for other risk factors.
Ronald McDonald House Charities – Child Health and Well-being Grants
Ronald McDonald House Charities provides grants to nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations whose national or global programs help improve the health and well being of children under 21.
Award amounts vary. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) nonprofits that have programs that directly improve the health and well being of children, address a significant funding gap or critical opportunity, has long-term impact in terms of replication or reach, produces measurable results, and are sustainable.Deadline: September 7, 2010
Newswise — In recognition of his lifetime contributions to the prevention sciences, the Society for Prevention Research has awarded Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin its prestigious Presidential Award.
Dr. Botvin is a professor of psychology in public health and professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior. Dr. Botvin is also president of National Health Promotion Associates Inc., which promotes evidence-based prevention and provides teacher training and technical assistance.
Mini-Grant Request for Proposals Funding Period:
January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012
SLVHD is soliciting competitive proposals from qualified community based organizations (CBO) located in Salt Lake County to change social norms surrounding tobacco use (beliefs, perceptions, usage, etc.) for the overall goal of reducing tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure among disparate populations in Salt Lake County.
JoinTogether.org reports on the nexus of drugs and gangs in school. American students are essentially split over the question of whether their school is “drug free,” but students still cite drugs as a major problem facing people their age, according to a new survey of 12- to 17-year-olds from the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
Asked, “Is your school a drug-free school or is it not drug free, meaning some students keep drugs, use drugs or sell drugs on school grounds?,” 48 percent of students described their schools as “drug free” while 49 percent said their schools were “not drug free.”
Drugs were cited as a major problem by 21 percent of survey respondents, far more than the other popular responses (13 percent for social pressure or fitting in) and doing well in school (10 percent). An accompanying survey of parents, however, ranked social pressure as the biggest problem facing teens (32 percent), while just 12 percent cited drugs and 9 percent named doing well in school.
JoinTogether.org reports on NIDA’s launch of national drug facts week.
From:
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Expanding on the success of its online Drug Facts Chat Day, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced it is launching National Drug Facts Week, a new national awareness week designed to bring together teens and scientific experts to discuss the facts about drug abuse. NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
JoinTogether.org reports on further restrictions of smoking in movies. Depictions of smoking in top-grossing U.S. films decreased by about half between 2005 and 2009, but more than 50 percent of PG-13 movies still show characters lighting up, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Bloomberg News reported Aug. 20 that adolescents who are more frequently exposed to onscreen smoking “are 2.0 to 2.7 times more likely to try cigarette smoking in the future,” citing a 2008 National Cancer Institute monograph.
Grant: Verizon Foundation grants – To improve lives through education, literacy, domestic violence prevention, healthcare and accessibility and internet safety. Funder: Verizon Foundation. Eligibility: Nonprofits, elementary and secondary schools and faith-based organizations. Deadline: Oct 31. Amount: Multiple awards ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 each. Contact: http://foundation.verizon.com/grant/guidelines.
Grant: Tiger Woods Foundation grants – To support education and youth development to help students ages 8-18 reach their full potential. Funder: Tiger Woods Foundation. Eligibility: Nonprofits. Deadline: Nov 1. Amount: Multiple awards ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 each. Contact:http://web.tigerwoodsfoundation.org/programs.
Spaces available for MS Workshop Online Training on 9/21. Register Today!
Designed to help accommodate busy professionals, LifeSkills Online Provider Trainings can be accessed from your work or personal computer. For more information email OLT@nhpamail.com or call the National Training Department at 1-800-293-4969
CADCA.org reports on the link between teen smoking and depression. Teens may smoke to “self-medicate” against depression, but researchers in Canada say smoking may increase depressive symptoms in some adolescents.
Lead author Michael Chaiton of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit of the University of Toronto and co-author Jennifer O’Loughlin of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre say the study involved 662 high-school teenagers who completed as many as 20 questionnaires from grades 7-11 about their use of cigarettes to affect mood.
Study participants were divided into groups of: teens who never smoked; smokers who did not use cigarettes to self-medicate, improve mood or physical state; and smokers who used cigarettes to self-medicate.
Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2011
Title IV, Part A Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community
Fund Code: 332 Purpose: The purpose of this federal grant is to support programs/activities that:
1. comply with the SDFSC Principles of Effectiveness including professional development in evidence-based programs for violence and substance abuse prevention;
2. promote a safe and drug-free learning environment that supports academic achievement;
3. are designed to prevent and reduce violence; delinquency; or the use, possession, and distribution of illegal drugs;
4. create a well disciplined environment conducive to learning.
Priorities: Priorities for this grant are to provide professional development and training for all school staff members, and parents, to prevent, identify, and respond to bullying.
1. The content of the professional development and training may include, but not be limited to:
a. developmentally appropriate strategies to prevent bullying incidents;
b. developmentally appropriate strategies for immediate, effective interventions to stop bullying incidents;
c. information regarding the complex interaction and power differential that can take place between and among an aggressor, target, and witnesses to the bullying;
d. research findings on bullying, including information about specific categories of students who have been shown to be particularly at risk for bullying in the school environment;
e.information on the incidence and nature of cyberbullying; and
f. Internet safety issues as they relate to cyberbullying.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University’s Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children is a national movement launched in 2001 that promotes the parental engagement fostered during frequent family dinners as a simple, effective way to prevent substance abuse in kids.
The Fall 2010 issue includes information on funding, prevention, and the prestigious Presidential Award given to Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin by the Society for Prevention Research and more!
The meeting will include the National Advisory Councils of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).
Date: September 28, 2010 | 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time Registration Deadline: September 24, 2010 Meeting Chairperson: Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., SAMHSA Administrator
Location: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
1 Choke Cherry Road, Sugarloaf/Seneca Conference Rooms
Rockville, MD 20857
CADCA.org reports on new research that shows smoking bans help curb kids’ severe asthma attacks. Smoking bans spare many children with asthma from being hospitalized, a finding that suggests smoke-free laws have even greater health benefits than previously believed, the Associated Press reports.
Other studies have charted the decline in adult heart attack rates after smoking bans were adopted. The new study, conducted in Scotland, looked at asthma-related hospitalizations of kids, which fell 13 percent a year after smoking was barred in 2006 from workplaces and public buildings, including bars and restaurants.
Before the ban, admissions had been rising 5 percent a year in Scotland, which has a notoriously poor health record among European countries.
Earlier United States studies, in Arizona and Kentucky, reached similar conclusions. But this was the largest study of its kind and offered the strongest case that smoking bans can bring immediate health improvements for many people.
(Media-Newswire.com) – Despite ongoing efforts by parents, teachers and the federal government to urge adolescents to “just say no” to tobacco, alcohol and drugs, more than $25 billion worth of advertising for these products is working to get them to “say yes.”
Because of these mixed messages, a new American Academy of Pediatrics ( AAP ) policy statement, “Children, Adolescents, Substance Abuse and the Media,” published in the October 2010 print issue of Pediatrics ( published online Sept. 27 ), calls for a ban on tobacco advertising in all media, limitations on alcohol advertising, and no erectile dysfunction drug advertisements.
Community Tool Box- Out of the Box Program
The Community Tool Box, a service of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, has announced the 2010 Out of the Box Prize program to honor promising initiatives that improve community health and development worldwide. The grand prize winner will receive $5,000 and a free customized WorkStation for their group. The second prize winner will receive $2,000 and a free customized WorkStation for their group.
JoinTogether.org reports on ad for alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs. Saying the measures could help reduce adolescent substance abuse, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has called for an end to all tobacco ads, limits on alcohol and prescription drug ads, and for the entertainment industry to stop glamorizing smoking and drinking, HealthDay reported Sept. 27.
The AAP said in a policy statement that companies spend about $25 billion a year on ads for alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs. The AAP cited research indicating that advertising is responsible for up to 30% of alcohol and drug use by teens.
Grant: Singing for Change – Grants are awarded to programs that are concerned with the health, education and protection of children and their families, fostering self-esteem and self-sufficiency, nonviolence and creative problem solving.
Funder: Jimmy Buffett’s SFC Charitable Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits.
Deadline: Rolling.
Amount: Multiple awards ranging from $500 to $10,000 each.
Grant: Children, youth and families at risk sustainable community projects – To improve the quality and quantity of comprehensive community-based programs for at-risk children, youth and families supported by the Cooperative Extension System.
Funder: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eligibility: Land-grant institutions.
Deadline: Nov. 10.
Amount: 15 awards ranging from $100,000 to $140,000 each.
CADCA.org reports on alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs advertisements. The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for an end to all tobacco ads, limits on alcohol and prescription drug ads, and for the entertainment industry to stop glamorizing smoking and drinking, Join Together reported.
The AAP said that restrictions on advertising could help reduce adolescent substance abuse. In a policy statement, the AAP said companies spend about $25 billion a year on ads for alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs. They cited research indicating that advertising is responsible for up to 30 percent of alcohol and drug use by teens.
On October 14, CADCA.org Policy & Advocacy issue reported on Support H.R. 6241, The Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act Reauthorization.
BACKGROUND
In December of 2006, a bi-partisan, bi-cameral effort to combat underage drinking culminated with the passage of the Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act.
STOP ACT REAUTHORIZATION
Representatives Roybal-Allard (D-34th/CA), DeLauro (D-3rd/CT), Wamp (R-3rd/TN) and Wolf (R-10th/VA) have come together again to introduce H.R. 6241 to ensure that this landmark piece of legislation is formally reauthorized. The STOP Act reauthorization will build upon the success of the original Act by continuing all the authorities in the bill until FY 2015. It:
Authorizes an additional $4 million, for a total of $9 million for the Community Based Coalition Enhancement grants to current and past Drug Free Community grantees;
Doubles the original investment in a multi-media campaign to educate parents and communities about the dangers of underage drinking to $2 million;
Calls for an Institute of Medicine report on the literature regarding the influence of drinking alcohol on the development of the adolescent brain;
Establishes grants to train pediatric health care providers in how best to screen and treat children and teens who have had alcohol exposures; and
Maintains funding for ciritical underage drinking research.
CADCA.org reports on teen smoking in a research report. According to a new study presented at an international conference in Sydney, Australia, plain packaging of tobacco may discourage teens from smoking.
Preliminary findings from focus group interviews with 14 to 15 year-olds in Auckland, New Zealand, show that plain packs increase attention to the graphic warnings; increase overall perceptions of smoking harm; and reduce the social appeal of smoking.
“This suggests that the combination of graphic warning labels and plain cigarette packaging would send a clear and consistent message about the harm and unacceptability of cigarette smoking and therefore, has the potential to further reduce smoking uptake among adolescents,” University of Auckland lead author Lisa Webb said about their research.
CESAR FAX reports on early alcohol use and dependence when it states:
Early onset of alcohol use is associated with a greater likelihood of developing alcohol abuse or dependence at a later age, according to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Those who first used alcohol at or before the age of 14 were nearly four times more likely to meet the criteria for past year alcohol abuse or dependence than those who started using alcohol between the ages of 18 and 20 (16.5% vs. 4.4%) and more than six times more likely than those who started using alcohol at or after age 21 (16.5% vs. 2.5%). These findings illustrate the need for alcohol education and prevention efforts as early as middle school.
Following the lead of LST’s popular Middle School Online Training… the ALL NEW High School Online Training Workshop is now available! November 3, 2010 at 9am EDT…Register Today!
In the policy statement, “Children, Adolescents, Substance Abuse, and the Media”, recently released by the American Academy of Pediatrics, urges the federal government to pass stricter laws limiting tobacco ads in all media accessible to children. The 11 page report encourages the entertainment industry to take active measures to counteract the glamorization of tobacco use in order to lessen the number of young smokers.
New programs that teach positive lifestyle choices and build resistance to high-risk behaviours are being delivered to children and youth at Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Maskwacis Cree Communities. The programs are supported by $3.96 million in Safe Communities grant funding from the Alberta government over 3 years.
Program Funded by Three-Year Grant from Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth
WASHINGTON (October 20, 2010)– Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington announced today a three-year, $210,000 grant from the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation, a division of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, to teach the LifeSkills Training program to nearly 500 children at local clubs and schools in the Northern Virginia region.
LifeSkills Training provides students with the skills to resist pressures to use tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, and offers information about the health problems caused by these substances. Students participating in the program learn skills to aid in developing a positive self-image, how to resist peer pressure and how to avoid being influenced by advertisements and the media. They also learn how to cope with anxiety and how to better communicate with others and build friendships.
Grant: Alcohol marketing and youth drinking – To investigate the factors that mediate and moderate the impact of alcohol advertising and other alcohol promotions on youth drinking.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Eligibility: Institutions of higher education, nonprofits, for-profits, small businesses, governments, independent school districts, public housing authorities, tribal, faith-based and community-based organizations.
Grant: Starbucks Shared Planet Youth Action Grants – Funds organizations that provide young people a continuum of opportunities to develop creative approaches to address pressing concerns in their communities.
Funder: Starbucks Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits.
Deadline: Dec. 1.
Amount: Multiple grants typically ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 each.
ConsumerAffairs.com reports on Michigan’s ban on all alcohol-infused energy drinks when stating people looking to purchase alcoholic energy drinks in Michigan will now have to cross state lines to get their fix.
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) has rescinded the approval of all alcohol-infused energy drinks, like the headline-making Four Loko, in light of several studies regarding the popular drinks, the widespread community concerns aired by substance abuse prevention groups, parent groups and various members of the public, as well as the FDA’s decision to further investigate these products
JoinTogether.org reports on the Massachusetts Hospital Association plan to stop hiring tobacco users. The Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) will stop hiring people who use tobacco as of January 1, The Daily Item reported Nov. 9.
The new policy will not apply to MHA’s existing employees. “The goal of our organization is to heal people. I care about my workforce very much and I want them to be healthy,” said Lynn Nicholas, MHA’s president and CEO.
Nicholas added that tobacco-related health problems cost Massachusetts six billion dollars a year, and 8,000 people die there annually from tobacco-related illnesses. She said, “I think people forget about the statistics…”
CADCA.org reports on the federal government’s new tobacco control strategy. The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg announced HHS’s tobacco control strategic action plan Ending the Tobacco Epidemic and the FDA’s new, prominent, and sometimes graphic proposed health warnings on cigarette packages and print advertisements at a press conference yesterday in Washington, DC.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) requires that cigarette packages and advertisements have larger and more visible graphic health warnings. The FDA, empowered by new authority obtained last year from Congress to regulate tobacco products, issued a proposed rule, Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements, proposing to modify the required warnings that appear on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements. These new required warnings would consist of nine new textual warning statements accompanied by color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking.
PsychologyToday.com reports on Cyberbullying. The effects of Cyberbullying are being felt by teens all across the nation. The Cyberbullying Research Center defines Cyberbullying as willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computer, cell phones and other electronic devices. One way that Cyberbullying stands apart from traditional bullying is that often the perpetrator can anonymously mask their identity, or so they think.
