Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence
Skills for Adolescence is rooted in the belief that young people who are prepared to meet adulthood by developing their character and having high expectations for positive behavior can take meaningful roles in addressing the issues that affect their lives, their communities, and the world.

Project Lead and Seed
Lead & Seed is an intervention for middle and high school youth designed to increase their knowledge and problem-solving skills for preventing and reducing alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use; guide them in developing strategic prevention plans for use in their schools and communities; and help them implement these plans. The intervention also aims to affect ATOD risk factors for these youth (e.g., increase perception of risk of harm from use) and decrease their use of these substances.

Project Northland
Hazelden's Project Northland series for middle and high school students is a state-of-the-art alcohol-use prevention program backed by more than 18 years of research and more than 45 scientific publications. Students participating in Project Northland showed a 30% reduction in weekly drinking and a 20% reduction in monthly drinking. Research also shows that Project Northland can significantly reduce teen marijuana and tobacco use.

Project Toward No Drug Abuse (TND)
Project TND is a drug abuse prevention program that targets high school youth, ages 14 to 19. The program has proved successful when implemented in regular as well as alternative (continuation) high schools, with students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Developed by the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, TND was developed to stop or reduce drug usage, as well as provide accurate information regarding consequences of drug usage.

Say It Straight
Say It Straight Foundation is dedicated to research and training in prevention of high risk and destructive behaviors, promotion of wellness, enhancing treatment and sustained recovery, creating sustainable prevention communities and communication excellence in organizations. Say It Straight Foundation has trained many people in the United States and abroad to work with youth, caregivers, couples, families, communities and organizations in many settings, such as schools, addictions treatment, prison, faith community, and community service organizations. Trainers come from all walks of life and include teachers, counselors, nurses, administrators, prevention and treatment providers, community volunteers, therapists, physicians, social workers, police and probation officers, and ministers.

Skills For Life
Student Skills for Life is a group educational experience which serves as an intervention for youth experimenting with alcohol or other drugs; prevention for any adolescent or college-age population. The program provides experiential life skills training and may include parenting classes and referrals to drug & alcohol assessments when appropriate.

Beginning in the 2018-19 school year, public school students in grades six through twelve are required to receive instruction related to the prevention of opioid abuse, as mandated in Act 55 of 2017.

Alcohol Literacy Challenge
Based on 40 years of research reported in nearly 1,000 published studies, the Alcohol Literacy Challenge™ provides prevention lessons students love. Using cutting edge brain science & media literacy education about alcohol marketing and social media, the ALC is the 1st classroom-based alcohol prevention program provided to reduce underage and binge drinking in a single 50 to 90-minute lesson.

Be Cool
The BeCool Series teaching paradigm is based on Assertion Training. Your students will watch as their video peers hesitate and then model three different ways to respond to conflict: 1. Blowing up (HOT); 2. Giving up (COLD); 3. In Control (COOL). The negative consequences of the victim-like/passive response and the hot-head/aggressive response are then contrasted against positive outcomes of the assertive/COOL response.

Botvin Life Skills Training (LST)
Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST) is a research-validated substance abuse prevention program proven to reduce alcohol, tobacco, drug abuse, and violence by targeting the major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation of substance use and other risky behaviors. This comprehensive and exciting program provides adolescents and young teens with the confidence and skills necessary to successfully handle challenging situations.

Healthy Alternatives for Little Ones (HALO)
The HALO Program Guide and accessories offer fun and educational activities for children and child care professionals. Twelve units focus on strengthening the child’s sense of self, developing appropriate self esteem, recognizing and expressing feelings, understanding family roles, identifying body organs and learning the effects of healthy and harmful choices. These units present important information that is easily understood by young children. Activities supplied in each unit reinforce the unit themes. The HALO program is available in English and Spanish and can easily be used in any child care setting.

HOPE Curriculum (Ohio Department of Education)
The Health and Opioid Abuse Prevention Education (HOPE) Curriculum is a K-12 curriculum comprised of a series of lessons, assessments and learning materials to develop students' functional knowledge, attitudes, and skills to prevent drug abuse. The lessons are designed to be a part of a larger substance abuse prevention until within a school's health education curriculum.

The Media Straight Up Program
The PA Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs participated in the development of curricula to help young people make healthy choices in a media- and technology-rich society. For young people to thrive in a media- and technology-saturated society, teachers and caregivers must help students critically evaluate the information they receive from the mass media and learn how to reflect upon and analyze their media consumption choices.

Digital and media literacy emphasizes the skills of analyzing, evaluating, and creating digital and media messages. Digital and media literacy skills are basic, 21st-century literacy skills that everyone needs in order to navigate the world today. Digital and media literacy skills help students evaluate the quality and accuracy of what they watch, see, and read. The skills help them recognize how and why media messages appeal to us, sharpening our awareness of unstated but implied messages. In addition, digital and media literacy skills increase students' ability to select the media they consume more thoughtfully.

