School-Based Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion Education

Our school-based Sub­stance Use Pre­ven­tion and Edu­ca­tion pro­grams seek to reduce alco­hol and non-med­ical pre­scrip­tion drug use rates of 8^th to 12^th graders in Schaum­burg, Pala­tine, and Elk Grove Town­ship. This is accom­plished through:

• Imple­ment­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion campaigns
• Imple­ment­ing evi­­dence-based pre­ven­tion education
• Advo­cat­ing for school par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Illi­nois Youth Survey
• Pro­mot­ing Drug Take-Back programs
• Cre­at­ing Nation­al Pre­ven­tion Week activities
• Pro­vid­ing an after­school pro­gram at Dis­trict 59

In-School Pre­ven­tion Education

We pro­vide evi­dence based cur­ri­clums like Too Goo for Drugs to local mid­dle and high schools. Too Good for Drugs is a 10 les­son pro­gram designed to increase youth’s pro­tec­tive fac­tors relat­ed to sub­stances use. Stu­dents will enhance their social emo­tion­al learn­ing skills and takes a sci­ence approach to dis­cussing the harms sub­stance use can cause on the devel­op­ing brain and body of adolec­s­cents. Learn more about the pro­gram at too​good​pro​gram​.org

Alco­hol Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Campaigns

With a goal to reduce alco­hol use rates of 9^th and 12^th graders, the local­ly designed alco­hol com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paigns use social norm­ing as a strat­e­gy to deliv­er sub­stance use pre­ven­tion mes­sag­ing. Using pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als and col­lab­o­rat­ing with our local Youth Advi­so­ry Coun­cil a local cam­paign is cre­at­ed every year and deliv­ered to our local high schools to pro­vide an on-going tar­get­ed alco­hol pre­ven­tion campaign.

Vape Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Campaigns

The state-designed Vap­ing Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Cam­paigns seek to reduce youth vap­ing rates in 6^th-8^th graders. Among oth­er evi­dence-based strate­gies, the effec­tive­ness of the cam­paign is mea­sured using infor­ma­tion obtained from the Illi­nois Youth Sur­vey (IYS).

Teen Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Edu­ca­tion, Achieve­ment, Car­ing, and Hope (REACH)

Teen REACH (Respon­si­bil­i­ty, Edu­ca­tion, Achieve­ment, Car­ing, and Hope) is a com­pre­hen­sive youth devel­op­ment ini­tia­tive that pro­vides after-school pro­gram ser­vices to high-risk youth between the ages of 10 – 13 with at least one IDHS-des­ig­­nat­ed risk fac­tor. We have a pri­ma­ry goal to pro­vide a safe envi­ron­ment with car­ing adult role mod­els that will work with youth to increase aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and devel­op the life skills nec­es­sary for future success.

In-school Sub­stance Use Diver­sion Program

The in-school Sub­stance Use Diver­sion pro­gram works with schools to pro­vide alter­na­tive restora­tive prac­tices to those who are found using sub­stances on cam­pus. The pro­gram includes manda­to­ry week­ly meet­ings to learn about cop­ing with urges and oth­er recov­ery tools. For many youth, this is their first intro­duc­tion to recov­ery and a life free of substances. 

If you are inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about this pro­gram, email recoveryresources@​kennethyoung.​org