Cyberbullying is an easier way to bully because it doesn’t involve face to face interaction. It’s a lot easier to slam someone online than to their face. A teen can quickly spread a rumor through the use of a cell phone by texting many friends at once and as soon as it’s sent the damage is done. Oftentimes teens do this as a reactionary response to something that has angered them and they don’t think through the consequences of their actions.
JoinTogether.org reports on states slash on prevention programs and tobacco use. Anti-tobacco advocates fear that smoking rates have stopped falling because many states, facing large deficits, have cut funding for tobacco prevention, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 9.
An anti-smoking coalition led by the Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids and the American Lung Association said that state spending on tobacco prevention dropped 28 percent between fiscal years 2008 and and 2011, to a combined total of $517 million.
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Botvin LifeSkills Training announced today the launch of their Middle School Companion Website. The free Companion Website is for use with the award-winning LifeSkills Training (LST) Middle School program, a ground-breaking substance abuse and violence prevention program based on more than 25 years of rigorous scientific research.
The LST Middle School Companion Website consists of two user-friendly sites, one for teachers and one for students. Each level of the curriculum has its own set of activities, which include a crossword puzzle, concentration-style game, and self-check quiz for each unit. All activities reinforce vocabulary and concepts presented in the unit. There is also a resources section for teachers to access information related to the curriculum.
Webinar: Effective Classroom Management Strategies for Educators, 2/7/2011 at 11am EST. Use promo code WCMS211 for 20% off the $99 registration fee. http://lifeskillstraining.com/webinar
Grant: Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida – Funds innovative, comprehensive, community-based, family-focused and culturally relevant programs that promote healthy child development, educational achievement and successful life outcomes by building on individual, family and community strengths. Funder: The Ounce of Prevention Fund. Eligibility: Private nonprofits and community groups in Florida. Deadline: Dec. 31. Amount: Not specified. Contact:http://www.ounce.org/funding.html
BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE – Ed Puyau III, a facilitator with the Safe and Drug Free Schools department of the Jefferson Parish Public School System, teaches a lesson on communication skills to third graders Tuesday, November 30, 2010 during a LifeSkills Training program class at Harahan Elementary School in Harahan, Louisiana.
As reported on cjonline.com, youths learn how to deal with difficult decisions using the Botvin LifeSkills Training program. The latest Kids Count Kansas data shows that while expectant mothers and young children in Shawnee County receive services at higher rates compared to the overall statewide rate, the rates at which tobacco use and binge drinking occur in Shawnee County are higher than those across Kansas.
To combat substance abuse and other risky behaviors, Seaman Unified School District 345 implemented Botvin LifeSkills Training, a nationally recognized and evidence-based program that gives middle and high school students the skills to make better choices. The program, implemented by USD 345 at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, aims to reduce the likelihood they will engage in bullying, drug and alcohol abuse and other destructive behaviors.
Grant: Impact100 Philadelphia – To provide high impact grants that raise the profile of deserving but lesser-known organizations in the region working in one of following focus areas: Arts and Culture, Education, Environment, Family and Health and Wellness.
Funder: Impact100 Philadelphia.
Eligibility: Nonprofits located in the Pennsylvania counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia, or in the county of Camden, New Jersey.
Grant: Youth Advocacy Awards: Choose To Be Healthy (CTBH) is excited to announce the availability of funding of up to $1000 per proposal for initiatives that support healthy living among youth who live and play within the CTBH service area. The goal of this initiative is to create youth-adult collaboration and increase youth involvement in accomplishing social, policy and environmental changes which improve youth health. Youth groups (12-18 year olds) must focus on at least one of the following health topics: Preventing youth tobacco use and reducing/eliminating exposure to secondhand smoke; Reducing youth access to and use of alcohol and other drugs. Download application here.
Eligibility: Maine area includes Berwick, Eliot, Kittery, Lebanon, North Berwick, Ogunquit, South Berwick, Wells and York.
CADCA.org reports on occassional smoking and the immediate damage it has on the human body. Today, the Surgeon General, Vice-Admiral Regina M. Benjamin, released a new report that shows that tobacco smoke, even occasional smoking or secondhand smoke, damages the human body and leads to disease and death.
The 700-page report, “A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease-The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking,” finds that cellular damage and tissue inflammation from tobacco smoke are immediate, and that repeated exposure weakens the body’s ability to heal the damage.
Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease and could trigger acute cardiac events, such as heart attack. The report describes how chemicals from tobacco smoke quickly damage blood vessels and make blood more likely to clot. The evidence in this report shows how smoking causes cardiovascular disease and increases risks for heart attack, stroke, and aortic aneurysm.
CADCA.org reports on the National Institute on Drug Abuse upcoming announcement on the results of its 2010 Monitoring the Future survey Tuesday, Dec. 14th at 10 a.m. in Washington, DC.
The survey, funded by NIDA and produced by the University of Michigan—tracks annual drug abuse trends of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students, including attitudes and perceived risk of specific illicit drugs. It is one of three major polling instruments the Department of Health and Human Services uses to monitor the nation’s substance abuse patterns. Information from these surveys helps identify potential drug problem areas, assess whether federal drug prevention efforts are effective, and ensure that resources are targeted to areas of greatest need.
Grant: At-risk youth in Indiana, Tennessee and New Orleans – To promote the future success of disadvantaged youth by assisting programs that provide leadership and growth opportunities for at-risk children in Indiana, Tennessee and New Orleans.
Funder: The PeyBack Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits serving economically disadvantaged children ages 6 to 19 in the target areas.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2011.
Amount: Multiple grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 each; max grant is $15,000.
Grant: Community Action Grant – Provides funds for grass-roots educational programs such as after school tutorial programs, at-risk youth programs; and services for special populations that include homeless children, families in crisis, poor/ill elderly.
Funder: The Gannett Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits.
Deadline: Feb. 16, 2011.
Amount: Multiple grants ranging between $1,000 and $5,000 each.
Grant: The Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence – To recognize excellence by an individual or a non-profit organization in uniting multiple generations, especially seniors and youth, to bring about positive and lasting changes in their community.
Advocatepress.com reports on the new SADD Chapter started at Flora High School in Illinois.
At the October meeting of the Coalition Against Drug Abuse of Clay County (CADA) it was learned that a new Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Organization was started at Flora High School.
SADD is a peer-to-peer education, prevention, and activism organization dedicated to preventing destructive decisions, particularly underage drinking, other drug use, risky and impaired driving, teen violence, and teen suicide.
As part of the strategic plan that has been adopted by CADA, one of the strategies to reduce the number of youths drinking alcohol is to start SADD chapters in each of the schools in Clay County. FHS teacher and coach Scott Warren has stepped up to the plate and will be the sponsor.
Two organizational meetings have been held and plans are being made to make an impact on student perceptions of youth attitudes about alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use.
Grant: New York State Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant Prevention First-NY! Sub-Recipient Grant
Funder: SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has awarded New York State through the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene a five-year Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG).
Eligibility: not-for-profit community coalition in New York State whose principal mission is the goal of reducing substance abuse among youth. To be eligible for funding, applicants must demonstrate that past 30-day alcohol use rates for their ninth through twelfth grade population is equal to or above the New York State 2008 Youth Development Survey (YDS) prevalence rate.
Deadline: 1/19/11
Amount: Applicants in PRC regions may request up to $831,800 for the grant period. Applicants in non-PRC regions may request up to $871,800 for the grant period (an additional $40,000 is available during the grant period to support training and technical assistance needs.
FEDERAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: HHS’ NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH—REDUCING RISK BEHAVIORS BY PROMOTING POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT (RO1)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering grants to effective, evidence-based, gender-inclusive programs that are adapted, translated, or disseminated for new populations of youth and adolescents for the purpose of reduction of youth risk behaviors.
Award amounts vary. Eligible applicants are public/state controlled or private institutions of higher education, non-profits with or without 501 ( c ) (3) IRS status, for profit organizations, and various other organizations, including non-U.S. entities.
JoinTogether.org reports on exposure to tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke causes immediate damage at the lowest levels of use and cigarettes are designed to be addictive, according to the 30th tobacco-related report of the U.S. Surgeon General, the Washington Post reported Dec. 9.
The 704-page report, the first on tobacco from current Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., stated that hundreds of more than 7,000 compounds in tobacco smoke are toxic, at least 70 of the compounds cause cancer, and no level of exposure to tobacco smoke is safe.
JoinTogether.org reports on the increase of teens using marijuana compared to alcohol. Daily use of marijuana has increased among eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade youth, while alcohol use — at its lowest level since the survey began — and binge drinking have continued long-term declines, according to 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF) results released on December 14, 2010.
MTF, an annual survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), has measured self-reported drug use behavior and attitudes among high-school seniors since 1975 and among eighth and tenth graders since 1991.
JoinTogether.org reports on teens and alcohol ads on television. Fueled largely by an increase in distilled spirits advertising on cable television, the growth rate in youths’ exposure to televised alcohol ads is outpacing that for adults, according to a Dec. 13 news release from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The report by the center indicated that exposure of youths 12 to 20 to alcohol ads on U.S. television increased 71 percent from 2001 to 2009.
The average TV-watching youth saw 366 alcohol ads in 2009.
“One a day is great for vitamins but not for young people being exposed to alcohol advertising,” said CAMY director David H. Jernigan, Ph.D.
National Health Promotion Associates, the leader in quality prevention education training, is pleased to announce the new training schedule for 2011 featuring LifeSkills Provider Training Workshops, Webinars and a series of professional development workshops available on-site, at various locations throughout the country, or online.
To register for a training call 800-293-4969 to speak with our Training Department. If you do not find a scheduled workshop in your area, please click on Request a Training.
The State of Delaware is seeking applications from eligible community based organizations to provide comprehensive substance abuse prevention services in communities within the four sub-state planning regions and/or statewide.
Proposals will be accepted until Monday, March 7, 2011 at 12:00 p.m.
A mandatory pre-bid meeting will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. Herman Holloway Campus, 1901 N. Dupont Highway, 23 Mitchell Lane, Springer Building, Gym, New Castle, DE 19720.
For further information please call 302-255-9290. This RFP is available in electronic form [only] through the State of Delaware Procurement Website at http://bids.delaware.gov.
The Middletown Substance Abuse Prevention Council in CT is releasing its annual mini-grants for the 2010-11 grant cycle. The grants which offer a max funding level of $1,000 may be used to support any substance prevention or youth development program in the community. All successful grantees will be required to have a representative join the council which meets on the third Wednesday of every month in the Middletown High School Media Center at 3pm. All members of the community are welcomed to join. Access the MSAPC Mini-Grants HERE
Mercer Council is now offering Botvin’s Life Skills Training Program to Mercer schools and youth groups. This evidence-based prevention curriculum was developed by Dr. Gilbert Botvin, Director of the Institute for Prevention Research at Cornell University Medical College.
CASCWA-SOUTHERN SECTION, January, 2010- One of our Southern Section Executive Board Members has Botvin LifeSkills in their district. When we asked him what he thought of the program, we received a ten minute positive response. The response was honest and truly convincing that this program show results to back up their claim.
John Miranda has been a friend to CASCWA for many years. He was kind enough to provide the Connection with the following interview. Thank you John!
State Farm California Environmental Grants
To help support student-lead programs that focus on community and environmental efforts, State Farm California will be awarding five $5,000 grants to California public high schools or non-profit organizations whose work directly benefits California public high schools. Submit the grant application form to tell us about an environmental program that needs funding at your local high school. State Farm California Environmental Grants Website
NJ.com reports on Governor Christie’s approval of the toughest anti-bullying law in the country.
Gov. Chris Christie has signed a bill that, advocates say, gives New Jersey the toughest anti-bullying law in the country.
The news reached Garden State Equality Chairman Steven Goldstein during a Somerset conference on reducing the risk of suicide for gay and lesbian teens.
“This is no overstatement. Today is one of the most important civil-rights days in New Jersey history,” said Goldstein. “Gov. Christie signed a law that is so different and so much better than anti-bullying laws that exist elsewhere across the country, that it’s stunning.”
Grant: to provide opportunities beyond the normal school day for communities to establish or expand activities in community learning centers that (1) provide opportunities for academic enrichment (2) offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities such as youth development activities; drug- and violence-prevention programs; (3) offer families of students served by community learning centers opportunities for literacy and related educational development.
Funder: Title IV, Part B, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Eligibility: LEAs, ISDs, open-enrollment charter schools, ESCs, CBOs, and other public or private entities, nonprofit agencies, city or county government agencies, faith-based organizations, IHEs, and for-profit corporations.
Deadline: February 15, 2011
Amount: Multiple awards ranging from a minimum of $50,000 for the 2011–2012 project period
Contact: contact Candace Ferguson, Division of School Readiness and Partnerships, TEA, (512) 463-5619or Candace.Ferguson@tea.state.tx.us
This year, seventh-graders at Pacific Cascade Middle School are getting a crash course in decision-making and a slew of other lifeskills, including how to say no to drugs, set goals and create a confident self image during their trimesterlong health class.
Students dissected the components of decision-making during a lesson Dec. 14. Counselor Lori Kasemeier asked them to consider what could influence a decision, and they came up with a list, including parents, friends, television, movies and advertisements.
Kasemeier and Counselor Sonja Petersen said students enjoyed having them as guest speakers in health class. The two applied for a grant so they could teach LifeSkills Training, by Gilbert Botvin, Ph.D. Beaver Lake Middle School also uses the curriculum with the support of Friends of Youth.
Join us for this webinar to learn fundable strategies as well as planning and implementation logistics for using LST programs separately or in combination to meet the objectives of the SFP below.
Combining LST Transitions with the LST Parent Programcreates a strategy that is comprehensive and community-focused, providing a holistic approach to serving youth in gangs.
The Transitions program for 16- and 17-year old students teaches the acquisition of work-readiness skills including time and money management. Its 45-minute sessions fit perfectly into an after-school setting.
The Parent Program lessons create a supportive setting and can be peer-led. This skills-based program is also available in Spanish.
Grant: To expand job training for current gang members, gang involved, or at-risk of gang involvement youth as part of the Governor’s California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention (CalGRIP) Initiative.
Funder: Employment Development Department in coordination with the California Workforce Investment Board, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and in conjunction with the Governor’s Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy
Eligibility: Public, private non-profit and private for-profit organizations. Individuals are not eligible to apply.
Amount: Up to $5 million in Workforce Investment Act funds for the Governor’s CalGRIP 2010/11 Solicitation for Proposal (SFP).
Deadline: Proposal applications must be received NO later than February 2, 2011, before 3 p.m.
Grant: Children’s Environmental Exposures in Child-Occupied Settings – Build capacity to address children’s environmental health in underserved, disproportionately impacted low-income communities, including minority or Tribal communities, and that demonstrate, implement or expand innovative methods and approaches to prevent and reduce exposures in homes, schools and child care settings.
