Evidence-Based Practices (EBP’s) are practices or service models which have been independently evaluated and are proven to be effective at achieving their stated goals. The EBP’s chosen by NJ4S-Essex have all been evaluated and proven effective with students and parents from the diverse racial and cultural identities in our high need school districts.
ANTI-BULLYING/VIOLENCE PREVENTION GROUPS
- Aggression Replacement Training (ART): This group for 6th-12th grade students is a cognitive behavioral intervention for reduction of aggressive and violent behavior. There are three components: social skills, support for anger control and moral reasoning. Can be delivered in separate modules for 10 weeks or consecutively for 30 weeks.
- The Council for Boys and Young Men: This group is for young men in 6th-12th grades examines messages that are sent to males today, allows different options for self-expression and team experiences, and aids in building their own unique skill set. The boys will be engaged through discussions and interactive activities on competition, bullying, diversity, feelings, role models, violence, relationships, and decision-making. 10+ sessions.
- Project Toward No Drug Abuse: This high school prevention program focuses students’ motivation, skills, and decision-making to decrease substance use and violence-related behaviors. 12 sessions.
- S.S. GRIN A (Social Skills Group Intervention for Adolescents): This group for 6th -12th grade students helps support the development of healthy self-esteem and positive character traits. The group allows students to practice coping strategies for dealing with social conflict and improve social problem-solving skills. 12 sessions.
- Wyman Teen Outreach Program (TOP): This group for 12-17-year-old students focuses on building social-emotional skills, developing a positive sense of self, and making a difference in the community. 1 group weekly for 9 months. Can be tailored to offer shorter groups.
IMPACT OF TRAUMA ON STUDENTS
- Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS): (Tier 3 only) This group is for students in 6th-12th grades who have been exposed to trauma in their homes or communities. It is provided by counselors in either group or individual counseling sessions. It reduces symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and behavioral problems, as well as improves functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills. 10 sessions for 4-6 students.
- Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools with Racial Trauma: (Tier 3 only) The Racial Trauma Module (RTM) is a psychoeducational module that can be delivered as a stand-alone module, as part of the CBITS curriculum, or as an add-on to the SSET curriculum, below. It provides students with an overview of the effects of racism on levels of traumatic stress. In addition, the RTM provides school staff and adults with the foundational tools they need to acknowledge the effects of racism on students by providing skills to create a space for students to talk about the impact of racism. 10 sessions for 4-6 students.
- Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET): This group for 6th-12th grade students reduces symptoms of PTSD and depression and helps students to build skills and enhance resilience to stress. It also enhances students’ coping and problem-solving strategies. 10 sessions for 6-8 students.
MENTAL HEALTH/WELLBEING/SUICIDE PREVENTION
- The Blues: This group is for students in 8th through 12th grade who are experiencing symptoms of depression. It helps reduce current depressive symptoms, prevents the onset of future depressive disorders and reduces or delays the onset of substance use. 6 sessions for 4-8 students.
- The C.A.T. Project: This group is for 14–17-year-old students who are experiencing symptoms of anxiety. It provides education about anxiety, skills for identifying and managing anxiety, and an approach for students to face their fears and develop mastery. 16 sessions.
- Lifelines: This group for 14–18-year-old students promotes a caring, competent school community in which help-seeking is encouraged and modeled and suicidal behavior is recognized as an issue that cannot be kept secret. 4–45-minute sessions.
- PreVenture: This group for 12–18-year-old students aims to identify personality-related risk factors associated with mental health problems and substance misuse, and to deliver brief coping skills interventions to young people presenting these risk factors. 4 sessions.
- Youth Mental Health First Aid: This intervention is designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, students, health and human services workers, and other caring adults how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. Staff and student presentations available.
POSITIVE PARENTING GROUPS
- Active Parenting of Teens: This program for parents of 12–18-year-old students teaches parents a comprehensive model of parenting adolescents that will better enable their children to survive and thrive, thus decreasing parent-teen relationship problems to improve teen behaviors/welfare. 6-2-hour sessions or 12-1-hour sessions.
SEXUAL HEALTH/PREGNANCY PREVENTION
- Making Proud Choices!: This group for 12–18-year-old students provides adolescents with the knowledge, confidence and skills necessary to reduce their risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and pregnancy by abstaining from sex or using condoms if they choose to have sex. It is proven to reduce risky sexual behaviors in students. 8 sessions.
- Safe Dates: This group for students in grades 6th-12th helps teens recognize the difference between caring, supportive relationships and controlling, manipulative, or abusive relationships; equips young people with the tools they need to develop these important life skills and supports students to learn skills needed to create and foster positive relationships. 10 sessions.
- Teens in Action: This group for 11–16-year-old students teaches important communication skills while helping teens understand the dangers of risky behaviors, such as alcohol and drugs. It addresses healthy adolescent development and sexuality. 12 sessions.
SUBSTANCE USE PREVENTION
- Botvin Life Skills: This group for 6th-12th grade students promotes healthy alternatives to risky behavior through activities designed to: teach students the necessary skills to resist social (peer) pressures to smoke, drink, and use drugs, help students to develop greater self-esteem and self-confidence, enable students to effectively cope with anxiety, increase their knowledge of the immediate consequences of substance abuse and enhance cognitive and behavioral competency to reduce and prevent a variety of health risk behaviors. 15 sessions.
- PreVenture: This group for 12–18-year-old students aims to identify personality-related risk factors associated with mental health problems and substance misuse, and to deliver brief coping skills interventions to students presenting these risk factors. 4–45-minute sessions.
- Teens in Action: This group for 11–16-year-old students teaches important communication skills while helping teens understand the dangers of risky behaviors, such as alcohol and drugs. 12 sessions.
- Project Toward No Drug Abuse: This high school prevention program focuses on students’ motivation, skills, and decision-making to decrease substance use and violence-related behaviors. 12 sessions.
- Project ALERT: This group for 12–14-year-old students works to prevent adolescents from starting to use substances; to prevent those who have already experimented from becoming regular users and to prevent/curb risk factors for substance use. 11 sessions with 3 booster sessions provided during the next school year.
All staff will be trained in Cultural Awareness/Cultural Humility by the Center for Cultural Humility; Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR); Mindfulness and Stress Reduction by a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction master trainer; and Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression (SOGIE) through All Children All Families (ACAF).
All groups can be delivered by staff who are fluent in English, Spanish, and Creole.