Blueprints for Violence Prevention

LifeSkills Training Program Grant

Altria Client Services, on behalf of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton Co., and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC, has awarded the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) funding to disseminate the LifeSkills Training (LST) drug and alcohol prevention program in several southeastern states. The grant allows CSPV to provide three years of training and technical assistance and program materials to eligible schools, districts, and education agencies. Selected schools also receive sustainability training and technical assistance to aid them in developing and implementing a LST sustainability plan.

The main goal of the LST program is to substantially reduce drug use among young adolescents by teaching prevention-related information, promoting anti-drug norms, teaching drug refusal skills, and fostering the development of personal self-management skills and general social skills. There are also optional violence prevention lessons in the curriculum that focus on anger management and conflict resolution skills.

Partners Providing Support to Schools

Several organizations are working together to help make this project a success, including CSPV, the LifeSkills Training Team and The Finance Project. CSPV was responsible for identifying potential sites and providing assistance to those sites to help them become informed and prepared to apply to CSPV for the funding opportunity. CSPV received and evaluated applications, conducted feasibility site visits, selected sites, and is monitoring the replication project throughout the three years to evaluate the degree to which sites are implementing the program with fidelity and integrity. CSPV is assisted in this effort by the LST training team, who attended feasibility visits, conducts the teacher training workshops, and provides all curriculum materials and technical assistance over the three years of the project. The Finance Project works with sites to build local capacity among LST leaders to design and implement effective financing and sustainability strategies.

LST Implementation Resources

An additional goal of this grant is to provide online resources for sites implementing the LifeSkills Training program. CSPV has made implementation resources such as the application, program cost calculator, feasibility, training evaluation and process evaluation materials available online for other sites replicating the LifeSkills Training program. Process evaluation materials, such as implementation fidelity checklists as well as questionnaires for teachers and program coordinators, may be used to assist sites in measuring whether the program is being implemented with fidelity (as it was designed). In lieu of a costly full-scale outcome evaluation, a process evaulation in conjunction with pre-post measures, which can be found on the LifeSkills Training program's web site, can help determine the effectiveness of the program at a school.