Reconnecting Youth: Replication of an Indicated Prevention Program in Multicultural Settings

U.S. Department of Education: 1997-2000

• Dr. Leona L. Eggert (PI)
• Dr. Jerald R. Herting
• Dr. Brooke P. Randell
• Dr. Elaine A. Thompson

• Dr. Elizabeth McCauley - Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Children's Hospital and Medical Center
  

The central goal of this project is to replicate the Reconnecting Youth (RY) indicated prevention program in the Seattle Public School District. The results will assess RY as an effective indicated prevention program in large urban school districts with diverse ethnic populations. The prevention program targets youth at risk of school failure and the co-occurring problems associated with their high-risk status.

• An RY class, which is a high school class combining support and life skills training approaches. It is a semester-long course (90 days) that meets daily for 55 minutes, is taken for credit, and is graded (A-F or satisfactory/unsatisfactory). The RY class incorporates social support and life skills training to enhance the following:
• self esteem,
• decision-making,
• personal control, and
• interpersonal communication.
• Social Activities and School Bonding to establish drug-free social activities and friendships, as well as improving a teen's relationship to school
• Norm setting to establish clear anti-drug use/violence policies and expectations, as well as establishing the norms that "problems are an opportunity for growth" and doing "school smarts" pays off
• School System Crisis Response Plan for addressing suicide prevention approaches