Our Programs

1. Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol
   Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) is a community-organizing program designed to reduce adolescent (13 to 20 years old) access to alcohol by changing community policies and practices. Initiated in 1991, CMCA has proven that effectively limiting the access to alcohol to people under the legal drinking age not only directly reduces teen drinking, but also communicates a clear message to the community that underage drinking is inappropriate and unacceptable.

   CMCA employs a range of social organizing techniques to address legal, institutional, social, and health issues in order to reduce youth alcohol use by eliminating illegal alcohol sales to youth by retailers and obstructing the provision of alcohol to youth by adults.

2. Strengthening Families Program
   The Strengthening Families Program I (SFP-I) involves elementary school aged children (6 to 12 years old) and their families in family skills training sessions. SFP uses family systems and cognitive-behavioral approaches to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems. It builds on protective factors by:
   • Improving family relationships
   • Improving parenting skills
   • Increasing the youth's social and life skills
   SFP offers incentives for attendance, good behavior in children, and homework completion to increase program recruitment and participation.

3. Life skills Training
   LifeSkills Training (LST) is a program that seeks to influence major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation and early use of substances. LifeSkills has distinct elementary (8 to 11 years old) and middle school (11 to 14 years old) curricula that are delivered in a series of classroom sessions over 3 years. The sessions use lecture, discussion, coaching, and practice to enhance students' self-esteem, feelings of self-efficacy, ability to make decisions, and ability to resist peer and media pressure.

   LST consists of three major components that address critical domains found to promote substance use. Research has shown that students who develop skills in these three domains are far less likely to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors. The three components each focus on a different set of skills:

   • Drug Resistance Skills enable young people to recognize and challenge common misconceptions about substance use, as well as deal with peers and media pressure to engage in substance use.
   • Personal Self-Management Skills help students to examine their self-image and its effects on behavior, set goals and keep track of personal progress, identify everyday decisions and how they may be influenced by others, analyze problem situations, and consider the consequences of alternative solutions before making decisions.
   • General Social Skills give students the necessary skills to overcome shyness, communicate effectively and avoid misunderstandings, use both verbal and nonverbal assertiveness skills to make or refuse requests, and recognize that they have choices other than aggression or passivity when faced with tough situations.
4. Students Managing Anger and Resolution Together Team
   an eight-module, multimedia software program designed to teach violence prevention messages and methods to students in grades six through nine (11 to 15 years old). The program’s content fits well with commonly used conflict-mediation curricula and other violence prevention strategies schools may implement. Operation is straightforward, so students can access the modules independently for information, skill-building practice, or to resolve a conflict. This independence eliminates the need for trained adult implementers.

5. Leadership & Resiliency Program
   The Leadership and Resiliency Program (LRP) is a school- and community-based program for high school students (14 to 17 years of age) that works to enhance youths' internal strengths and resiliency, while preventing involvement in substance use and violence. Program components include:
   • Resiliency Groups held at least weekly during the school day
   • Alternative Adventure Activities that include ropes courses, white water kayaking, camping, and hiking trips
   • Community Service in which participants are active in a number of community- and school-focused projects
   These alternative activities, offered after school, on weekends, and during the summer, focus on community service, altruism, learning about managed risk, social skills improvement, and conflict resolution.