Funder: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Eligibility: States, state agencies, territories, city governments, tribes, institutions of higher education, hospitals, laboratories, nonprofits.
Deadline: Feb. 18.
Amount: Fifteen to 20 awards of up to $100,000 each.
Grant: Anti-Gang Strategies and Programs -To support coordinated federal, state and local partnerships to implement the following anti-gang programs: primary prevention, secondary prevention, gang intervention and targeted gang enforcement.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: States, local and tribal governments, nonprofits, for-profits and institutions of higher education.
The Texas 21st CCLC program provides opportunities to expand activities in community learning centers that provide a number of services including youth development activities and drug and violence prevention.
Grant: To provide opportunities beyond the normal school day for communities to establish or expand activities in community learning centers.
Funder: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) under Title IV, Part B, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Eligibility: LEAs, ISDs, open-enrollment charter schools, ESCs, CBOs, and other public or private entities, nonprofit agencies, city or county government agencies, faith-based organizations, IHEs, and for-profit corporations.
Amount: Multiple awards ranging from a minimum of $50,000
Contact: Candace Ferguson, Division of School Readiness and Partnerships, TEA, (512) 463-5619 or Candace.Ferguson@tea.state.tx.us
Monroe County Community Schools in Indiana dropped the DARE program and instead opted for the LifeSkills Training program, which Jen Staab, a counselor at Batchelor Middle School in Bloomington said has been more successful. Staab said the program change was a primary reason monthly drug use rates among the county’s students have decreased so much.
Department of Justice: Multi-State Mentoring Initiative Deadline: February 28th
This program provides support to expand or enhance the capacity of organizations currently operating mentoring programs in several states that target at-risk or high-risk populations younger than 18 years of age. Priority will be given to enhancement activities that contribute to the quality of the mentoring program, as well as efforts to address both individual and environmental factors that contribute to delinquency, with a focus on the following program strategies: the involvement of parents in the project and the provision of services for them, the delivery of structured activities and programs for the mentoring match, or the implementation or expansion of ongoing training and support for mentors. Multi-State Mentoring Initiative Website
Each year, educators submit applications for an ING Unsung Heroes grant by describing projects they have initiated or would like to pursue. Each project is judged on its innovative method, creativity, and ability to positively influence the students. 100 finalists are selected to receive a $2,000 grant, payable to both the winning teacher and his or her school. At least one grant is awarded in each of the 50 states, provided at least one qualified application was received from each state. Winners are selected by Scholarship America, a national non-profit educational support and student aid service organization. Of the 100 finalists, three are selected for additional financial awards: $25,000 for first place; $10,000 for second place; and $5,000 for third place. The top winners are selected by ING’s Educators Advisory Board, consisting of six distinguished educators from across the United States. ING Unsung Heroes Website
Grant: National Programs to Improve the Health and Educational Outcomes of Young People – To improve child and adolescent health by helping schools and communities create an environment that fosters a culture of wellness and makes healthy choices the easy choice.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Eligibility: Nonprofits, state and local education and/or health agencies, institutions of higher education, juvenile justice and correctional centers, alternative schools, shelters for homeless and runaway youth.
Deadline: March 4.
Amount: Twenty-five awards ranging from $150,000 to $350,000 each.
JoinTogether.org reports on teens who are influence by seeing tobacco ads. The article states new research corroborates that teens exposed to tobacco ads are more likely to smoke, and are not simply more susceptible to advertising, Reuters Health reported Jan. 18.
According to a study abstract, researchers surveyed 2,101 teens between 10 and 17 who had never smoked and followed up over nine months. The teens were shown ads from which all branding had been removed for six brands of cigarettes and eight commercial products. After nine months, 13 percent of the youth (277) had begun smoking.
Grant: Washington, D.C., Pathways Out Of Poverty – Focuses on improving student achievement and healthy development of young people of middle school age and above.
Funder: Herb Block Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits located in/and or providing services in the greater D.C. region.
Deadline: Feb. 8 (letter of intent).
Amount: Multiple grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 each.
Through a new and unique partnership, the nation’s top prevention program, Botvin LifeSkills, was taught to the Oxford, Ks. 6th, 7th& 8th Grade Students. 77 Students graduated from the program in December, 2010.
In September, 25 Southwestern College Nursing students were trained in the Botvin Life Skills Program. Then, they worked in pairs to teach the Life Skills Middle School Level 1 material to the three Oxford classes over the course of the semester.
National Programs to Improve the Health and Educational Outcomes of Young People–Sponsor: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The purpose of the CDC National Programs to Improve the Health and Educational Outcomes of Young People is to improve child and adolescent health by helping schools and communities create an environment that fosters a culture of wellness and makes healthy choices the easy choice.
Approximately $6,000,000 will be available to fiscal year 2011 to fund 25 awards. Eligible applicants are organizations with nonprofit IRS status. Eligibility is limited to nongovernmental organizations, including public and private nonprofit organizations that serve education organizations, state and local education and/or health agencies, institutions of higher education, juvenile justice and correctional centers, alternative schools, shelters for homeless and runaway youth, and youth at high risk for HIV, STD, and teen pregnancy.?
Grant: Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) funds support health education efforts aimed at the prevention and reduction of tobacco use by youth. TUPE in grades six through twelve is funded through a competitive application process. Funding consideration to local educational agencies is based on projects that propose to implement research-validated prevention programs for the general student population, provide youth development activities for both general and priority populations, and provide intervention and cessation services to students currently using tobacco.
Funding: Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) funds are allocated to the California Department of Education (CDE)
Eligibility: Local educational agencies
Amount: $16,500,000 total: Tier 1 grants will be awarded for a maximum of $4,500 for the full grant term. Tier 2 grants will be awarded a maximum of $2 million for the full grant term. The maximum funding for the Tier 2 applications will vary according to the total 2009-10
JoinTogether.org reports on bullying being linked to depression and substance use in girls. Although being a victim of bullying increases teen depression regardless of gender, a new study found it puts girls at additional risk for substance use, Science Daily reported on Jan. 19.
Investigators led by Jeremy Luk, a Ph.D. candidate in child psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, examined cross-sectional data from the 2005/2006 Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey, a questionnaire given to students in grades 6 through 10 to assess health and well-being in a social context. Roughly 1,500 U.S. students participated in the survey.
Grant: Adult Mentoring – To promote more effective and successful reentry for juvenile and adult offenders through the establishment and maintenance of pre- and post-release mentoring relationships.
Grant: Civic Justice Corps Grants Serving Juvenile Offenders – For community service projects that provide young offenders ages 18 to 24 who have been involved with the juvenile justice system the opportunity to repair the harm they may have caused to the community to which they expect to return.
Funder: U.S. Department of Labor.
Eligibility: Nonprofits, Indian and Native American entities.
Deadline: March 15.
Amount: $20 million total program funding for a minimum of 13 awards.
BACKGROUND
The $9.5 million cut to the DFC program contained in the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) does impact the current solicitation that is due on March 18, 2011.
At the $85.5 million level contained in the House-passed CR, there would only be enough money for seven new grants this grant cycle, which the field is currently writing applications for now. In order for there to be enough funds to support the 75 new grants that the field has expected, funding for the program must be restored to the FY 2010 appropriated level of $95 million in the FY 2011 CR.
It is critical that the field respond enmasse to this alert to ensure that funding for the DFC program is restored to $95 million in the FY 2011 CR.
WHAT YOU MUST DO IMMEDIATELY
Both the House and the Senate need to hear from as many constituents as possible that funding for the DFC program must be restored in the FY 2011 CR to ensure there is money to fund 75 new grants this year. Please ask your members of Congress to support the FY 2010 appropriated level of $95 million for the DFC program in the FY 2011CR.
Using CADCA’s CapWiz system, fax the sample letter to the members of your congressional delegation to ask them to fund the DFC program at a level of $95 million for FY 2011. YOUR FAX IS CRITICAL. The more letters your members of Congress receive on this issue, the more likely they are to reject the House-passed level of $85.5 million for the DFC program.
TIMING
Please fax the members of your congressional delegation IMMEDIATELY. CADCA will continue to monitor the DFC program as the appropriations process moves forward and will alert you when further action must be taken.
CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically fax CADCA’s sample letter on this issue to your legislators from CADCA’s website. To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.
If you would like to personalize your letter with examples from your community, please email lhouff@cadca.org for a MS Word version of the sample letter.
The US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is seeking applicants to support coordinated federal, state and local partnerships to implement the following anti-gang programs: primary prevention, secondary prevention, gang intervention and targeted gang enforcement.
Multiple awards of up to $750,000 are available. Applicants are limited to states, units of local government, nonprofit and for-profit organizations and institutions of higher education.
This informative webinar will explore successful grant-writing tips and strategies while incorporating the Botvin LifeSkills Training program into the Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant. Our goal is to help you be as informed as possible about the grant application process while supporting the inclusion of our program as a part of your comprehensive submission.
Monday, March 7th, 12:00 p.m. EST
*Space is limited to Coalitions planning to apply for DFC funding. Register Now!
LIHU‘E — Officials with the county’s Anti-Drug Office announced that local agencies have been awarded in the second round of contracts for underage drinking prevention programs.
KEO received a grant to implement the Botvin LifeSkills Training Program at Kapa‘a Middle School for students ages 12 to 14. The evidence-based program is designed to help youngsters increase their self-esteem, develop healthy attitudes, and improve their knowledge of essential life skills — all of which promote healthy and positive personal development.
The $9.5 million cut to the DFC program contained in the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) does impact the current solicitation that is due on March 18, 2011. With your advocacy this cut could be restored. Therefore anyone working on the current RFA should still work to submit the application due on March 18th and should get as many people as possible in their community to respond to this alert.
At the $85.5 million level contained in the House-passed CR, there would only be enough money for seven new grants this grant cycle, which the field is currently writing applications for now. This is the case because the majority of funds within the $85.5 million would be used to support current grantees. This leaves only approximately $860K for new grants, which means there is only enough money for seven new grants this grant cycle.
If, on the other hand, the program is funded at $95 million, after accounting for all currently funded grantees there would be approximately $9.6 million available to support new grants. This means there would be enough funds to support approximately 75 new grants at a funding level of $95 million.
Therefore, in order for there to be enough funds to support the 75 new grants that the field has expected, funding for the program must be restored to the FY 2010 appropriated level of $95 million in the FY 2011 CR.
It is critical, especially if you are a DFC applicant, that you respond to this alert immediately to ensure that funding for the DFC program is restored to $95 million in the FY 2011 CR.
WHAT YOU MUST DO IMMEDIATELY
Both the House and the Senate need to hear from as many constituents as possible that funding for the DFC program must be restored in the FY 2011 CR to ensure there is money to fund 75 new grants this year. Please ask your members of Congress to support the FY 2010 appropriated level of $95 million for the DFC program in the FY 2011CR.
Using CADCA’s CapWiz system, fax the sample letter to the members of your congressional delegation to ask them to fund the DFC program at a level of $95 million for FY 2011. YOUR FAX IS CRITICAL. The more letters your members of Congress receive on this issue, the more likely they are to reject the House-passed level of $85.5 million for the DFC program.
TIMING
Please fax the members of your congressional delegation IMMEDIATELY. CADCA will continue to monitor the DFC program as the appropriations process moves forward and will alert you when further action must be taken.
CADCA’s fax system allows you to automatically fax CADCA’s sample letter on this issue to your legislators from CADCA’s website. To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.
If you would like to personalize your letter with examples from your community, please email lhouff@cadca.org for a MS Word version of the sample letter.
The city of Portage has begun a partnership with the Portage Township Schools and Porter-Starke Services aimed at improving the quality of life in the schools and curbing what many see as a growing drug problem. At a news conference Tuesday, Mayor Olga Velazquez announced expanded programs with the schools, aided by Porter-Starke, which she says will keep Portage a safe community and reinforce prevention of substance abuse through Botvin LifeSkills Training that has been proven effective elsewhere.
Porter-Starke Director of Marketing and Development Elliott Miller said the city’s Redevelopment Commission is providing funds to augment a Strategic Prevention Grant to begin training school staff and teachers to improve the culture of life in the schools. He said the commission has given $25,200 for the LifeSkills Training Program in the schools and $35,000 for a Strengthening Families Program.
Miller said studies in other cities show every dollar spent on the LifeSkills Training program saves a community $21, which Strengthening Families has a return on investment of $11.
Grant: Funding available to Rice County schools for evidence-based drug and alcohol prevention programs. (for a database of evidenced-based programs, click HERE). For more information and to access the application forms, click HERE. To see an overview of the grant program, click HERE.
The Tombigbee Healthcare Authority’s TEMPO program, in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Branch and the Coalition for a Tobacco-free Alabama, conducted an observance of Through with Chew Week to wrap up February.
The program allowed TEMPO (Teens Empowering and Motivating their Peers to Opt-Out) to conduct a series of events to raise awareness about the dangers of the use of chewing tobacco. Students at Demopolis Middle School were also afforded the opportunity to participate in LifeSkills Training sessions as well as to receive arm bands and booth displays.
The TEMPO program currently does work in DMS, Demopolis High School, John Essex and Linden’s George P. Austin Junior High. TEMPO project manager Loretta Wilson said the program is hopeful it will soon add Sweet Water and A.L. Johnson to its list of schools helped prior to the June conclusion of its current initiative.
Grant: The Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) authorizes grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims’ support, and other services to help adult and juvenile ex-offenders to transition successfully from incarceration to the community. OJJDP will provide grants to support mentoring and other transitional services essential to reintegrating juvenile offenders into their communities.
Funder: OJJDP
Eligibility: public agencies, including state agencies, units of local government (including federally-recognized Indian tribal governments as determined by the Secretary of the Interior), public universities and colleges (including tribal institutions of higher education), and private, nonprofit organizations (including faith-based, tribal, and community organizations)
Amount: Multiple awards of as much as $625,000 per award for a project period of as long as 3 years.
Contact: For technical assistance with submitting an application, call the Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 1-800-518-4726 or e-mail support@grants.gov. For assistance with any other requirements of this solicitation, contact the Justice Information Center at 1-877-927-5657 or via email to JIC@telesishq.com.
The Spring 2011 issue includes information on funding, prevention, and the keynote speech given by Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin at a prevention conference in Milan, Italy, on January 28, 2011 and more!
Webinar: Effective Classroom Management Strategies for Educators
When: Tuesday, April 5th, 4 p.m. Eastern Time
Looking for hints on how to better manage your classroom? During this webinar, you will learn engagement strategies to increase class participation and help keep students on task while creating an optimal learning environment.
Who should attend? Teachers, program specialists, coordinators, educators, and directors, after-school personnel, therapists, counselors, behavioral specialists, and anyone else looking to engage students.
JoinTogether.org reports on The Federal Trade Commission’s review of alcohol marketing compliance. FTC will review the effectiveness of the alcohol industry’s voluntary marketing guidelines, which are primarily intended to avoid advertising to youth under age 21, The New York Times reported March 8.
