Juvenile Justice Teleconference Website

Preventing Drug Abuse Among Youth

June 1997

Broadcast Overview
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announced it latest upcoming satellite teleconference "Preventing Drug Abuse Among
Youth."

The teleconference will feature three proven community-based, family strengthening, and school-based initiatives that are being implemented to empower young people to avoid drug use.

The Life Skills Training Program is a universal classroom program designed by Dr. Gilbert Botvin, Cornell University Medical Center, to address a wide range of risk and protective factors by teaching general personal and social skills in combination with drug resistance skills and normative education. This program has been extensively studied over the past 16 years and results indicate that the approach can reduce tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by 59 to 75 percent. Life Skills Training Program is currently operating in schools in New York City.
The Strengthening Families Program is a selective prevention program. This multicomponent, family-focused program provides prevention programming for 6- to 10- year-old children of substance abusers. The program began as an effort to help substance-abusing parents improve their parenting skills and reduce their children's risk factors. The program has been culturally modified and found effective through independent evaluation with African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic families. The teleconference will highlight the Strengthening Families Program in Denver, Colorado.
San Bernardino Communities Against Drugs, Inc., a coalition of community and school groups that has successfully mobilized and attacked their local drug problem, will also be featured.

General Barry McCaffrey, Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy, will provide introductory comments for a panel featuring Shay Bilchik, Administrator, OJJDP; Dr. Alan L. Leshner, Director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse; and leaders from the above highlighted programs. Mathea
Falco, a noted drug abuse policy analyst, is expected to participate on the panel. The viewing audience will have ample opportunity to interact throughout
the broadcast through their telephones questions and comments.

The Juvenile Justice Teleconference Website
email: ekujjtap@aol.com
For More information, please contact:
Jenny McWilliams at 859-622-6671