Over the past 20 years, the implementation of PROSPER with middle school students and their families has been shown to significantly reduce substance use and other problem behaviors while improving family relationships.

Because youth mental health has become a serious concern in recent years, our community partners have asked us to add components to PROSPER that specifically address mental health and the use of social media and mobile devices.

With this project, we are implementing these prevention programs with our PROSPER partners in three Pennsylvania school districts:

Mental Health First Aid: An 8-hour training program that teaches adults how to identify, understand, and respond to symptoms of mental health challenges.

Social Media Test Drive: Online training in digital citizenship and online safety designed for new social media users or those who are likely to enter into the social media world in the near future.

Family-based programming

Guiding Good Choices: An evidence-based, 5-session program that emphasizes strong family bonds as the key for youth following family guidelines and paving the way for better health and related outcomes in their futures. Five sessions for caregivers; youth attend one session.

In-school programming

Too Good for Drugs: A substance misuse prevention program designed to mitigate the risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. All sixth and seventh graders in participating districts will attend.

Statewide online learning communities

We will also offer two webinars per year to provide awareness and professional development for stakeholders in rural Pennsylvania communities who are involved in prevention and positive youth development.