The review is the fourth in 12 years. The agency is expected to focus on how alcohol is marketed on social networks, which were much less dominant in June 2008, when the FTC’s most recent review was completed.
Grant: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is seeking applications for funding under its Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Community-Based Violence Prevention Demonstration Program. This program furthers DOJ’s mission by reducing violence involving youth in targeted communities.
Funder: OJJDP
Amount: OJJDP will make multiple awards for as much as $2.2 million each for a 3-year award period.
Eligibility: Applicants are limited to states (including territories) and units of local government (including federally recognized tribal governments, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior).
Contact: For technical assistance with submitting an application, contact the Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 1-800-518-4726 or via e-mail to support@grants.gov. Hotline hours of operation are 24 hours, 7 days a week, except federal holidays.
Deadline: Applicants must register with Grants.gov prior to submitting an application. (See “How to Apply,” page 8.) All applications are due by 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on May 23, 2011.
Webinar: Prevention in the Afternoon: Crafting an Engaging After-School Program and Making It Fit
When: Monday, April 18th, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Eastern Time
Looking for tips on how to implement a prevention program in an after-school setting? During this webinar, you will learn strategies on how to execute effective, evidence-based prevention programs in an after-school setting – whether you’re looking to start a new after-school program, adding LST to an existing one, or just wanting to learn some best practices.
Who should attend? After-school personnel, program specialists, group leaders, coordinators, educators, directors, therapists, counselors, behavioral specialists, teachers, and anyone else looking to engage students.
Alaska (SPF-SIG) Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant
Grant: The Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Behavioral Health, seeks proposals from eligible applicants to provide Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant services for FY 2012. The Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) is a federally funded grant program whose focus is to prevent substance use, abuse and dependency efforts at the state/tribal, regional and community level. SPF SIG grantees must be part of Community Coalitions and will provide a comprehensive array of promotion, prevention and early intervention strategies, which are data-focused, community-designed and driven using locally identified risk and protective factors; based on concepts and strategies that are proven to be effective in prevention of behavioral health concerns; and with clearly defined and measurable outcomes. For the purposes of this RFP, grantee’s prevention efforts will focus on both Alaska SPF SIG priority areas of 1) Youth alcohol use ages 12-20; and 2) Adult heavy and binge drinking ages 21-44.
Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Amount: The state grants are funded by a $10.7 million federal Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant program awarded in 2009. Some funding will go to building state infrastructure, such as trainers and prevention resources, and evaluation of grantee performance.
Eligibility: Community coalitions statewide
Contact: Cindy Tappe, Grants Administrator, DHSS Grants and Contracts Support Team, PO Box 110650, Juneau, AK 99811-0650, (907) 465-2835, cindy.tappe@alaska.gov
May 3rd is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day which is a day to join SAMHSA, communities, organizations, agencies, and individuals nationwide in raising awareness that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development from birth. This year, the national theme will focus on building resilience in young children dealing with trauma.
DrugFree.org reported on the effects of drinking in young adults. A young adult’s response to alcohol may predict drinking problems later in life, a new study suggests. Researchers at the University of Chicago studied 200 volunteers ages 21 to 35 who were classified as light or heavy drinkers. HealthDay reports that in heavy drinkers, the researchers observed a greater sensitivity to the rewarding and stimulating effects of alcohol. Light drinkers, in contrast, reported more sluggishness and sedation from drinking.
Grant: Grants for Disadvantaged Children in Central Florida – Awards grants to Central Florida programs focused on the health, safety, recreation and education of disadvantaged youth.
Funder: Glazer Family Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits in the Central Florida area.
SAMHSA introduces guidance changing its block grant programs to reflect new opportunities provided by parity, health reform and emerging science
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced a new approach for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) and the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) in the Federal Register today.
“Changes in healthcare delivery structures, rapid adoption of health information technology, scientific advances in prevention and treatment services, growing understanding of recovery, and implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act will greatly enhance access to prevention, treatment and recovery support services nationwide,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde,. J. D.
Grant: For projects and programs addressing the needs of children and young people between the ages of 5 to 18 in the areas of violence prevention, anti-abuse and relationship abuse.
Funder: The United Methodist General Board of Ministries.
Eligibility: Small-scale, community and church-based programs and projects.
Grant: The Safe Haven Grant priorities for funding will be Evidence Based Prevention Programs and School Resource Officer Programs, certified through the National Association of School Resource Officers. This grant is intended to supplement funding for programs in the school districts. The goals of the Grant are:
1.) To afford students and staff opportunities to develop the skills and strategies necessary to prevent violent and potentially violent situations.
2.) To enable schools to identify and acquire the programs and resources necessary to apply research-based models and proven practices for curriculum, policies, procedures and instruction.
3.) To assist schools in creating a physical environment that promotes the safety and well-being of students and staff within the school campus.
Funder: Indiana Criminal Justice Institute
Eligibility: Indiana Public School Corporations
Amount: $900,000
Contact: If you have questions, comments, or concerns regarding the grant application or grant approval process, please contact Stephanie Edwards at SEdwards1@cji.in.gov
Deadline: June 17, 2011.
Mandatory: Anyone wishing to apply for Indiana Safe Haven funds must participate in one of the mandatory Safe Haven conference calls. The dates for the conference calls are June 1 from 2:30pm-3:30pm or June 2 from 11:30am-12:30pm. The conference call number for both days will be 317-233-4990. Failure to participate in one of the mandatory conference calls will result in an automatic disqualification of the grant proposal.
For applicant information and guidelines click here You will also find important grant documents and resources.
2011 Shelby County Local Drug-Free Communities Fund
The Shelby County Drug Free Coalition was established in 1990. The organization is made up of community members who plan and develop efforts to combat substance abuse in the Shelby County area. To learn more about the organization click here.
Grant: This grant applies to projects that fall under the following categories: prevention/education; intervention/treatment; or law enforcement/justice. Agencies or organizations in Shelby County, Indiana are eligible to apply for this grant. Click on the link for application information, deadlines, and award announcements.
Complete the following application packet in its entirety. http://www.shelbycountydrugfree.com/SCDFC_2011_Grant_Application.pdf. Identify the category in which this project falls: prevention/education; intervention/treatment; or law enforcement/justice. Proposals that fall into more than one category must clearly identify the amount of dollars requested for each purpose and justify those amounts in your narrative. All proposals must specifically address one or more Problem Statement(s) and Recommended Objectives included in the Shelby County Drug Free Coalition Comprehensive Community Plan (See packet for more details.) Proposals may be for a single event, equipment, staffing, curriculum and/or other programming. Mail to: Shelby Co Drug Free Coalition, 54 W Broadway St Suite 7, Shelbyville, In 46176
Funding Period: August 1, 2011 – July 31, 2012
Eligibility: Agencies or organizations in Shelby County, IN
Grant: Supports the development and implementation of a comprehensive, research-based approach to delinquency prevention that helps communities nationwide foster positive changes in the lives of children and families.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: State designated agencies.
Deadline: July 5.
Amount: Multiple awards of $50,000 (states) or $12,500 (territories).
*** ATTENTION ALL NEW YORK NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS***
Hurry to apply! The deadline is in 30 days!
NYC Youth Development Grants
Grant: To identify, fund and support innovative, community-based start-up organizations providing valuable skills to disadvantaged youth adversely affected by poverty, drugs, crime and violence.
Funder: The Catalog for Giving of New York City.
Eligibility: NY nonprofits providing direct services to low-income children or teens that have been in existence for at least two years.
Deadline: June 30.
Amount: Multiple awards ranging from $30,000 to $60,000 each.
Grant: To improve the lives of underserved youth by providing support to students and nonprofit organizations committed to increasing their success in high school and beyond.
Funder: Sun Life Financial.
Eligibility: Nonprofits that serve youth under the age of 21 within 40 miles of Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and South Florida (Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward, Lee, Hendry, Collier, and Monroe counties).
Deadline: July 1.
Amount: $50,000 (three organizations from each location), $5,000 student scholarship.
Sun Life Financial is a leading provider of protection and wealth accumulation products and services. They cater to individual and corporate customers all over the world. Visit their website here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated millions of tobacco-related deaths in 2011. According to the article, WHO estimated an astounding 6 million tobacco-related deaths for the year of 2011. What makes this seem scarier is the fact that 600,000 of these deaths will be non-smokers. The World Health Organization further estimated even more deaths by 2030, killing at least 8 million per year. To read more of the article click here.
WHO hopes to further implement their Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by having several governments around the world to sign it. So far, 172 governments along with the European Union have signed it, one of which was the Republic of China. On May 1, 2011, China put a ban on smoking in public places. Watch this video for more insight…
Remember, letters of intent are due today for Public Prevention Health Fund’s Community Transformation Grant. This grant enables communities to improve their capacities to implement evidence and practice-based policy. Estimated funding is $900,000,000 so please take every opportunity to meet this deadline that will benefit your community. Click here for pertinent grant information and application details.
Grant: To demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of evidence-based tobacco prevention and cessation strategies in preventing and reducing tobacco use among racial and ethnic minority youth and young women (ages 13-26) of low socioeconomic status.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Eligibility: Nonprofits, community collaboratives, tobacco health coalitions, academic institutions, health profession organizations.
Deadline: July 1st.
Amount: Five awards ranging from $175,000 to $250,000 each.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a study on coalitions and their effects on long-term outcomes on communities. Partnerships usually are established to potentially affect a community by promoting change to said communities.
Two researchers, Shabnam Javdani and Nicole Allen of UI-AC explored the effect of coalitions on proximal outcomes. The proximal outcomes Javdani and Allen studied were knowledge, relationships, and institutional change.
The study incorporated mailed surveys to 654 council members from a Midwestern State that was unspecified. The council members belonged to 21 Family Violence Coordinating Councils (FVCC). The researchers concluded that knowledge is a necessary component for councils to create long-lasting relationships with communities. To read other conclusions made by Shabdavi and Allen, along with insights into coalitions, click here.
Earlier this month the White House responded to the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s request for the legalization of drugs. Rafael Lemaitre, the Communications Director of the Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP), stated that “Making drugs more available – as this report suggests – will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe.”
The Office of National Drug Policy noted several statistics on drug usage and demand for drugs, stating that both have significantly dropped over the course of thirty years. To read more of the Obama Administration’s response to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, click here.
In late January 2011, Obama responded to a question from a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), on the topic of possible legalization of drugs. View is response…
Applications for the Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) Grant are due TODAY. Program funding is an estimated $4.5 million dollars to four local health departments who work with communities to eradicate youth violence before it starts. For more grant information click here.
The U.S. Department of Justice are funding two grants, both with deadline on July 11th…
Second Chance Act Juvenile Offender Reentry Program for Planning and Demonstration Projects
Grant: Provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated juveniles who are released from prison, jail and juvenile residential facilities and are returning to their communities by ensuring that the transition the youth make from secure confinement facilities to the community is successful and promotes public safety.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: States, territories, units of local government, tribal governments.
Deadline: July 11.
Amount: Multiple awards ranging from $50,000 to $750,000 each.
National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Truancy Prevention and Intervention
Grant: To establish a national training and technical assistance center that will advance the understanding and application of promising and evidence-based truancy prevention and intervention strategies and programs.
Funder: U.S. Department of Justice.
Eligibility: States, territories, units of local government, tribal governments, nonprofits, for-profits, institutions of higher education.
According to the Health Behavior News Service, a study was conducted on obese teenage girls who were found to be twice as addicted to nicotine compared to young adults. The study concluded that certain factors such as depression, low self-esteem, and below average academic performance were a result to problematic behaviors one of which being cigarette smoking. The study also showed that obese teenage girls were susceptible to these factors. To read more about the study, click here.
Watch this video to see similar study results of smoking and obesity on teenagers conducted back in 2009…
Last week, the Obama Administration released the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. One of the major priorities of this strategy is to combat “excessive alcohol use.” The strategy involves four key “directions” hoping to improve the nation’s health. The four key directions are:
1. Building Healthy and Safe Community Environments
2. Expanding Quality Preventive Services in Both Clinical and Community Settings
3. Empowering People to Make Healthy Choices
4. Eliminating Health Disparities
The strategy was developed by the National Prevention Council composed of 17 federal agencies, one of which is the Office of National Drug Control Policy. To read more on the new health strategy, click here.
The U.S. Department of Education is conducting a study on school bullying laws and policies. The department will implement case studies on 24 school sites nationwide. The study will examine anti-bullying policies and how they are influenced by state legislative requirements.
The study hopes to provide school districts with improvements on ways to combat bullying in schools and support bullying prevention activities. The U.S. Department of Education is requesting comments on five different issues:
1. Is this collection necessary to the proper functions of U.S. ED?
2. Will the information be processed and used in a timely manner?
3. How might the U.S. ED enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information being collected?
4. Is the estimate of burden accurate?
5. How might the U.S. ED minimize the burden of this collection on the respondent, including through the use of information technology?
The comments are due by August 1, 2011. Click here for complete more information on the study. Click here for a detailed description of the proposed analysis.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has published, “Highlights of the 2009 National Youth Gang Survey.”
The fact sheet presents findings from the National Gang Center’s 2009 National Youth Gang Survey. The survey collects data from a large, representative sample of local law enforcement agencies to monitor the size and scope of the gang problems happening in America.
The fact sheet discusses the prevalence of gangs in the U.S., rates of gang activity and gang homicides, and factors that may influence gang violence.
Public Welfare Foundation – Grants for Organizations that Serve Disadvantaged Communities
The Public Welfare Foundation supports organizations that address human needs in disadvantaged communities. The foundation provides both general support and project-specific grants. For more information on the organization click here.
Grant: The foundation is currently focusing on two program areas: criminal and juvenile justice, and workers’ rights.
Maximum award: $50,000.
Eligibility: public and private entities, including nonprofit organizations and for-profit organizations.
The Niketown store in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood refused Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s request for the store to remove t-shirts in their window display. The t-shirts, part of an action sports campaign, say ‘Dope’ and ‘Get High’ on them. According to a Nike spokesperson, the shirts in no way condone a pro-drug use message but rather are terms that are used for action sports such as BMX and surfing. To read more of the article click here.
What do you think of the t-shirts? Share your opinions and comments!
Innovative Social Media Strategies to Reach Open to Smoking Youth
Grant: To identify and counter pro-tobacco messages and related online youth influences by creating and implementing innovative social media strategies to target and influence open-to-smoking youth ages 12-17.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A study was conducted on young binge drinkers ages 18 to 25. The study showed that binge drinking on a regular basis can disrupt the area of the brain used for paying attention, decision-making, and impulse control.
The study was conducted on 29 binge drinkers. Women who had four or more drinks in one sitting as well as men who had five or more drinks in one sitting showed thinning of the pre-frontal cortex.
Back in 2009, the 18 to 25 age group showed the highest levels of binge drinking and alcohol use. To read the entire article click here.
