Expanding Substance Use Prevention and Early Intervention in Schools: A Toolkit
This toolkit provides information and resources to expand school-based services for substance use prevention and early intervention – including through Project Amp, a peer-delivered model being implemented in schools across the country.
The toolkit includes three sets of resources:
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Resources on expansion strategies and building advocacy campaigns, including pathways toward statewide expansion, and guides for leveraging funding from the Every Student Succeeds Act and federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
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Advocacy resources for engaging stakeholders, including FAQs on youth Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), fact sheets on the link between youth substance use and academic achievement, information on financing strategies and training resources for school personnel, and a summary of the evidence-base for youth SBIRT.
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Advancing Project Amp, a Youth Peer-Delivered Model, including resources on funding Project Amp, Project Amp and COVID-19, and promoting Project Amp with different stakeholders: recovery community organizations, schools and school-based health centers, and state substance use service agencies.
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Tapping COVID Relief Funds to Improve Youth Behavioral Health
This resource provides information about the federal COVID-19 relief funding streams, decision makers on the state and local level, and advocacy strategies to influence their use. It aims to help advocates leverage these opportunities to strengthen substance use and mental health systems and invest in young people.
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Winning Statewide Expansion of Universal Substance Use Prevention in Schools: A Pathway and Successful State Strategies
This resource outlines a pathway for the statewide expansion of universal substance use prevention in schools, and is designed to support organizations with varying levels of advocacy capacity and experience. The pathway and strategies described are informed by six state advocacy campaigns that Community Catalyst has supported as part of our Power of Prevention initiative.
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Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act for Substance Use Prevention to Improve Young People’s Lives
This tool explains how key activities and requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act can be used to expand substance use prevention and early intervention services in schools. The resource offers specific advocacy strategies to advance this work.
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Integrating Substance Use Prevention into the Every Student Succeeds Act: A Step-by-Step Guide for Advocates
This guide is designed to help advocates build a successful issue campaign to promote the integration of substance use prevention and early intervention services into ESSA activities.
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Massachusetts Provides a Model for Addressing Students’ Risky Substance Use
This state spotlight provides information on the 2016 Massachusetts legislation that expanded youth SBIRT to all public middle and high schools across the state.
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Youth Substance Misuse and Academic Performance: The Case for Intervention
This fact sheet provides an overview of the links between substance use, chronic absenteeism and academic achievement. It also offers actions schools can take to better support students and improve academic performance.
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What is Youth SBIRT?
This one pager offers a brief overview of each component of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment.
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According to Youth: Best Practices for School-Based Substance Use Services
This resource was created by Community Catalyst's staff and its Youth Advisory Board to help school personnel develop an SBIRT program informed by and responsive to the experiences of youth with mental illness and substance use.
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SBIRT Frequently Asked Questions
This resource addresses common questions people have about SBIRT, including how the screening and brief interventions are conducted, the average number of referrals to treatment, confidentiality concerns, where SBIRT is being implemented across the county and strategies for bringing SBIRT to your community.
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The Evidence Base for school-based SBIRT
This chart summarizes studies of the effectiveness of school-based SBIRT.
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Funding Youth SBIRT
This financing guide highlights opportunities to fund SBIRT in public schools and medical settings.
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Training Resources for the Implementation of SBIRT with Young People
This one pager highlights training opportunities and toolkits schools and organizations can use to prepare staff and providers to implement SBIRT with young people.
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Responding to COVID-19: Project Amp Can Help Students
This brief summarizes how COVID-19 is increasing youth mental illness and substance use and explains how Project Amp can help.
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Project Amp: A Resource to Improve Academic Outcomes.
In addition to improving student health and wellness, Project Amp also helps schools improve student academic achievement and meet key performance indicators.
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Project Amp: Expanding the Community of Recovery
With Project Amp, Recovery Community Organizations can develop new partnerships with schools and community-based organizations, and work to prevent addiction before it starts.
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Implementing Project Amp in School-Based Health Centers to Enhance Youth Substance Use Prevention and Early Intervention Services
Project Amp can help school-based health centers enhance existing substance use prevention and early intervention services, close service gaps, and reduce substance use among adolescents.
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Financing Project Amp Implementation in Schools and School-Based Health Centers.
This brief describes funding streams that schools and states can use to invest in Project Amp.
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Integrating Project Amp into States’ Adolescent Prevention and Early Intervention Initiatives.
This resource explains how Project Amp can advance the goals of state behavioral health agencies and offers an example from Massachusetts.