Michigan Model for Health
Michigan Model for Health is a nationally recognized, comprehensive, evidence-based curriculum for PreK to Grade 12 built around skills-based instruction. This program was developed in coordination with the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Operation Prevention
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Discovery Education have joined forces to combat a growing epidemic of prescription opioid misuse and heroin use nationwide. Operation Prevention's mission is to educate students about the true impacts of opioids and kick-start lifesaving conversations in the home and classroom.

Project ALERT
The Project ALERT curriculum was created and tested by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. Developed over a ten-year period, Project ALERT addresses the pro-drug mindset of today’s teens and effectively increases their likelihood to remain drug-free.

Project SUCCESS
Project SUCCESS’ methodology creates the social context needed for young adults’ development toward success, by combining time, support and access with program experiences offered through the arts, expeditions, and certificates. The curriculum is delivered in workshops conducted monthly for each student in every school in their English Language Arts classrooms, and is incorporated into each of the activities outside of class throughout the year — all facilitated by a trained, professional and diverse staff who stay with students as they move through grades, developing supportive relationships with students, their families and teachers along the way.

Project Towards No Tobacco Use (TNT)
Project TNT is composed of ten core lessons and two booster lessons, 40 to 50 minutes each. The ten core lessons are designed to occur over a two-week period, although they could be spread out over as long as four weeks on the condition that all lessons are taught. The booster lessons are designed to be taught one year after the core lessons. It is recommended that the booster lessons be delivered in a two-day sequence, although they could be taught one lesson per week.

The curriculum uses a wide variety of activities to encourage student involvement and participation. Activities include games, videos, role-plays, large and small group discussion, use of student worksheets, homework assignments, activism letter writing, and a videotaping project. The two-lesson booster program summarizes previously learned material and discusses how this material might be used in daily living.

Safe Kids: A Therapeutic and Educational Curriculum for Children of Addicts
This curriculum was developed to provide the field of social work with a therapeutic and educational tool to implement with children of addicts (COAs). The purpose of this curriculum is to provide COAs with much needed support and education, with the hope of ameliorating some of the negative effects of parental substance abuse.  The goals of this curriculum are to provide a safe, supportive environment in which COAs can share with one another; improve participants' knowledge of substance abuse and recovery; and assist participants identify skills that will help maintain their physical and emotional safety. To achieve these goals, the creators designed a comprehensive curriculum consisting of handouts, discussion topics, and expressive activities to use with children suffering the effects of parental substance abuse.

Second Step
Second Step provides instruction in social and emotional learning with units on skills for learning empathy, emotion management, friendship skills, and problem solving. The program contains separate sets of lessons for use in PreK through eighth grade implemented in 22 to 28 weeks each year. The Early Learning program in Second Step also includes a unit for transitioning to kindergarten. Second Step uses four key strategies to reinforce skill development: brain builder games (to build executive function), weekly theme activities, reinforcing activities, and home links. Teachers are encouraged to give children daily opportunities to practice. Second Step also connects new skills to other areas in the curriculum (e.g., literacy, arts, dramatic arts) and provides a structure for each day of the week. The first day contains a script and main lesson. The second day includes a story and discussion. The third and fourth days involve practice activities in small and large groups. On the fifth day students read a book connected to the overall unit theme, and teachers send home a “Home Link” activity that gives students an opportunity to practice new skills with their caregivers.

Too Good for Drugs (TGFD)
Too Good is a comprehensive family of evidence-based substance use and violence prevention interventions designed to mitigate the risk factors linked to problem behaviors and build protection within the child to resist problem behaviors. Too Good constructs a framework of social and emotional skills through the development of goal setting, decision-making, emotion management, and effective communication skills in addition to peer-pressure refusal, pro-social bonding, and conflict resolution skills. 

Too Good for Drugs & Violence
Too Good for Drugs and Violence High School program has lessons that foster analysis and discussion of the effects of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug (ATOD) use as well as prescription and over the counter (OTC) drug use and various nicotine delivery devices. Students also analyze the impact of social media on decision making, reaching goals, and self-identity. Students learn how to navigate the challenges of social and academic pressures like making responsible decisions, managing stress and anger, reflecting on personal relationships, and resolving conflicts. The lessons use collaborative and experiential learning strategies to help students practice the skills proven to prevent violence and other risky behaviors.

Generation RX
Generation RX website is a research-based resource hub that was developed by The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and the Cardinal Health Foundation.  They provide toolkits as supplemental educational resources for Alcohol and Other Drug education.