Here’s a video from 2010 about the effects of binge drinking on young people:
Check out the Botvin LifeSkills Training website for new training dates. We’ve even added Online Training dates for Elementary and Transitions programs! Click here.
The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University recently reported that substance use among teens was the worst public health problem in the nation.
The study concluded that the following were considered problems “of epidemic proportions”: teen smoking, drinking, misusing prescription drugs and using illegal drugs. However, the types of prescription and illegal drugs are unknown.
CASA’s report includes information about the origin of addiction and it’s correlation with substance use and adolescence. The report highlighted a few interesting findings:
•90 percent of Americans who meet the medical criteria for addiction started smoking, drinking, or using other drugs before age 18.
•1 in 4 Americans who began using any addictive substance before age 18 developed an addiction, compared to 1 in 25 Americans who started using at age 21 or older.
•75 percent of all high school students have used addictive substances including tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or cocaine; 1 in 5 of them meets the medical criteria for addiction.
•46 percent of all high school students currently use addictive substances; 1 in 3 of them meets the medical criteria for addiction.
CASA’s Vice President and Director of Policy Research and Analysis made the following statement: “The problem is not that we don’t know what to do, it’s that we are failing to act. It is time to recognize teen substance use as a preventable public health problem and addiction as a treatable medical disease, and to respond to it as fiercely as we would to any other public health epidemic threatening the safety of our children.”
Pathways/NorthCare Network Coordinating is requesting bids of prevention programming throughout its eight county region for the 2012 fiscal year. This RFP is to solicit proposals from licensed, prevention organizations which have the expertise to provide substance abuse prevention services.
Visit our training schedule to register for Friday, July 8th’s Online Training for the Middle School Program. There’s still time to do so! Online Trainings are a great opportunity to implement Botvin LifeSkills Training into your organizations from the comfort of your own computer.
A study was done on about 800 undergraduate college students and over 150 postgraduates from five different universities. Collected data concluded that more than half of the students analyzed had one or more memory blackouts within the year leading up to the study. 7 percent of those students studied had experienced six or more memory blackouts during that same time period.
A memory blackout is “the inability to recall events.” However these are not related to a loss of consciousness from excess alcohol consumption. Alcohol affects the part of the brain called the hippocampal region, which is the area of the brain associated with memory formation. Hence, the over consumption of alcohol that leads to blackouts can further affect one’s ability to remember things in the long run.
Alcohol-related injury has increased from 2001 to 2005. In 2001, more than 600,000 U.S. college students experienced unintentional injury related to alcohol. By 2005, close to 2,000 unintentional deaths were caused by over-consumption of alcohol.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) invites people to participate in the second annual National Drugs Fact Week from October 31st to November 6th of this year. NDFW is a health observance week for teens. NDFW aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. NIDA works to encourage teens to find factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse through community-based events and activities on the Internet, television, and contests.
People are encouraged to be involved in National Drug Facts Week by doing the following:
- Hosting or sponsoring a NDFW event
- Tweeting about NDFW
- Take the National Drug IQ Challenge
- Register for Chat Day 2011 scheduled for November 1, 2011
According to a HealthDay News report, tobacco sales to youth is at an all-time low in the United States. This is due to “historic federal and state partnerships,” according to a new Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report (SAMHSA).
In 2010, violating the law of selling to minors was at it’s lowest rate of 9.3% in a 14-year span of the Synar Amendment that prohibits states from selling and distributing tobacco products to people under the age of 18. This program was implemented in July 1992 by late Oklahoma state Congressman Mike Synar.
Since the implementation of the Synar Amendment, there has been a downward trend in tobacco sales to minors and for the past five years, all fifty states have agreed to abide by this amendment.
Take a look at this April 2011 news report from Illinois’s local television channel WTHI on how the state was making it harder for minors to purchase tobacco.
Healthy People is a set of topic areas and objectives with 10-year targets designed to guide national health promotion and disease prevention efforts to improve the health of people in the United States.
Objective: This Request for Proposal (RFP) recognizes the lead role that community-based organizations play in improving a community’s health. The purpose of this RFP is to solicit community-level projects that use Healthy People 2020 overarching goals, topic areas and objectives to promote improved heath at a community level.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Amount: Awards will range from $5,000 to $10,000. Up to 170 projects will be funded. Awardees will be chosen to represent a variety of themes, activities and regions.
Eligibility: Non-profit, community-based organizations with budgets less than $750,000 can apply for these funds.
Deadline: August 5, 2011.
More Information and Request for Proposals visit the following links:
Grant: Non-Profit Capacity Building Program – To improve the sustainability of and expand services provided by small and midsize nonprofits in communities facing resource hardship challenges.
Funder: Corporation for National and Community Service.
Eligibility: Nonprofits.
Deadline: Aug. 9.
Amount: Five awards ranging from $200,000 to $998,000 each.
A recent press release discussed how Botvin LifeSkills Training is adding Elemenetary School and Transitions programs to their list of Online Provider Trainings. Currently, online trainings are available for Middle School and High School programs. LST has scheduled Elementary School and Transitions trainings on their website.
“Flexible, convenient, and cost-effective,” is the best way to describe LST Online Trainings. There has already been much success with the Middle School and High School program online trainings and LST hopes to see the same results with their recently scheduled Elementary and Transitions online trainings. To learn more about online trainings in general, read this press release. To register for any of LST’s online trainings or site-based trainings, visit the training schedule.
Verizon Foundation Grants for Education, Violence Prevention, and Health
Grant: To help individuals increase their educational achievement, avoid being an abuser or victim of domestic violence, and sustain a healthy and safe lifestyle. Applications should include information on measuring results and tracking outcomes.
Funder: The Verizon Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status, elementary and secondary schools that are registered with the National Center for Education Statistics, hospitals or medical research organizations with specific IRS status, and churches, provided their proposals benefit individuals regardless of religious affiliation.
A study was published in July’s issue of Archives of Pediactrics and Adolescent Medicine on the connection between alcohol companies’ yearly advertising spending and underage drinkers’ alcohol brand preferences. The study was title, “Alcohol Brand Preference and Bing Drinking among Adolescents.” Researchers from Dartmouth Medical School and the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health saw that respondents who had a favorite brand of alcohol were more likely to binge drink than those who did not have a favorite brand of alcohol.
Researchers believe that the ‘Drink Responsibly’ message associated with alcohol commercials is being hindered by advertisements that promote partying. To read more about the study click here.
A recent study has shown that girls in particular can become vulnerable to the effects of binge drinking. Research suggests that binge drinking can affect spatial working memory, which is related to the ability to perceive the space around one’s self. Binge drinking during early teen years can severely affect adolescent brain maturity, especially the frontal regions.
The study was done on 95 teens and found that girls who participated in binge drinking had less activation of the brain compared to girls who did not drink during a spatial working memory test that was conducted on those teens studied. Boys were also involved in the study and although boys who were involved in binge-drinking also showed less brain activation during these tests, it was far less than girls.
It is safe to say that alcohol and other substances can truly affect males and females differently, especially when consumed at an early age when the brain is still in the processing of maturing. To read more of the study click here.
There’s still time to register for tomorrow’s webinar on Effective Classroom Management Strategies at 2pm EDT. There are only a few spots open so please take advantage of this beneficial opportunity. You’ll learn how to improve classroom participation along with creating an optimal learning environment for your students.
A recent study has found that youth films have fewer tobacco-related scenes. The study was funded by an anti-tobacco non-profit group called Legacy and was conducted by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. The study showed that film companies Time Warner, Comcast, and the Walt Disney Company decreased tobacco-related scenes in their films by 96%. These companies adopted policies to reduce smoking in their films in the past.
Cruella de Vil in Disney’s 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
Even companies without smoking policies dropped the amount of smoking in movies by 42%. However, more than 40% of their youth-related movies involve smoking. These companies include: News Corp., Sony, and Viacom.
Future studies will be conducted on the causal relationship of youth’s depiction of smoking in films and youth’s exposure to tobacco.
There are still a few spots left for July 28th’s webinar on Strategies for Community-Based Prevention at 2pm EDT. Attendees will learn about effective ways of working with time constraints, training staff, keeping students stimulated, along with other helpful strategies. Click on the link below to register.
An article on USAToday.com found that more and more grandparents are taking care of their grandchildren for many different reasons. Oftentimes parents are incapable of taking care of their children “due to substance abuse, physical or mental illness, financial problems, incarceration, death, and more recently, military deployment and the recession,” the article explained.Rather than traveling, grandparents are taking on responsibilities such as diapers, school, extracurricular activities and technology – what teenager doesn’t have a cell phone these days? Considering that, in 2009, 3.1 million children were living without a parent, 59% of them were in the custody of their grandparents. Researchers have dubbed these children as the “skip generation” or “grandfamilies.”
Grandparents who take on these parenting roles have mixed emotions about taking care of their grandchildren. Some enjoy the extra company that fills their once empty homes after their own children grew up. Other grandparents feel that they can’t keep up with young children running around.
To read the full article and statistics on recent studies on “grandfamilies” click here.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids objected to advertisements for National American Spirit Cigarettes that claim to be “eco-friendly,” a USA Today report said. A member of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Vince Willmore said the advertisements, that appear in magazines such as Esquire, Elle, and Marie Claire, were hindering the fact that cigarettes are harmful to one’s health by making them seem better than ordinary cigarettes.
National American Spirit is owned by Reynolds American Inc., and responded by saying that the cigarettes are being made in a more economically-friendly manner using wind-powered facilities and fewer chemicals. To read the news story click here.
Botvin LifeSkills Training Parent Program is now available on the Amazon Kindle. Parents and guardians alike can now strengthen communication with their children about drugs and alcohol from the comforts of their e-reader.
Don’t have a Kindle? No worries. Amazon Kindle now has applications that can be downloaded on PCs, Mac products (including the iPad and iPhone), as well as several smartphones. You simply download the Kindle app on your smartphone, computer, or tablet and then purchase any good read from Amazon’s extensive library of e-books. Learn more about the Kindle app and if it’s compatible for your phone here.
The Kindle app makes it convenient for any parent to utilize the Parent Program despite their busy schedules. To purchase your copy of the Parent Program for the Kindle click here.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) developed a study looking at the behavioral health issues of each state. The study will benefit each state’s public health authorities in terms of improving or including health care quality regarding serious issues such as substance abuse and alcoholism.
The study included insights into many states’ patterns of drug use and alcohol dependency. To see the insights, click here. SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde believes that this data will help states improve health care programs and implement more prevention programs to help combat the war on drug and alcohol abuse.
There are still a few more spots left for tomorrow’s Strategies for Handling Challenging Questions Webinar. The webinar begins at 1pm EDT so you still have plenty of time to register. This webinar is a great opportunity to learn how to successfully handle challenging questions that students or young children may have about drugs and alcohol. This is an ideal webinar for those who are administrators, counselors, educators, and specialists alike.
Out of School Time for Children from Limited English Proficient Homes
Grant: To enrich the experience of children from limited English proficient Asian, African, Latino and other newcomer communities and deter them from engaging in negative activities during out-of-school time.
Funder: D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education
Eligibility: Nonprofits, faith and community-based organizations.
We’ve added a High School Online Training date to the training schedule for Wednesday, August 10th at 3pm EDT. The second live session will take place a week from the 10th on Wednesday, August 17th at 3pm EDT. Click here to register.
A study was done by researchers at the University of Michigan on close to 3,000 middle school and high school students. The study involved a web-based survey on medication such as “sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medications, stimulants and opioid painkillers” according to Reuters.
The study concluded that 22% of students who took medication abused them within the past year. In terms of “abusing” drugs, that meant that they took too much at one time or more than the suggested dosage, intentionally wanted to get high, or increased dosage to increase the affects of other drugs or alcohol.
To read more statistics on the survey conducted click here.
Teens abusing prescription drugs is not a new discovery, considering that teen drug abuse has been considered an epidemic by several health organizations. Back in 2007, the White House published an analysis on teens and the rising prescription drug abuse issue. To read the document, click here.
Even well into 2010, teens were still using prescribed medications for the wrong reasons. An ABC News report from 2010 showed the effects of prescription drug abuse and how recovering teens sought help.
Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee approved bills restricting the use and sale of certain chemicals used in synthetic drugs also known as “designer drugs.” These drugs, which are marketed as safe alternatives to getting high, have chemicals in them that are also found in incense and bath salts (which have stirred much controversy around their stimulating and hallucinogenic affects). Chemicals found in designer drugs will be added to a broad list of Schedule I controlled drugs, which are deemed highly addictive with no medical use.
To learn more about the Judiciary Committee’s response to the chemicals found in designer drugs, click here.
To learn more information on synthetic drugs and their dangerous effects, check out this news story.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out with a new findings among high school students who smoke cigarettes. The CDC found that the percentage of high schools students who smoked at least eleven cigarettes a day decreased while ‘light’ smoking (between 1 and 5 cigarettes a day) was on the rise.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Terry Pechachek, believes that some of the reasons for the decline in heavy smoking among teens is due to the price increase of cigarettes and smoke-free policies that many public venues are implementing.
Grant: To assist Kansas schools in promoting healthy lifestyle choices to their students.
Funder: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas.
Eligibility: Kansas school nurses, physical education teachers, health and family and consumer science teachers, athletic directors, principals and other school personnel.
Funder: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency Prevention
Amount: Up to 1,491,130 Substance Abuse Education and Demand Reduction (SAEDR) funding
Eligibility: County Chief Juvenile Probation Officers; County Juvenile Court Judges; County Children and Youth Administrators; County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Administrators; County Commissioners; Communities That Care Contact Persons; Private Service Providers; Integrated Children’s Service Planners; State Health Improvement Planning Sites, State Incentive Grant Planners, County/Municipal Health Department Directors, District Executive Directors of the Department of Health and Public Health Programs.
Contact: If applicants require assistance, they should email questions to Wendy Poston at wposton@pa.gov. Answers will be sent by email on a regular basis to all registered individuals through close of business on August 16, 2011. Questions concerning the Egrants system should be made directly to the Egrants Help Desk by phoning (717) 787-5887 or toll-free within Pennsylvania at (800) 692-7292, option 9 and then option 6. Please note: While Egrants will accept your application up until midnight of the due date, Help Desk staff will not be available after 4:00 p.m.
Deadline: August 18, 2011
Please refer to the following document for more information.
There have been a few last minute online training dates added to the schedule. If you would like to squeeze in an online training before the school year starts, visit the Training Schedule.
The two added dates are:
Tuesday, August 16th High School Online Training – Live Session I at 9:30am EDT and Live Session II at 2pm EDT click here to register.
Friday, August 26th Middle School Online Training – Live Session I at 9:30am EDT and Live Session II at 2pm EDT click here to register.
Funding for NJ Regional Coalitions to Utilize Environmental Strategies to Achieve Population-Level Change
Funder: Federal Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant funds; administered by DMHAS.
