The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado at Boulder has received a $4.9 million grant to implement a program proven to reduce drug abuse among young adolescents.
The three-year award from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, was received on Jan. 27. The grant comes on the heels of a $4 million award the office provided to the center last year.
The new grant will be used to implement a drug prevention program called Life Skills Training in 70 communities across the United States. The program was one of 10 selected for the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder center's "Blueprints for Violence Prevention" series announced in late 1997.
Life Skills Training is a drug-use prevention program that provides general life skills training and social resistance skills training to junior high and middle-school students. The program is aimed at reducing the use of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana.
The curriculum includes 15 sessions taught in school by regular classroom teachers with booster sessions in the second and third years. The program includes training in personal self-management skills such as decision-making and problem-solving; general social and communication skills; and skills for resisting drug use influences from the media and peers.
Life Skills Training has been effective at reducing alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use among young adolescents. The effects for tobacco and heavy alcohol use have been sustained through the end of high school.
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence will help implement the program in the 70 communities by providing three yearly training sessions, on-site visits, telephone consultations and a process evaluation.
The ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder center is making all 10 programs in its Blueprints for Violence Prevention series available to communities across the nation through a series of handbooks. The center reviewed more than 400 violence prevention programs before selecting 10 as Blueprints programs, and another 15 have been designated as "promising."
"We're finally at a stage where we can say 'Here are some things that work, let's invest in these strategies,' " said center Director Delbert Elliott, a sociology professor and national authority on juvenile delinquency.
The center received a $4 million grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 1998 to help 50 communities implement the other nine Blueprints programs over a three-year period. Applications for this assistance are currently being sought by interested communities and agencies.
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence employs 21 people, including four graduate students. The center also receives funding from the Carnegie Corp. of New York, the Metropolitan Life Foundation, The Colorado Trust and the state of Colorado.
For more information call 303-492-1032 or write the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 442, Boulder, CO 80309. Or visit the center's Web site at .