Positive Action
The Positive Action program is designed to promote a healthy self-concept and to establish positive actions for the body and mind. The program emphasizes effective self-management, social skills, character, and mental health, as well as skills for setting and achieving goals. The Positive Action classroom curriculum contains separate sets of lessons for use each year, from pre-k through twelfth grade. Each grade has approximately 140 sequenced lessons, all of which include a step-by-step script organized around a different theme. All content is based on a single fundamental philosophy: You feel good about yourself when you do positive actions (positive self- concept), and there is a positive way (positive actions) to do everything. Additional program components support classroom-wide, school-wide, family, and community involvement. Positive Action offers separate units for bullying prevention, drug education, conflict resolution, and promoting a positive school climate that can each be added to the core program.

Smart Moves, Smart Choices

Elementary schools and community organizations can begin educating children (grades K-5) and their caregivers about safe and proper use of over the -counter and prescription drugs. Smart Moves, Smart Choices is a website provided by the National Association of School Nurses to provide resources for caregivers, schools, and youth.

Support for provision of programs in schools varies throughout Pennsylvania. Programs can be provided by school personnel, drug and alcohol liaisons through the Single County Authority or through community partners. Partnering with the Student Assistance Program can provide additional resources and partnerships.

School Based Programs

D.A.R.E.
D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teach children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

Girl Power
Girl Power takes the needs and desires of every girl seriously so that we can provide programs and activities that create healthy, smart, strong and active girls. Girl Power's programs are developed to empower young girls to get more out of life. Established in 2000 by the World Literacy Crusade (WLC) of Florida - an international, nonprofit, community literacy program - Girl Power encourages young girls to build confidence, competence, and pride within themselves. We also provide workshops and materials that inform girls about the risks and consequences associated with substance abuse, low self-esteem, lack of education and more.

Girls Circle
Each user-friendly Activity Guide has a unique theme and is loaded with weeks of skill-building activities and discussions that build on protective factors and improve relationships in a format that interests and engage girls. Easily adaptable to your own unique setting.

Keep A Clear Mind (KACM)
Keep A Clear Mind is a parent-child, take-home program in drug education. It has been field-tested and rigorously evaluated with students in grades 4 through 6 6. Keep A Clear Mind has won the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's (CSAP) Exemplary Program Award, has been promoted as a Model Program by CSAP, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Keep A Clear Mind is listed on the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices. Evaluation papers concerned with Keep A Clear Mind have been presented at the meetings of a number of different scholarly/professional groups, and evaluation articles have been published in the Journal of School Health, the Journal of Drug Education, and the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education. This includes an independent evaluation project led by researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Keep A Clear Mind is also available in Spanish.  

Each child will receive four activity books (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, good choices), four student incentives (bumper sticker, bookmark, pencil, wristband), and five caregiver newsletters. Students take the activity books home, one per week, and do the program with their caregiver. They receive a student incentive (bumper sticker, bookmark, etc.) for showing their teacher that their caregiver has signed indicating they have worked with their child to complete the activity book. After four weeks of activity books the newsletters are sent home, again, one per week (or one every other week). The program is easy to use and takes almost no classroom time. Training is not required, and generally not needed, but is available if desired. In addition to the Keep A Clear Mind program, we can provide evaluation instruments and assistance with program evaluation.

Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence
Skills for Adolescence is rooted in the belief that young people who are prepared to meet adulthood by developing their character and having high expectations for positive behavior can take meaningful roles in addressing the issues that affect their lives, their communities, and the world.

Teen Intervene
Teen Intervene is designed as a comprehensive screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) model of care. Teenagers who have experienced mild to moderate problems associated with alcohol or drug use work one-to-one with an addiction treatment counselor to identify and, ultimately, change their choices and behaviors.

Community Based Programs

Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America
Across the country and locally, Big Brothers-Big Sisters is the gold standard for mentoring. The program is both different and successful because Big Brothers Big Sisters provides a Match Support Specialist for each match in its program. The matches are effective because professional staff ensure that the match relationships are safe, rewarding, and reach their fullest potential. Big Brothers-Big Sisters knows that children matched in relationships that last more than one year have the most positive outcomes. Their match length average is three years, well above the national average.

The Council for Boys and Young Men
The Council for Boys and Young Men is a strengths-based group model for youth ages 9-18 that addresses risk factors and empowers boys and young men to find belonging, build skills, and deconstruct harmful masculinity beliefs on their journey toward becoming respectful leaders and connected allies in their community.

Girls on the Run
The 10-week Girls on the Run after-school program is designed to inspire girls of all abilities to recognize and embrace their inner strength. Lessons emphasize the important connection between physical and emotional health. At the end of the program, girls participate in a 5K, which provides a tangible sense of accomplishment, setting a confident and goal-oriented mindset into motion.