Improbable Players (IP) has been creating applied theatre for substance use disorder prevention since 1984, training more than 200 sober actor/teaching artists to perform plays and facilitate workshops addressing addiction, alcoholism, and the opioid crisis. The company operates, for its actors, as a long-term arts- integrated peer recovery…

Financial education has been criticised for its limited effect on behaviour. To explore ways of improving behaviour in managing personal finances, interpretive methodology and an intervention were used in five financial education courses in Estonia. It was hypothesised that applying behavioural insights into the design of financial education helps…

Objectives: The first 2 weeks following release from prison are associated with extraordinary risk of fatal drug overdose. However, bystanders can reverse opioid overdoses using rescue breathing and naloxone, an overdose antidote. We reviewed overdose prevention and naloxone administration training videos for incarceration specific and behaviour…

This paper presents findings of a feasibility study to adapt and evaluate the impact of an evidence-based HIV prevention intervention on sexual risk behaviors of in-school 6th grade youth in post-conflict Liberia (n = 812). The study used an attention-matched, group randomized controlled trial. Four matched pairs of elementary/middle schools in…

Athletes can be involved as role models and leaders--in collaboration with coaches and other staff--to enhance life skills and prevent substance use among their peers. "Drugs in Sport" is a peer education program involving collegiate athletes visiting middle schools to speak with school children. This article discusses the structure of the Drugs…

Theater has been used as an educational tool since the Great Depression era, and it is currently considered an effective tool for health promotion and reducing risk-taking behaviors among youth. Theater projects are well suited for communicating prevention messages to youth audiences because they can depict real-life settings and characters who…

Our study focused on strengthening the individual self-efficacy of low achieving 8th graders reducing drug-specific peer pressure through theoretical and practical training. The subject of the intervention was based on a substance-specific life skills program offering both teacher-centered and student-centered teaching approaches. A cluster…

Objectives: By participating in this Stop the Tears teaching strategy, students will be able to: (1) analyze how alcohol and drug abuse could affect their lives as well as the lives of their friends and family and, (2) create a media message, such as a poster, pamphlet, poem, or song, in which alcohol and drug prevention is advocated specific to…

Health educators need to assist students in becoming more effective peer educators so that they can provide accurate information and advice concerning health and safety behavior to their peers. An effective peer education technique is role modeling, in which a peer imitates the meritorious behavior of the peer educator. (JN)

The New DARE middle school program, Take Charge of Your Life, has reinvented DARE as part of a major national research study that promises to help teachers and administrators address the issues of drugs and school violence. Gone is the old-style approach to prevention in which an officer stands behind a podium and lectures students in straight…

High-profile cases have made the public aware of the horrific consequences of bullying and school violence and have left educators wondering whether schools are safe places for students and staff alike. According to an Angus Reid poll conducted by telephone in March-April, 1999, among a representative cross-section of 894 Canadian teens between 12…

Describes the Seventh Grade Tobacco Prevention (S.T.E.P.) program, evaluating its impact on adolescent tobacco use, tobacco knowledge, and beliefs about tobacco use. Results revealed that same-age peers had the least effect in changing the students' knowledge level, had a negative effect on changing students' beliefs, and had a negative effect on…

"Too Good for Drugs"[TM] is designed to promote life skills, character values, resistance skills to negative peer influence, and resistance to the use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The program, which targets elementary and middle school students, is based on classroom discussions and structured activities that center on…

The PRISE (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curriculum was designed to prevent alcohol and other drug use among the special education population in kindergarten through high school, by involving students in classroom activities that will increase their personal resiliency while encouraging them to make healthy, informed decisions. The…

As the focus on school improvement at a state education agency moves from mostly a compliance approach to playing a greater role in capacity building, the agency's leadership needs to rethink student and learning supports. That is the focus of this report. Given that almost half of the chief state school officers have assumed their position in the…