Programs That Make
A Difference

Our Goal

Students will benefit tremendously from the positive messages of our age-specific programs.

Smiling teacher at front of classroom point to student with hand raised

Model Programs

Each year, the trained prevention specialists of Preventionfocus serve over 5,000 elementary, middle, and high school students through multi-session model curriculum based programs – including “Too Good for Violence,” “Too Good for Drugs,” and SPORT. These programs cover a range of topics such as empathy, communication, conflict resolution, building relationships, decision-making, self-esteem, and information on alcohol and other drugs and are all listed on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). In addition, hundreds of adults are encouraged to increase their ability to manage stress through the workplace program “Team Awareness: Resilience and Thriving.”

Workshops & Presentations

Preventionfocus provides workshops and presentations on many topics from basic drug information to problem gambling to gang prevention. Our staff has also been trained to facilitate several suicide prevention programs including “Lifelines,” “ASIST,” “QPR,” “SafeTALK,” and “Sources of Strength.” Additional workshops on topics like anger management, reducing stress, healthy relationships, and parent-child communication are scheduled periodically and can be provided on request. (Some require fees.)

Supper Club Program

Preparing and sharing meals can help people to converse more freely. That’s why food preparation is central to several Preventionfocus programs. Around 50 adolescent girls complete Supper Club every year. This ten-session program, facilitated in schools and community centers, allows middle and high school girls the chance to learn to plan and cook meals from scratch with nutrition and budgeting in mind while strengthening communication and friendship-making skills. Similar programs can be customized for males, co-ed groups, and special populations.

LEARN MORE

“From Kindergarten to Adulthood, we’re giving people the skills and info they need to make safe & healthier choices with the goal of preventing harmful decisions.”

Applauding Our Programs

“The Preventionfocus program is comprehensive and age appropriate. The instructors and program leaders are experts in interacting with the target age groups and it shows. Our students have benefited tremendously from the positive messages of the programs. They are a huge asset for us!”

Kurt Holme

City Honors High School, Buffalo, NY

Full class of second graders watching teacher at front of room

African American teacher interacting with group of third grade students putting on a skit

Model Programs That Make a Difference

Team Awareness: Resilience and Thriving

Team Awareness is a workplace-training program that addresses behavioral risks associated with substance abuse among employees, their coworkers and, indirectly, their families. This program has been shown to increase employee help-seeking for and supervisor responsiveness to, troubled workers, enhance the work climate, and reduce problem drinking. These results are achieved by — promoting social health, increasing communication between workers, improving knowledge and attitudes toward alcohol- and drug-related protective factors in the workplace, and increasing peer referral behaviors.

Team Awareness is highly interactive and uses group discussion, communication exercises, games, and self-assessments. The Resilience and Thriving module covers six domains in which stress can be identified and then better managed. Team Awareness is the first program to be recognized as a workplace-based Model Prevention program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

SPORT Prevention Plus Wellness

SPORT Prevention Plus Wellness, a motivational intervention designed for use by all adolescents, integrates substance abuse prevention with health promotion to help adolescents minimize and avoid substance use while increasing physical activity and other health-enhancing habits, including eating well and getting adequate sleep. SPORT is based on the Behavior-Image Model, which asserts that social and self-images are key motivators for the development of healthy behavior. The intervention promotes the benefits of an active lifestyle with positive images of youth as active and fit, and emphasizes that substance use is counterproductive in achieving positive image and behavior goals.

Adolescents participating in SPORT complete a short, self-administered health behavior screen measuring physical activity and sport behaviors and norms, healthy nutrition, sleep, and alcohol use. Participants receive a booklet and a consultation that follows a written script and complete a simple fitness prescription goal plan intended to encourage positive behavior and image change. The program can be facilitated one-on-one, in small groups, or for full classrooms.

Too Good For Drugs

Skill development is at the core of Too Good for Drugs, a universal prevention program designed to mitigate the risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use. The program introduces and develops social and emotional skills for making healthy choices, building positive friendships, communicating effectively, and resisting peer pressure.

Too Good for Drugs teaches five essential social and emotional learning skills, which research has linked with healthy development and academic success:

Goal Setting
Decision Making
Bonding with pro-social others
Identifying and managing emotions
Communicating effectively

Too Good for Drugs in Middle School empowers teens to meet the challenges of middle school life, fostering confidence and building resistance to substance abuse. In Middle School, the students set and reach more complex goals and, in the process, develop and practice strong decision-making skills and effective-communication skills.

Students also learn to identify and manage their emotions and the emotions of others so they can better relate to others and associate with positive peer groups. Too Good for Drugs Middle School addresses environmental and developmental risk factors related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, through the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes teens need to make healthy decisions and avoid drug use. Drug topics are discussed in the context of expectations, peer pressure and influence, and the role of the media. In particular, more complex social challenges and influences that present a greater risk for escapism and risky behavior are explored and met with strategies for managing those situations in a positive and healthy way. Interactive games and activities create an experiential learning environment so students can learn and apply the skills in the classroom setting.

Additional skills and developmental topics build on the core social skill set to broaden the student’s sense of self-efficacy and confidence and are tailored to the intellectual, cognitive, and social development of the student.

Media Literacy and Media Influence
Resisting Peer Pressure
Understanding Peer Influence
Understanding Addiction
Complex Social and Dating Relationships
Exploring Risk Taking and Differentiating Healthy and Unhealthy Risks

Substance use and its effect on the body are also introduced when it is developmentally appropriate to do so. More complex discussions are introduced at the Middle School level and progress in depth as the students mature.

Safe Use of Prescription and OTC drugs – Grades 7 and 8
Effects of Tobacco Use – Grades 6-8
Effects of Alcohol Use – Grades 6-8
Effects of Marijuana Use – Grade 6-8
Effects of Street Drugs including Opioids and Stimulants – Grades 6-8

Too Good For Violence K-4

Too Good for Violence (TGFV) K–4 is a school- and community-based prevention program that targets all students in kindergarten through fifth grade. TGFV K–4 builds skills sequentially, providing developmentally appropriate curricula at each grade level. TGFV is designed to build self-efficacy, social competency, and problem-solving skills that lead to helping students 1) handle their emotions; 2) deal with disagreements, conflicts, and bullying; and 3) reduce risk-taking behaviors such as the use of verbal and physical aggression.

At each grade level, TGFV delivers lessons relating to goal setting; decision making; identifying and managing emotions; communicating effectively; bonding with prosocial others; respecting oneself and others; normative behaviors; strategies for dealing with peer pressure, conflict resolution, anger management, and bullying prevention; and learning about the harmful consequences of aggressive and violent behaviors.

Students at each grade level receive seven to ten, 30-minute to 45-minute lessons covering these topics. Each lesson uses interactive teaching methods that encourage students to bond with prosocial peers and engage them through role play, cooperative learning, games, small group activities, and class discussions. Students receive many opportunities to participate and receive reinforcement for their involvement.

In addition, students’ families are encouraged to participate in a family component. Each lesson includes a Home Workout activity set for parents/caregivers to complete with their child. These activities introduce the concepts taught in the curriculum and provide additional practice activities and guidance for parents/caregivers to model and reinforce the skill development and learning. Preventionfocus provides Too Good for Violence in grades K-3.

“Participants learn empathy, problem solving and peaceful conflict resolution in the Too Good for Violence program.”

“From substance abuse prevention programs to mental health promotional programs, Preventionfocus services schools and communities in Erie County.”

Our Government Partners and Collaborators