Amount: Total funding is approximately $3,300,000. Separate funds are also available to provide training, technical assistance and evaluation support to coalitions.
Mandatory Conference Date: August 19, 2011 from 9:00am – 5:00pm
Grant: To invest in highly effective nonprofit organizations working in arts and culture, education, health and human services and youth development the thirteen-parish region of metropolitan New Orleans.
Funder: The Greater New Orleans Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations that serve the Greater New Orleans region.
A recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital found that U.S. adults were concerned with drug abuse and obesity, seeing the two as major health problems for youth. Although drug abuse and obesity were among the highest concerns, other concerns adults had for young children were teen pregnancy, bullying, sexting, Internet safety, and driving.
The survey was conducted on 2,130 adults. To learn more about some of the statistics, read the article here.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study on high school students to research their patterns of tobacco use. According to their findings, the number of U.S. high school students who smoked at least eleven cigarettes a day was on the decline. However, the number of ‘light’ smokers was on the rise. “Light” smoking is defined as one who smokes between one and five cigarettes per day whereas “heavy” smokers consume around eleven or more cigarettes per day (almost an entire pack of cigarettes), according to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Despite the number of heavy smokers decreasing, the number of light smokers increasing is still worrisome. “It is important to note that light and intermittent smoking still has significant health risks,” says Dr. Terry Pechachek, of the CDC. Considering policies on smoke-free public places and the high cost of cigarettes, people may be adapting their smoking habits to changing times. ”We may be creating a new type of smoker that may be more durable, that are adapting to smoke-free environments and to changing social norms,” Pechachek added.
To read more on the report by Reuters, click here.
Further statistics from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJMP) studied between 14,000 and 16,000 teen smokers from 1991 to 2009 and found that over that time period, teens who smoked eleven cigarettes or more a day decreased by 10.2%. But the number of light smokers increased during that same time period by 12.2%. To read the study in-depth, click here.
A study was conducted on schools nationwide and found that drug testing in schools had little effect on the reduction of substance abuse. The test had made no effect on male students and only a slight effect, if any, on female students, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. This study was conducted on 943 students. 27% of the schools these students attended implemented drug testing.
Study co-author Dan Romer said, “We find little evidence that this approach to minimizing teen drug use is having the deterrent effect on its proponents claim.”
2. Illinois – The Jon M. Drogosz Youth Substance Abuse Prevention/Treatment Memorial Fund
Grant: to provide for the well-being of the citizens of Freeport and Northwest Illinoise by accumulating assets in the form of permanent funds and prudently distributing income from those funds to charitable organizations.
Funder: The Freeport Community Foundation.
Eligibility: A non-profit organization, 501(c)3, guided by community leaders who are dedicated to providing financial solutions for current and future community needs through cooperative philanthropy.
Amount: unknown; the grant award will be provided during the Foundation’s fall grant cycle. Awards will be announced on November 1, 2011.
3. Delaware – Community Based Substance Abuse Prevention Services for Youth & Adults
Grant: Applicants must clearly describe geographic area(s) to be served and proposed program.
Funder: Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Eligibility: Funds are available for the selected vendor to provide services in the area of Strategic Prevention Framework. Capacity Building Implementation Grants will provide primary prevention in the four sub state planning regions (the City of Wilmington, the remainder of New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County) or statewide.
Amount: Eight awards, each not exceeding $150,000.
Grant: to support school-based programs that promote healthy eating, active living and prevent youth from starting to use tobacco products.
Funder: The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Eligibility: All Pierce County schools and school districts are eligible to apply.
Amount: Grants will be awarded for up to $5,000 at the school building level and up to $10,000 at the district administration level. In addition to funding, grant recipients will receive technical assistance and resources from Health Department staff.
Grant: to create and sustain REALITY Illinois Chapters to convene a teen advisory panel, consisting of high school students, to plan and implement tobacco prevention and control projects, events and initiatives in the City of Chicago.
Funder: The Chicago Department of Public Health.
Amount: $30,000. The Department plans to fund 6 agencies at $5,000 each.
Eligibility: only nonprofit community-based organizations within the City of Chicago with at least one year experience in providing outreach and community event services may apply for these funds.
Contact: for further details, download the RFP. Also, visit the Chicago Department of Public Health’s website for more information.
The second annual National Drug Week for this year has been announced by federal agencies. This year’s National Drugs Facts Week runs from October 31st until November 6th. The purpose for NDFW is to inform teens of the myths about drugs and drugs abuse. This health observance week aims to educate teens on the dangers of drugs through community-based activities through the Internet, TV, and contests.
NDFW also offers communities opportunities to host or sponsor their own events. Events can be sponsored by a variety of organizations, including schools, community groups, sports clubs, book clubs, and local hospitals. NIDA provides an online toolkit that advises teens and their sponsoring organizations on to how create an event, how to publicize it, how to find a scientific expert, and where to find scientific information on drugs. For more information on how to sponsor or host your own event click here.
NIDA will also support event holders by offering its popular teen booklet, “Drugs: Shatter the Myths”. The booklet is available for FREE too! A new portion of this year’s NDFW is the new online National Drug IQ Challenge. This challenge is a quiz that tests teens and adults on their knowledge of drugs.
Grant: to decrease the likelihood of violent or disruptive behavior and to protect students and staff from harm when such behavior may occur. The funds are provided to all of Tennessee’s local school systems for one or more the following purposes:
Innovative violence prevention programs
School resource officers
Conflict resolution
Disruptive or assaultive behavior management
Improved school security
Peer mediation
Training for employees on the identification of possible perpetrators of school-related violence
Funder: Tennessee Department of Education.
Amount: not specified.
Contact: JoAnn Summers in the Office of Safe & Supportive Schools at jo.ann.summers@tn.gov or (615) 532-1665.
In a recent USA Today article, Gallup poll results suggested that one in four people have less respect for someone who smokes. Although the media is full of anti-smoking advertisements, the price of packs of cigarettes increases, and legislations crack down on public smoking bans, 19.3% of the U.S. population still uses the stuff. In light of this, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of heavy users of cigarettes has dropped to 8% in 2010, a 5% decrease since 2005.
Even though many people look down on smokers, there still exist pro-smoking media – from blogs to public forums, people are raving about their right to smoke.
Marc Lipton, a clinical psychologist from Townson, Maryland who works with people attempting to quit the habit says that 30%-35% of his clients who are highly motivated but unnsuccessful quitting ”have untreated anxiety and depression.” But Lipton suggests that success or failure can be impacted by several different reasons, one being genetics. Lipton used to be a heavy smoker than quit after his father passed away of smoking-related cancer.
Grant: to improve learning and enrichment opportunities for children by supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices in school leadership, after-school programs, summer and extended learning time, arts education and audience development for the arts.
2. Tobacco-Use Prevention Education: Grades 6th through 12th
Grant: Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) funds support health education efforts aimed at the prevention and reduction of tobacco use by youth. Funding consideration to local educational agencies is based on projects that propose to implement research-validated prevention programs for the general student population, provide youth development activities for both general and priority populations, and provide intervention and cessation services to students currently using tobacco.
Funder: California Department of Education.
Eligibility: local education agencies must be certified tobacco-free by July 1, 2011. Funding is available to districts, charter schools, consortium leads, and county offices of education that serve students in grades six through twelve.
Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation with Youth in Virginia
Term of Grant Awards: July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2015
This is an online application process. No hard copies of the RFP will be available.
Grant Details
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth announces its 13th Tobacco Use Prevention & Cessation Programs for Youth Request for Proposals (RFP) funding opportunity. Virginia organizations (schools, faith centers, community service boards, clubs, etc.) are eligible to submit proposals for the three-year contract period of July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015.
In addition to providing tobacco-use prevention and/or cessation programming, organizations may choose to include supplemental obesity prevention programs in their application as well.
Individual grant awards will not exceed $60,000 per year ($180,000 total for all three years) to implement tobacco prevention/cessation programs in Virginia communities. This is an online process and organizations may register to apply at the link below.
Related application forms, detailed instructions for completing the forms and Terms and Conditions can be downloaded through the online system or by clicking on the links below.
The following forms are considered part of the RFP and the application and must be downloaded and saved. Once completed and saved, they will be uploaded to the application:
Two different polls studying the use of illegal substances and alcohol among teens showed discrepencies between what parents thought and what the teens were actually reporting. One poll from C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan surveyed parents on whether they believed that their children were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.
According to Medical News Today, 10% of the parents polled believed their teens, ages 13 to 17, drank alcohol within the past year (2010) and 5% of parents believed that their teens smoked marijuana.
But a different poll that surveyed teenagers themselves showed different results. A Monitoring the Future survey found that 52% of 10th graders drank alcohol and 28% percent smoked marijuana during that year in 2010. Monitoring the Future measure the use of alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes among students across the United States.
Research Bernard Biermann, MD, PhD said “There’s a clear mismatch between what parents are reporting in terms of their children’s possible use of substances and what teenagers report themselves.”
The differences in both polls could be due to the lack of communication between parent and teen. Considering that such behavior is frowned upon, let alone illegal, some teenagers find that being honest with their parents about what they do with their friends could be worthy of being grounded or further limitations such as cell phone, Internet, television privileges being taken away. Some parents could also be oblivious to such activity, not knowing what’s going on at all. The poll even suggested that parents believed that teenagers other than their own were the ones drinking alcohol and doing drugs.
Biermann suggests that parents communicate with their teens about the dangers of substance abuse in “a non-threatening way, and look carefully for signs of substance abuse when they come home.” Rather than adding to a potential problem, parents should support their children if a substance abuse problem does arise.
LST will be hosting a Parent Program training at the White Plains, NY headquarters on November 10, 2011. Visit the Training Schedule and register today!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a study and found that fewer adults in the United States were smoking cigarettes. This also includes smokers cutting back on the number of cigarettes they smoke a day. The study was conducted over a five year period from 2005 to 2010. The report showed that a total of 19.3% (45.3 million) American adults aged 18 and older smoked cigarettes, which was a decline from the 20.9% of individuals who smoked in 2005.
CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. said, “Any decline in the number of people who smoke and the number of cigarettes consumed is a step in the right direction.” But Frieden believes that the rate at which smoking is declining is not fast enough. “This slowing trend shows the need for intensifed efforts to reduce cigarette smoking among adults,” Frieden said.
To date, tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the America, killing an estimated 443,000 American every year. To read the complete article, click here.
The Wall Street Journal reported that new guidelines for alcohol companies were being put into effect on September 30 in regards to the companies’ social media pages.This includes companies’ social media pages, blogs, mobile marketing and any other form of digital communications.
The report also requests that alcohol companies promote responsible drinking and to only “forward promotions to adults 21 and older.” The guidelines were developed by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) along with the European Forum for Responsible Drinking.
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found in recent studies that young people between the ages of 12-20 were more likely to hear radio placement ads for alcohol than adults.In compliance to advertising industry standards on the topic of advertisements for alcoholic beverages, beer and distilled spirit companies agreed to place “alcohol ads in media venues only when underage youth compirses less than or equal to 30 percent of the audience.” However, the CAMY analysis showed that among the 75 markets, 50% of which account for radio audiences 12 and older, failed to meet those standards.
The National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine, along with 24 state attorneys general agree that the industry must implement a stricter standard that is more “proportional” to the population most at risk for underage drinking – ages 12 to 20 years old. The “proportional” standard would be 15% considering that youth ages 12-20 years old make up 15% of the U.S. population.
There are still a few spots available for this Thursday’s (9/29) webinar on Addressing Challenging Questions at 4pm EDT.
This webinar will address some of the challenging questions students may ask in prevention program classes. Attendees will learn strategies for responding to these questions along with tips on classroom management and creating staff buy-ins.
All teachers, coordinators, administrators, counselors, and school personnel are welcome to attend this webinar. For registration information, click here.
Project Phusion, manufacturer of controversial alcoholic beverage Four Loko, wants to change the labels of their cans to now include the alcohol content “so that they can state the drinks contain as much alcohol as four to five cans of beer.” Why the change? Project Phusion wants to better inform its users after the FTC claimed that Project Phusion falsely stated that the 23.5 ounce can of Four Loko contains the same amount of alcohol as two 12-oz. beers. The FTC states that the amount of alcohol found in a can of Four Loko is the equivalent to four or five beers despite its marketing as a single-serving beverage. Read the full article here.
R. Gil Kerlikowske posted an article about the positive attributes prevention programs can bring to communities. “I stand with President Obama in commemorating National Substance Abuse Prevention Month,” he said. He also added how substance abuse not only affects those suffering from it, but it also affects families, friends, and even the health care and judicial systems.
With the help and funding of evidence-based prevention programs, the United States could save more money preventing addiction than letting it happen in the first place. According to Kerlikowske, substance abuse costs the United States roughly $193 billion in health and legal costs. This amounts to even more debt that the economy has to worry about.
Although preventing substance abuse does not happen overnight, Kerlikowske offered some ways in which families and communities can get involved in the fight against substance abuse:
Talk to students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol
Discard of old or expired prescription medicine bottles
Research local prevention coalitions and resources around your area
To read Kerlikowske’s post on the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy page, click here.
Obama’s website We the People, a petition-posting website, allows ordinary citizens the opportunity to change public policy. It’s where people with concerns can voice them. A recent petition has been posted by CADCA to raise awareness of prevention programs and Drug Free communities. The petition? 25,000 signatures within 30 days and the issue will be discussed among Obama and his cabinet. Click here to learn more.
Here’s how to get involved:
Viewing and signing on to the petition is easy, and takes less than one minute – all you have to do is:
• Ask your coalition members and volunteers to sign on
• Get your local youth advocates involved
• Post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts
• Post link and instructions on the homepage of your coalition’s website
Thank you in advance for taking the time to sign this petition, and for disseminating this broadly to your networks so that we can achieve a minimum of 25,000 signatures! If we all make this a priority, we can secure many more than the 25,000 signatures.
If you have any questions about the petition, please contact Lindsay Houff at lhouff@cadca.org.
Prevention is important and if it’s that important to you, then sign the petition and support CADCA’s effort in the fight against substance abuse.
Grant: The 21st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) Program provides incentives for establishing before- and after-school enrichment programs that partner schools and communities to provide academic support; safe, constructive alternatives for high school students; and assistance in passing the California High School Exit Exam. Programs may operate after school only, or after school and any combination of before school, weekends, summer, intercession, and vacation. Each program must consist of three elements: academic assistance, educational enrichment, and family literacy services.
Funder: The legal authority by No Child Left Behind Act, Title IV, Part B, California Education Code sections 8420-8428 (revised by Statutes of 2006); Budget Item 6110-197-0890.
Eligibility: institutions of higher education (grades 9, 10, 11, and 12), local educational agencies, nonprofit organizations, other organizations or agencies.
Required Eligibility Criteria: Federal legislation mandates that school eligibility be based on requirements for Title I Schoolwide Programs.
