Funding Opportunity:Grant Announcement

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.

Application deadline is June 1, 2010

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Botvin LifeSkills Training Proves To Be A Value

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.

ISU Drug Prevention Program to Go National

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.

Click here to read the entire article.

Researchers: Ban Alcohol Sports Sponsorships

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”.

Click here to view the full article.

Secondhand Exposure Can Cause Cardiovascular Problems

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.

Click here to view the report.

 

Funding Opportunity: Grant Announcement

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.

West Virginia Teachers Receive LST Training

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.

Click here to view the full article.

Study Finds Packaging of Cigarettes Can Influence Teen Smoking

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.

Funding Opportunity:Grant Announcement

The Books Across America Award provides funds to purchase books for libraries in Pre K-12 public schools serving economically disadvantaged students.

The program will award approximately 50 awards of $1,000 each. Schools across the country where at least 70 percent of the students are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program are eligible to apply.

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.

http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/grant_writing.php