Current E-Newsletter Issue
January 2012
New from the Center
SS/HS Mentoring Interest Group Webinar Resources Available!
This year the National Center will provide technical assistance to Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees on mentoring through the SS/HS Mentoring Interest Group. During the initial webinar, grantees had an opportunity to share information about their mentoring programs; learn how other SS/HS grantees are integrating mentoring into their SS/HS activities and services; and review several resources developed by the Center for the Advancement of Mentoring (TCAM), including the Online Mentor Training Series, with self-paced sessions for mentors and mentoring program staff. To access a recording of and resources from the webinar: http://sshs.promoteprevent.org/meetings/sshs-mentoring-interest-group.
Celebration Kit Now Available!
The Communications & Social Marketing Center is happy to provide SS/HS grantees with the Celebration Kit—a series of communications tools, templates, and resources designed to assist in promoting and sustaining your initiative. To view the kit: http://www.sshs.samhsa.gov/communications/login/login.aspx.
NET Winter 2012 Evaluation Update
The National Evaluation Team (NET) Winter 2012 National Evaluation Update focuses on the SS/HS early childhood element. To read the update: http://sshs.promoteprevent.org/announcements/national-evaluation-update-....
SAMHSA Announces New Working Definition of “Recovery”
The definition is the product of a yearlong effort by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and a wide range of partners in the behavioral health care community and other fields to develop a working definition of recovery that captures the essential, common experiences of those recovering from mental disorders and substance use disorders, along with major guiding principles that support the recovery definition. For more information: http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1112223420.aspx.
Upcoming Webinars
To register: http://preventconnect.org/2012/01/web-conference-findings-nisvs/
To register: http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/smu/view/e/5168
Addressing Cultural and Linguistic Competence
Achieving Educational Excellence for All: A Guide to Diversity-Related Policy Strategies for School Districts
This guide, published by the National School Boards Association, features a foreword by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and includes four chapters: “Student Diversity—Then and Now”; “Defining Diversity in the Elementary and Secondary Setting”; “Community Engagement: Building Diversity Capital”; and “Developing and Implementing Diversity-Related Student Assignment Policies.” To read the guide: http://www.nsba.org/EducationExcellenceForAll.
Research Note
Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Gang Affiliation
A new CDC study aims to identify risk and protective factors associated with gang affiliation in order to inform gang prevention strategies. The study, titled Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Gang Affiliation among High-Risk Youth: A Public Health Approach, analyzed survey data collected in 2004 from more than 4,000 students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 from a high-risk, urban public school district.
While controlling for sex, race and ethnicity, and age, the study analyzed associations between gang affiliation and alcohol and other drug use; delinquency; depressed mood; suicidal ideation; peer victimization; parental monitoring and positive reinforcement; adult, family, and peer support; coping skills; and school connectedness.
Of the youth surveyed, 7.1 percent were gang affiliated, 2.4 percent reported the desire to join a gang, and 4.8 percent reported active gang membership with no intention of leaving the gang. Gang affiliation was most common among males and youth of ethnic minority status. More than half of the youth participating in the survey reported two or more risk factors. The following were key findings regarding risk and protective factors related to gang affiliation:
- Gang affiliation was found to increase the risk of engaging in any delinquent behavior and frequent alcohol and other drug use.
- Moderate levels of parental monitoring and coping skills were associated with lowered gang affiliation.
- Youth with 4 or more risk factors were nearly six times more likely to be affiliated with a gang compared to youth with 0–1 risk factors.
- Youth with 0–3 protective factors were five and a half times more likely to be gang affiliated than those who reported 4 or more protective factors.
The authors suggest using evidence-based programs with parents that provide skills to monitor their children effectively, along with strategies to help youth cope with conflict. Several examples of programs that target one or both of these protective factors are provided, including Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), I can Problem Solve, Strengthening Families Program, Fast Track, Prevention Treatment Program, and Incredible Years. Alternatively, reducing delinquency and alcohol and other drug use among youths are also important prevention objectives in disrupting youths’ trajectory toward gang affiliation. The full version of this study can be viewed at http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2012/01/04/injuryprev-2011....
In the News
Bullying Prevention Video Contest!
Deadline: March 16, 2012
Special Issue of Children and Youth Services Review Highlights the Work of Reclaiming Futures
This special issue highlights the work of the Reclaiming Futures program to help teens caught in the cycle of drugs, alcohol, and crime. The issue includes 12 articles by 19 experts documenting the successful strategies used by Reclaiming Futures. To access the articles: http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=73777&cid=XEM_206603.
“Restorative Practices: Giving Everyone a Voice to Create Safer Saner School Communities”
This article, published in the November 2011 edition of The Prevention Researcher, explores the philosophy and processes involved in restorative practices in a K–12 school setting and relates these practices to other real-world examples. To access the article: http://www.tpronline.org/article.cfm/Restorative_Practices.
Webinar: “Implementing Restorative Practices”
Toward a Two-Generation Strategy: Voices of American Families
This report, published by the Aspen Institute, provides information from focus group research of low-income parents. To read the report: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/ascend/publications.
School Engagement, Disengagement, Learning Supports, & School Climate
This resource, published by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, is for teachers and student support staff who face the challenge of learner motivation. It addresses engaging and maintaining student engagement, in addition to reengaging those who have disconnected from classroom instruction. It aims to broaden school personnel’s understanding of motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, and the complex relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic. To read the report: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/schooleng.pdf.
Funding Opportunities
The Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs has created an online tool allowing users to search for federal grants by topic or federal agency and filter for grants that are likely to fund youth programs. To view the tool, please visit www.findyouthinfo.gov/GrantsSearch.aspx.
For more information: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-23/html/2011-33004.htm
For more information: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-23/html/2011-33001.htm
For more information: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=136417
For more information: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=137553
Conferences and Events
To register: http://forum.cadca.org/?q=node/51
To register: http://www.schoolsafety911.org/event_form05.html
To register: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/1471/315/1/5/
To register: https://www.cvent.com/events/addressing-challenging-behavior-national-tr...
To register: www.jmate.org/jmate2012/Register.aspx
To register: http://www.blueprintsconference.com/
To register: http://gucchd.georgetown.edu