Competitive priority is to be given to applications serving schools identified as in need of improvement (Section 1116). To meet the competitive priority, an application must be jointly submitted by local education agencies (LEAs) receiving funds under Title I, Part A, and community-based organizations or other public or private, entities. State legislation gives priority to high schools whose most recent score on the Academic Performance Index (API) ranks the school in the lowest three deciles.
Kalan LP, a Landsdowne, Pennsylvania based candy company, has manufactured marijuana-shaped candies called Pothead Lollipops that are already being sold in 1,000 stores in the United States. The president of Kalan LP, Andrew Kalan, says the candy was manufactured to promoted the legalization of…you guessed it, marijuana.
Parents and officials are already trying to have the candy banned from being sold in stores. A City Council member from Buffalo, New York even said that he would refuse to grant any store a license if they agreed to sell the product.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. This month works to raise awareness and to end bullying in schools everywhere. Pride Learning and Teaching Surveys did studies to better understand the effects that bullying has on not only other students but teachers. The research indicated that bullying not only interferes with other students’ classwork but it also interferes with teachers’ ability to teach.
Children, Youth and Families at-Risk (CYFAR) Sustainable Community ProjectsGrant: To improve the quality and quantity of comprehensive community-based programs for at-risk children, youth, and families supported by the Cooperative Extension System.
Earlier this month, President Obama announced how ordinary citizens can help shape U.S. policy. Through his newly launched “We the People” website, people can sign petitions based a number of different issues. CADCA posted a petition aimed at raising more awareness about the importance of drug prevention and programs aimed at combatting drug abuse. If CADCA receives 25,000 signatures on their petition, the President will have his cabinet discuss the issue.
Here’s how you can help CADCA, or, if you have another issue that you believe needs attention or awareness, do the following:
The CDC reported that excessive drinking of alcohol in 2006 cost the United States $746 per person totaling to $223.5 billion. Here are the statistics of the costs that researchers found were due to excessive drinking:
72% loss of workplace productivity
11% health care costs
9% law enforcement costs
6% motor vehicle costs
Pain and suffering were not calculated in these costs so researchers believe that their numbers underestimated.
Another observation researchers found was that about 42% of all economic costs of excessive drinking $94.2 billion “borne by federal, state, and local governments.” This totaled to about $94.2 billion. Similarly, 41.5% of economic costs of excessive drinking was “borne by excessive drinkers and their family members,” equaling to a close $92.9 billion. Although the government took care of a majority of the costs, excessive drinkers suffered more due to a decline in workplace productivity and lower household incomes.
Grant: Recognize individuals in the United States working to solve the health challenges that confront their own communities.
Funder: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Eligibility: Nominees may be someone doing exceptional work to improve health or access to healthcare in his or her community, or someone who has solved a daunting community health problem.
Amount: Ten awards of $125,000 will be given to selected applicants. Eligible applicants must be permanent residents of the U.S. and be affiliated with a public or non-profit, tax exempt organization.
Grant: Seeking community-based organizations and governmental units across the state to provide services under one or more of its substance abuse prevention sub-grants. These sub-grants are: Local Capacity Building, Direct Service, Strategic Prevention Framework and Statewide Capacity Building.
Copies of this RFP may be downloaded from the Illinois Department of Human Services website. Please click on “For Providers” and then on “RFPs.” Additional copies may be obtained by contacting the contact person listed above.
Funder: Illinois Department of Human Services and Division of Community Health & Prevention.
Eligible Applicants: All public or private, not-for-profit community-based agencies and governmental units.
Middletown Substance Abuse Prevention Council Mini-Grants
Grant: For prevention and/or youth development programs and events. Each grant may fund an organziation up to $1,000 for their efforts to help young people stay away from risky behaviors such as drugs or alcohol.
Grant: For projects that deal with children and families, civic progress, culture and the arts, education, environment and preservation, & health and human services.
Funder: Piedmon Community Foundation.
Eligibility: Projects with program areas in Adult Literacy, After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, Early Childhood, Family Services, General Education, Health/PE, Homeless, Math, Reading, Safe/Drug Free Schools, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, Special Education.
Grant: The mission of the Jubitz Family Foundation is to enhance the communities in which we live by strengthening families, by respecting the natural environment, and by fostering peace.
Funder: Jubitz Family Foundation.
Eligibility: Areas of interest include: early childhood development and education, with an emphasis on children at-risk; environmental stewardship, with an emphasis on rivers and their watershed ecosystems; and peacemaking activities, with an emphasis on teaching peace and conflict resolution.
The American Cancer Society is holding its 36th Great American Smokeout on November 17th. The Great American Smokeout encounrages current smokers to create a plan to quit by using that date to start their routine to a better, healthier lifestyle.
Tobacco still remains as the single largest preventable cause of disease as well as single largest cause of premature death in the United States. But these facts do not phase the 46 million Americans that still do smoke. Surprisingly half of this population has tried to quit for at least one day this past year. Although quitting a smoking habit is very difficult for some, The American Cancer Society offers helpful resources and support for those who want to quit smoking successfully and for good.
If you or someone you know has a smoking habit and wants to quit, you can contact the American Cancer Society toll-free at 1-800-227-2345.
To read more about The Great American Smokeout, click here. Here you will find free tools and tips including a guide to quitting and opportunities to be part of a study on quitting smoking.
To learn more about the history behind The Great American Smokeout, click here.
The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, a group composed of representatives from 12 federal agencies that support youth-focused programs, has created an online tool that allows users to search for grant opportunities by youth topic of federal agency. This tool can be found on http://grants.gov.
How it works? The tools uses a filter to search for grants pertaining to youth funded programs. It searches for those grants that are most likely to fund said programs. To check it out for yourself, visit www.findyouthinfo.gov/GrantsSearch.aspx\.
A recent study on mice showed possibilities for tobacco products to be gateway drugs. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the study is the first of its kind to “show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.”
Researchers from Columbia University conducting the current study on mice published their latest finding in Science Translational Medicine. Over the course of a seven day period, they exposed mice to drinking water that contained nicotine. The mice showed “an increased response to cocaine.”
Relating this study to humans, the researched reexamined statics from a 2003 National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Related Consequences to find a relationship between nicotine and cocaine dependency. They found that “the rate of cocaine dependence was higher among cocaine users who smoked prior to starting cocaine compared to those who tried cocaine prior to smoking.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest health philanthropy, is looking for ten individuals who exhibit dedication and hard work in the field of health improvement in their communities. If you know someone who is working to solve a community health problem, nominate them for a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders award.
The ten winners of this award will receive the Community Health Leaders award, which includes national recognition, opportunities to collaborate with other health leaders and reformers across the country, and $125,000 in funding for his or her work. These tools will help the winners combat community health problems where they live.
How to stand out – the selected winners will come from diverse professional backgrounds and regions across the United States that work to combat the challenging health issues in their local communities. In the past, award recipients worked in the following health problem areas: dementia patients, LGBT youth support, free healthcare for homeless women, as well as support services for brain injury survivors.
Act fast! The deadline is November 28th, 2011. For more information and to nominate your local health hero, visit www.communityhealthleaders.org.
Click on the image above to access the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation home page.
Luther I. Replogle Foundation Grants for Youth Services
The Luther I. Replogle Foundation focuses its giving on programs addressing the needs of youth and women with children living in (or at risk of) long-term poverty, especially children of inner-city residents.
The Foundation gives strong preference to innovative programs and organizations with small or modest operating budgets located in Chicago, IL, Minneapolis, MN, and Washington, D.C.
Award amounts vary. Nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply.
Grant: To eliminate tobacco industry influence within their organization. Examples of eliminating tobacco industry influence can include the following: reduce exposure to second hand smoke by increasing smoke-free public spaces and encourage people within the organization to utilize the California Smokers’ and Chewers’ Helplines at (1-800-NOBUTTS).
Amount: Up to $5,000
Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations that help to eliminate tobacco industy influence within their organization.
Contact: Mariposa County Health Department for information – tobacco@mariposacounty.org, (209) 966-3689, Toll Free: (800) 459-4466
ARAMARK Building Community is ARAMARK’s signature philanthrophic and volunteer program designed to enrich the lives of disadvantaged families by strengthening community centers’ ability to engage residents and community leaders to create neighborhood change and lasting opportunity.
Grant: The Building Community Innovation Awards recognize excellence in innovation and programming by local community centers.
Funder: ARAMARK Building Community.
Amount: Three $20,000 grants will be awarded to innovative programs that demonstrate an effective way to increase efficiency, impact or scale within their community. Additionally, one $40,000 grant will be awarded to an outstanding executive that demonstrates an actuve voice on behalf of community centers.
Eligbility: Ideal candidates will demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of local underserved population, support services, innovative program components, and strong community partnerships.
Grant: The California Department of Education has released the Request for Application (RFA) for its 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC program. 21st CCLC funds after school programs in elementary, middle, and high schools. It can be used by SBHCs to support drug and violence prevention, counseling, character education, parent involvement initiatives, and more.
Funder: The California Department of Education.
Eligibility: school districts and other LEAs, community-based organizations, cities, and counties.
Grant: To assist programs that provide leadership and growth opportunities for at-risk children in Indiana, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Funder: The PeyBack Foundation.
Eligibility: Nonprofits serving economically disadvantaged children between the ages of 6 and 18 in Indiana, Tennessee, and the New Orleans metropolitan area.
This year, states have cut funding for tobacco prevention programs down by twelve percent according to a report released by a coalition of public health groups.
The cuts have been due mainly to budget deficits and cuts for basic services. States will receive around $25.6 billion in tobacco taxes and legal settlements but will only spend 1.8% of that, or $456.7 million, on tobacco prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that states use $3.7 billion on tobacco prevention programs. Also, thirty-three states and the District of Columbia are spending less than a quarter of the CDC’s suggested amount.“All revenue is looked at as revenue for the highest priority programs,” Debra Miller, the director of health policy for the Council of State Governments, said.
The only state meeting or exceeding the CDC’s recommendation is Alaska, spending $10.8 million on tobacco prevention programs this year. The following states did not allocate any funding toward tobacco prevention this year: Connecticut, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Ohio. The District of Columbia did not allocate any monies toward tobacco prevention this year as well.
From the tobacco industry’s point of view, they spent $10.5 billion on marketing their products back in 2008 according to the Federal Trade Commission. In 1999, tobacco companies agreed to pay several states for tobacco-related lawsuits, costing them roughly $206 billion over the course of two decades. However, states aren’t using close to enough funds to combat the 443,000 tobacco-related deaths that occur each year in the United States.
Grant: TUPE funds support health education efforts aimed at the prevention and reduction of tobacco use by youth. TUPE in grades six through twelve is funded through a competitive application process. Funding consideration to local educational agencies is based on projects that propose to implement research-validated prevention programs for the general student population, provide youth development activities for both general and priority populations, and provide intervention cessation services to students currently using tobacco.
Funder: California Department of Education.
Eligibility: local education agencies. Local educational agencies must be certified tobacco-free by July 1, 2011. Funding is available to districts, charter schools, consortium leads, and county offices of education that serve students in grades six through twelve.
The Cayuga and Onondaga counties of New York will be implementing Botvin LifeSkills Training in five school districts under a Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant awarded to schools across the country. The grant’s goal is to promote healthy emotional and physical surroundings for students as well as prevent violence and substance abuse in said schools and local communities through a variety of different outlets, one involving evidence-based programs (EBPs).
Botvin LifeSkills Training will be one of the EBPs being used under this grant. With the use of EBPs, there was on average a decline in verbal bullying in all five school districts and a 12.5% reduction rate in school violence. Although the EBPs being used were not the only resources being used in the schools, they certainly showed improvements in school enivronments.
The current state of our economy can not only affect parents and adults but also children. Children can show stress in different ways one of which is aggression. Schools in the Canyon County school districts in Idaho have included different ways for children to combat their aggression – some schools utilize a physical education program with Karate classes or choir sessions. The schoosl have also implemented Botvin LifeSkills Training as a method to reduce aggression in students.
“The program makes a ‘night-and-day’ difference in students’ behavior,” Birch Elementary Principal Cindy Johnstone said about LST. Jeri Gowen, the Vallivue School District Safe Schools Coordinator, believes that different financial statuses among children can provoke violence among different students.
When there isn’t enough money to go around, kids may find solace in joining gangs that will most likely involve crime-related activities. Fortunately, LST and other violence-preventive programs work to help alleviate challenging situations that students might encounter.
We’ve added new training dates to the Training Schedule for the upcoming year. We have also scheduled our popular webinar series to start 2012 off right…
President Obama has announced that the month of December will be considered National Impaired Driving Prevention Month.
Impaired driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, along with distracted driving due to cell phone use has been the cause of numerous car accidents and even deaths. In an address, Obama mentioned intiaties his Administration would take:
“My Administration is working to decrease the incidence of drugged driving by 10 percent over the next 5 years as part of our 2011 National Drug Control Strategy. We are collaborating with State and local governments to bolster enforcement efforts, implement more effective legislation, and support successful, evidence-based prevention programs. These ongoing initiatives are supplemented by our Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, which aims to deter impaired driving during the holiday season.”
Be part of the cause to end impaired driving. Stow away phones, call someone if you’ve had too much to drink, do not operate a vehicle if you’ve taken prescription medication, and steer clear of illicit drugs.
One would never guess that bath salts could be used for something other than a warm bath in a tub. However, last Thursday the U.S. House voted to ban bath salts along with other synthetic drugs. Under a proposed bill called The Synthetic Drug Control Act, it will be illegal to both manufacture and dispense more than 30 synthetic drugs the U.S. House banned along with “bath salts” and “spice.” To read the entire article, click here.
There are still a few spaces available for the Elementary Online Training scheduled for next Monday, December 12th at 10am ET. It will be our last training of the year so now is the perfect time to get in some last-minute implementation tips and before the holidays. Click here to view the registration form. If interested or if you have any questions about online trainings, contact us at oltinfo@nhpamail.com or 1-800-293-4969. Register today!
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program
Purpose: Facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services.
Funder: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Eligibility: Nonprofits, corporations, colleges and faith-based groups
Amount: One-year cooperative agreement for $600,000
Note: OJP’s CrimeSolutions.gov website is one resource that applicants may use to find information about evidence-based programs. OJP gave LST the highest rating among the list of evidence-based programs on CrimeSolutions.gov because of its proven effectiveness in preventing substance abuse and violence, because of the extensive evidence supporting its effectiveness, and because there are numerous studies demonstrating its effectiveness.
An article in the Palm Beach Post showed that experts on adolescent substance abuse do not condone parents giving their children at-home drug tests. Not only do these drug tests negatively affect the parent-child relationship, according to experts, but they also do not give solid evidence of a drug-related problem. American Academy of Pediactrics (AAP) Chair of the Committee on Substance Abuse Dr. Sharon Levy says, “If kids really want to use drugs, they’ll get around the drug testing – we know they can do it.” Although at-home drug testing is a fairly priced (between $17 and $35 per test kit at pharmacies) ”solution” to finding out whether one’s child is dabbling with illegal substances, it isn’t considered the proper solution to solving a problem.
