Prevention Works!

Resources Highlight Activities and Help Adults Make a Difference for Youth

Reader's Digest Spreads the Word About Youth Activities

The October 1998 issue of Reader's Digest features a special eight-page advertising section promoting SAMHSA/CSAP's Your Time--Their Future Campaign. Combining vivid photographs and compelling text, the supplement educates readers about the role that structured, adult-led activities can play in developing young people's self-esteem, a variety of social skills, and sense of responsibility--all of which make them more likely to make healthy choices and less likely to use drugs or alcohol. It describes the rationale behind the Campaign and urges adults to get involved in youth-oriented activities. The supplement also highlights the compelling evidence provided by a recent study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, which indicated that mentors can make a measurable difference in preventing young people's alcohol and drug use, truancy, and violence.

Adults Can Choose Resources Appropriate for Youth

Community activists, prevention professionals, and concerned adults interested in providing structured activities for young people are also likely to find helpful information in SAMHSA/CSAP's 42-page Substance Abuse Resource Guide: Positive Youth Activities. Supporting the aims of the Your Time--Their Future Campaign, the resource guide emphasizes how adults can help prevent youth substance abuse by offering them opportunities to participate in athletics, arts and crafts, camping, outdoor education, community service, mentoring programs, and other activities.

The guide points readers to resources that both indicate the real impact of positive activities and suggest ways to implement this approach to substance abuse prevention. They include:

• Prevention Materials: a list of materials that can help planners duplicate successful programs, all of which feature a strong mentoring component. Each listing provides a brief description of the program, its target audience, availability, and contact information.

• Studies, Articles, and Reports: a body of literature including journal articles and research reports on the findings of studies that evaluate the effectiveness of positive activities, as well as videotapes and manuals that suggest how to use specific programs. Each listing includes a brief description of the resource and its availability.

• Groups, Organizations, and Programs: a directory of more than 50 national organizations that sponsor activities for young people.

• National Prevention Groups: contact information for groups devoted to substance abuse prevention, such as Al-Anon/Alateen, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, the National Association of Teen Institutes, and 15 others.

  Each of these sections is designed to be wide-ranging enough to meet the requirements of a diverse audience. Adults can choose those resources that best meet the needs of the young people with whom they are working--which often vary in terms of culture and ethnicity, economic background, geographic location, physical ability, gender, and age.

  The resource guide is available from SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) at 1-800-729-6686 (TDD: 1-800-487-4889) or http://ncadi.samhsa.gov. SAMHSA encourages readers to photocopy the guide as needed for their purposes.

  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

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