Prevention Works!

CSAP Launches New Training Initiative

This spring, SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention launched the Parenting IS Prevention (PIP) Training Initiative to help communities get parents more involved in preventing youth substance abuse. Research has shown that parents and adult caregivers play a key role in children’s decisions about drug use. Through a series of regional and local workshops, PIP is training the prevention professionals as well as others to initiate more parent education efforts by recruiting and motivating parent volunteers. In turn, these parents will reach out to others and begin to form community groups that can create change at the grass-roots level.

PIP’s Main Goals

This new training effort is the result of interviews and focus group findings from substance abuse and mental health agencies, social service and civic groups, and participants in parenting programs. In response to suggestions from the field, CSAP developed two primary goals for PIP:

• Increase awareness of existing parent-focused curricula. PIP aims to make more organizations aware of the many successful parenting programs that are already available. Trainees can then implement these programs regionally and locally to reach large audiences.
• Help participants target their programs. One parenting strategy does not apply to all communities; therefore, the workshop does not teach one parent program. Rather, the workshops help trainees to identify successful prevention programs and match their curricula to specific cultural and community needs.

The PIP Curriculum

Trainers with expertise in parenting and substance abuse prevention facilitate the PIP workshops, devoting two days to a set curriculum and reserving a third for skills practice and review. The curriculum progresses from an overview of the correlation between family life and children’s drug use to sessions highlighting science-based strategies for educating and mobilizing parents. For example, one session focuses on research findings related to the influence of parents and family on adolescents’ later substance abuse. The session also demonstrates how diverse cultural beliefs and traditions affect parenting, family life, and substance abuse patterns. In another session, workshop leaders discuss parenting curricula and share materials that participants might use with families in their own communities.

This training is also highly interactive, combining lectures and presentations with discussions, small-group exercises, and activities that help participants develop concrete plans for their communities. For example, the session on parent and community mobilization includes case studies in which parents organize to create better environments for their children. Small groups identify issues they will face in targeting, organizing, and mobilizing parents in similar situations. In the final PIP session, participants identify next steps for applying the training.

Workshop Schedule

Workshops have already been held in Kansas City, MO, the Baltimore/Washington area, and in Hartford, CT (Northeast region). Upcoming workshops include:

• July 9-11: Western region - Seattle, WA
• August 13-15: Southwest region - Albuquerque, NM
• September 17-19: Midwest region - Minneapolis, MN
• October 15-17: Southeast region - Nashville, TN

CSAP is currently planning fifteen local collaborative workshops, which will begin in the fall and continue through the beginning of next year.

For more information about the training, contact Gwyndolyn Ensley, CSAP (301-443-0581).

To receive a complimentary copy of this PreventionAlert, call SAMSHA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) @ 1-800-729-6686, TDD 1-800-487-4889 (for the hearing impaired.) PREVENTIONAlert is supported by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and may be copied without permission with appropriate citation. For information about PREVENTIONAlert, please contact CSAP by phone (301) 443-0581 or e-mail gensley@samhsa.gov

Return to Table of Contents for Volume I
Return to Table of Contents for Volume II
Return to Top of Page