To read the article as well as the Palm Beach Post article, click here.
Here’s a clip of a news story with tips on how to detect whether your child has a drug problem without the use of an at-home drug test.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) along with the University of Michigan recently released a 2011 survey that showed continuous increase in marijuana use among teenagers (8th graders through high school students). The rates for 8th grade students is the highest it has been since 2003, according to survey results. In the three grade levels that were measured – 8th, 10th, and 12th grades – all three showed an increase in daily marijuana usage. This has also had an effect on attitudes toward drug use, showing that youth have a more lax opinion on drug use, which can be an indicator for usage.
While the rate of marijuana and other synthetic cannabinoids increased, cigarette and alcohol use has decreased to its lowest point since the inception of the Monitoring the Future Survey back in 1975. Both the use of cigarettes and alcohol decreased in all three grade levels, being considered a prevention success of the survey conductors.
Grant: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) is making approximately $5 million in Federal Justice Assistance Grant funds available to develop and implement programs at the local level.
Funder: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Eligibility: Local units of government (includes counties) and private non-profit organizations.
Amount: The total amount available under this solicitation is approximately $5 million. The maximum amount that may be requested for any project is $250,000 in federal funds.
Grant: AmeriCorps awards grants to organizaitons to implement programs that utilize AmeriCorps members to engage in evidence-based interventions that strengthen communities. Programs are targeted that work in six focus areas, including Education, Healthy Futures, and Veterans and Military Families.
Funder: AmeriCorps.
Amount: Award amounts are based on annual appropriations, which have yet to be determined. Eligible organizations include public or private nonprofit organizations, including faith-based and other community organizations; institutions of higher education; government entities; Indian Tribes; and labor organizations.
Region 3 Substance Abuse Prevention Community Partnership Mini-Grants in Nebraska
Grant: To build community capacity, through partnerships and collaborations, to support and sustain abuse prevention efforts throughout central Nebraska.
Eligibility: Counties served by Region 3 – Adams, Blaine, Buffalo, Clay, Custer, Franklin, Furnas, Garfield, Greeley, Hall, Hamilton, Harlan, Howard, Kearney, Loup, Merrick, Nuckolls, Phelps, Sherman, Valley, Webster, and Wheeler.
Amount: Total grant allocations of $15,000 will be awarded to successful applicants within the 22 county area of Region 3. Mini-grant awards last year ranged from $300 to $1,100.
A recent study published on MyHealthNewsDaily found that two ingredients in marijuana have side effects related to psychosis. Tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, increases brain processes that are related to psychosis. The other ingredient, cannabidiol, acts to reject the symptoms related to THC. This interaction, or opposition, of the two ingredients can cause severe brain problems for marijuana users. This causes confusion of stimuli in the user’s brain and disrupts the brain’s ability to processes the difference between stimuli that are important.
In previous studies, THC was shown to have worsen in people already suffering from psychosis. Marijuana is also associated with symptoms of schizophrenia
The study conducted on marijuana use associated with psychosis involved fifteen healthy men who smoked marijuana occasionally in the past. “The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to observe the men’s brains after they took pills containing THC, cannabidiol or a placebo.” Afterwards, the men were asked to perform computer tasks, which would measure their ability to respond to different stimuli. According to the study, “THC significantly increased the severity of psychotic symptoms compared with placebo.” However, there were significant differences in psychosis symptoms when cannabidiol or the placebo were taken.
Posted by nhpa 
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth is accepting Request for Proposals (RFPs) to fund Healthy Communities Action Team (HCAT) grants.
The Superbowl is not only known for football but also for the memorable television commercials that companies spend millions of dollars trying to vie for a spot during this grind iron championship. Along with anticipated advertisements come criticism or praise from the millions of viewers who watch the game with family and friends.
Over the last 10 years, the 
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award $10 million to enable national organizations to provide mentoring services to special high-risk youth populations.
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Program Grant
partnership with the 
The Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation is a direct funding supporter for children in the areas of health and wellness such as childhood disease research foundations, child safety organizations, and organizations that serve children with special needs.
The Nationwide Foundation is dedicated to making strategic philanthropic investments to meet the critical needs of communities.
The Tiger Woods Foundation strives to help young women and men reach their full potential by supporting community and family development efforts.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse seeks partnerships to implement and evaluate proposed systems-level changes to facilitate the dissemination, adoption, implementation, and sustainability of proven, innovative drug abuse prevention, treatment, and business policies and practices.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention is accepting applications to fund Partnerships for Success: State and Community Prevention Performance Grant (short title: Partnerships for Success).
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention is accepting applications for fiscal year 2009 for Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP Act) grants.
Fifteen grants of up to $1,000 each will be awarded to service-learning projects focused on underage drinking prevention and vehicle safety, via a partnership between the State Farm insurance company and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The Office Depot Foundation focuses on making a difference in children’s lives by supporting activities that serve, teach and inspire children, youth and families. The Foundation strives to enhance communities by supporting civic organizations and activities that address community needs.
The Intel Corporation is committed to maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in the U.S. communities where the company has a major presence, through grants, donations, sponsorship, and other forms of philanthropy and giving.
Through the Community Grants Program, Best Buy seeks to support non-profit organizations that provide opportunities to young teens related to education, life skills, leadership skills or relationship development.
The Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST) program has been awarded top ratings from the 
Community-based nonprofits can tap into an extra $1 billion in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) — part of the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award grants of up to $500,000 under its 2009 Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Discretionary Program: Initiative to Reduce Underage Drinking.
Healing Hearts for Community Development (HHCD
The workshop, held at City Church in Fairfield, was advertised with a Mother’s Day theme, however it was open to mothers, fathers and adults of all ages who want to make a difference to children. The workshop included lessons on communicating effectively with kids, including techniques for non-verbal communication “and how to avoid misunderstandings and assumptions,” Sanderson said.
The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will award grants of up to $500,000 to support 
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) seeks exploratory/developmental grant applications to develop collaborations integrating developmental neuroscience and adolescent drug abuse treatment.
The Indian Health Service (IHS) announces competitive grant applications for the Methamphetamine & Suicide Prevention Initiative (MSPI) for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Urban Program communities.
The Wachovia Foundation provides Community Needs Grants to support organizations working to improve communities with low- to moderate-income. In particular, the Foundation strives to improve education, community development, and environmental health, ensure access to health and human services, and to bolster civic engagement.
The CIGNA Foundation provides grants to projects that focus their efforts on five priority areas including: 1) the health of women, children and families, 2) obesity awareness and prevention, 3) patient/doctor communications and health literacy, 4) elimination of gender and ethnic disparities with health care, and 5) maintenance of healthy minds and bodies. 
Ronald McDonald House Charities is accepting applications for its Children’s Health Grant program to support projects that directly improve the health and well-being of children and youth (ages 0-21), address a significant funding gap or critical opportunity, have a potential long-term impact, and produces measurable results.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) this week awarded $60 million in Drug Free Communities (DFC) Continuation Grants to 565 DFC coalitions and five DFC Mentor Continuation coalitions. These grants will assist local community coalitions as they work to prevent and reduce youth substance use.
The Verizon Foundation has created a grant program to help schools and community agencies increase their literacy and education success, as well as achieve and sustain health and safety, specifically by teaching students how to avoid becoming abusers or victims of domestic violence.
Oklahoma, had donated the Botvin LifeSkills Training Curriculum to the Altus Intermediate School and all five elementary schools.
opportunities that make a difference in the quality of life, health and welfare of America’s youth. The Foundation is committed to using the power of the interactive entertainment industry to create a positive social impact across the country.
Held annually in October, Drug-Free Work Week is a public awareness campaign that highlights the dangers of workplace drug use and the benefits of drug-free workplace programs, and encourages workers with alcohol and drug problems to seek help. Workplace programs such as the 
A report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), shows evidence that secondhand smoke can trigger heart attacks and urges those with heart conditions to avoid exposure to tobacco smoke.
The United States Soccer Foundation’s 
The Corning Inc. Foundation supports youth-related projects and organizations, including community-service programs for students, YMCAs, and youth centers in company locations.
The RGK Foundation awards grants in the broad areas of Education, Community, and Medicine/Health.
The Campbell Soup Foundation is providing grants to local champions that inspire positive change in communities throughout the United States where Campbell Soup Company employees live and work.
The Regional Education Services Agency (RESA VIII) recently trained teachers in the Botvin LifeSkills Training program. Educators in attendance hailed from Pendleton, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Mineral, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
The Peyback Foundation was established by professional football player Peyton Manning in 1999 to promote the future success of disadvantaged youth (ages 6 to 18) by assisting programs that provide leadership growth and opportunities for children at risk.
ntly awarded a youth tobacco-prevention mini-grant from the Alabama Department of Public Health.
organizations focusing on education and health and human services, with special emphasis on the elimination of the “achievement gap”; increasing access to higher education for underrepresented groups; and ensuring access to both health education programs and quality healthcare for individuals and families.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated millions of tobacco-related deaths in 2011. According to the article, WHO estimated an astounding 6 million tobacco-related deaths for the year of 2011. What makes this seem scarier is the fact that 600,000 of these deaths will be non-smokers. The World Health Organization further estimated even more deaths by 2030, killing at least 8 million
Applications for the Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) Grant are due TODAY. Program funding is an estimated $4.5 million dollars to four local health departments who work with communities to eradicate youth violence before it starts. For more grant information click 
for action sports such as BMX and surfing. To read more of the article click 
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) invites people to participate in the second annual National Drugs Fact Week from October 31st to November 6th of this year. NDFW is a health observance week for teens. NDFW aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. NIDA works to encourage teens to find factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse through community-based events and activities on the Internet, television, and contests.
The study was done on 95 teens and found that girls who participated in binge drinking had less activation of the brain compared to girls who did not drink during a spatial working memory test that was conducted on those teens studied. Boys were also involved in the study and although boys who were involved in binge-drinking also showed less brain activation during these tests, it was far less than girls.
Rather than traveling, grandparents are taking on responsibilities such as diapers, school, extracurricular activities and technology – what teenager doesn’t have a cell phone these days? Considering that, in 2009, 3.1 million children were living without a parent, 59% of them were in the custody of their grandparents. Researchers have dubbed these children as the “skip generation” or “grandfamilies.”
Don’t have a Kindle? No worries. Amazon Kindle now has applications that can be downloaded on PCs, Mac products (including the iPad and iPhone), as well as several smartphones. You simply download the Kindle app on your smartphone, computer, or tablet and then purchase any good read from Amazon’s extensive library of e-books. Learn more about the Kindle app and if it’s compatible for your phone 
The Kindle app makes it convenient for any parent to utilize the Parent Program despite their busy schedules. To purchase your copy of the Parent Program for the Kindle click 
Grant: To assist Kansas schools in promoting healthy lifestyle choices to their students.
Grant: to create and sustain REALITY Illinois Chapters to convene a teen advisory panel, consisting of high school students, to plan and implement tobacco prevention and control projects, events and initiatives in the City of Chicago.
The second annual National Drug Week for this year has been announced by federal agencies. This year’s National Drugs Facts Week runs from October 31st until November 6th. The purpose for NDFW is to inform teens of the myths about drugs and drugs abuse. This health observance week aims to educate teens on the dangers of drugs through community-based activities through the Internet, TV, and contests.
In light of this, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of heavy users of cigarettes has dropped to 8% in 2010, a 5% decrease since 2005.
To view the new Guidelines, click 
In compliance to advertising industry standards on the topic of advertisements for alcoholic beverages, beer and distilled spirit companies agreed to place “alcohol ads in media venues only when underage youth compirses less than or equal to 30 percent of the audience.” However, the CAMY analysis showed that among the 75 markets, 50% of which account for radio audiences 12 and older, failed to meet those standards. 
Grant: The 21st Century High School After School Safety and Enrichment for Teens (ASSETs) Program provides incentives for establishing before- and after-school enrichment programs that partner schools and communities to provide academic support; safe, constructive alternatives for high school students; and assistance in passing the California High School Exit Exam. Programs may operate after school only, or after school and any combination of before school, weekends, summer, intercession, and vacation. Each program must consist of three elements: academic assistance, educational enrichment, and family literacy services.
Grant: To improve the quality and quantity of comprehensive community-based programs for at-risk children, youth, and families supported by the Cooperative Extension System.
Grant: Recognize individuals in the United States working to solve the health challenges that confront their own communities.
Grant: Seeking community-based organizations and governmental units across the state to provide services under one or more of its substance abuse prevention sub-grants. These sub-grants are: Local Capacity Building, Direct Service, Strategic Prevention Framework and Statewide Capacity Building.
The American Cancer Society is holding its 36th Great American Smokeout on November 17th. The Great American Smokeout encounrages current smokers to create a plan to quit by using that date to start their routine to a better, healthier lifestyle.
Grant: The California Department of Education has released the Request for Application (RFA) for its 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC program. 21st CCLC funds after school programs in elementary, middle, and high schools. It can be used by SBHCs to support drug and violence prevention, counseling, character education, parent involvement initiatives, and more.
“All revenue is looked at as revenue for the highest priority programs,” Debra Miller, the director of health policy for the Council of State Governments, said.
Grant: TUPE funds support health education efforts aimed at the prevention and reduction of tobacco use by youth. TUPE in grades six through twelve is funded through a competitive application process. Funding consideration to local educational agencies is based on projects that propose to implement research-validated prevention programs for the general student population, provide youth development activities for both general and priority populations, and provide intervention cessation services to students currently using tobacco.
Impaired driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, along with distracted driving due to cell phone use has been the cause of numerous car accidents and even deaths. In an address, Obama mentioned intiaties his Administration would take:
Purpose: Facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services.
In previous studies, THC was shown to have worsen in people already suffering from psychosis. Marijuana is also associated with symptoms of schizophrenia
BE HEARD: OJJDP Invites Comments on Proposed FY 2010 Program Plan
December 17, 2009The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has published a Notice of its Proposed Plan for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 in the December 1, 2009, Federal Register. The Proposed Plan describes discretionary program activities that OJJDP proposes to carry out during FY 2010.
Taking into consideration comments received and its final FY 2010 appropriation, OJJDP will develop a Final Plan describing program activities that the Office intends to fund during FY 2010.
Comments on the Proposed Plan must be received by January 15, 2010, and may be submitted online or mailed to OJJDP. As security protocols can significantly delay OJJDP’s receipt of mail, online submission of comments is recommended to ensure their consideration.
To view OJJDP’s Proposed Plan and detailed guidance on submitting comments, visit ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/funding/FY10OJJDPProposedPlan.pdf.
Comments may be submitted online at www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480a61626.