• The Community Alliance submits grant proposals to Department of Mental Health, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse each year.  This year's grant allow us to offer two outstanding parenting classes to our families with very reduced registration fee.

    Guiding Good Choices is for parents of 4th-7th graders. 
    This award winning curriculum has proven to make a difference in your child's ability to make healthy choices through their teen years.  It has been used with over 120,000 families and is a model program.  We will offer this 5 session class once in the fall and once in the spring during the evening.  The teachers for the Fall class are Katie Monteil, Family Center Parent Educator/Counselor and Janelle Holyan, Family Center Parent Educator.

    This award-winning curriculum has proven to make a difference in your child's ability to make healthy choices through their teen years.  Our parents of 4th-8th graders report their family rules are clearer, they learned effective prevention skills and resources to help their kids resist alcohol and other drug use, and felt more bonded as a family.

    ⇒    In a 4-year follow-up study, the Guiding Good Choices program was shown to reduce current alcohol use by 40.6% and significantly reduce the rates of initiation for marijuana and drunkenness. In other clinical studies, the Guiding Good Choices program has been shown to significantly slow the typical rate at which multiple substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) increases during adolescence.

    ⇒    In a randomized clinical trial, the program was found to significantly reduce the rate at which adolescents develop depression. For one of the symptoms of depression -- feelings of worthlessness and inferiority -- risk reduction was as high as 28%. The program was also found to significantly slow the typical rate at which multiple substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) increases during adolescence.  Source: The original studies were published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

    ⇒  Guiding Good Choices is NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED:
    • Model Program (the highest possible rating) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
    • Perfect score -- program materials, SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
    • Near perfect score ñ dissemination, 3.5 points out of 4 in SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
    • Model program (the highest possible rating) National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
    • Exemplary 1 Program (the highest possible rating) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
    • Promising Program, Department of Education's Expert Panel, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program
    • Promising Program, University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
    • Research-based program with positive results, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
    • Best Practice, Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT)

    Staying Connected with Your Teen for parents of 7th-12th Graders
    Staying Connected with your Teen is for parents of 7th-12th graders.  This is a proven-effective, research-based, model program that shows parents how to improve their family management practices and strengthen the bond with their teen(s), resulting in substance abuse prevention, violence prevention, and positive character development.   Parents can use the materials at home and join in two group discussions held in the evening.  The group discussions this fall are facilitated by Janelle Holyan, Family Center Parent Educator and Anne Wilding, Director of the Community Alliance.

    This proven-effective, science-based series of video- and workshop-based modules gets parents and teens working together to enhance communication and family management practices and decrease conflict.  In a controlled study of the Staying Connected with Your Teen program, participant families have shown statistically significant improvement in family discipline practices, supervision skills, and bonding, and significantly reduced family attitudes favorable to antisocial behaviors.

    ⇒    The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has rated the Staying Connected with Your Teen program as a Title V Exemplary Program, and an Effective Model Program in reducing:
    • Favorable attitudes about substance abuse
    • Initiation of substance abuse or sex
    • Violent behavior.
    ⇒    Is recognized as a Best Practice by The Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT)

    ⇒    It is recognized as a Model Program by Strengthening America's Families

    ⇒    Research has shown the self-administered version of the program to be effective in reaching and positively impacting behaviors of families who are unlikely to attend regularly scheduled group meetings due to busy schedules or reluctance to discuss family issues in www.claytonschools.net/site/default.aspx?domainid=588 is the source for the research and recognitions listed.)