|
We hope this letter finds you in a place of safety and health in adjusting to the new normal with quarantined days. These certainly are challenging times as our community, our nation and our world face economic uncertainty and major disruptions in our daily life, including caring for our loved ones while coping with closures to school and childcare facilities and demands or providing for educational and childcare needs. Our thoughts are with those of you who may be unwell, anxious, or grieving during this time.
What a frightening, head-spinning month we have had. Just recently, we were finalizing plans for the 2020 Blueprints Conference, scheduled for April 27-29. Then on March 11th, we made the decision to cancel the Blueprints conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, life as we once knew it has radically changed. We are heartened, however, by the positive responses we received regarding the conference’s important and longstanding contribution to the field. Thank you. Our team created this PDF to assist our conference registrants in completing the necessary steps to receive refunds related to the 2020 Blueprints Conference.
As we all adapt to this new environment, Blueprints will continue to work on our mission of promoting effective preventive interventions and helping governmental agencies, foundations, and practitioners use strong evidence to make informed decisions when identifying programs and practices that provide a high probability of success when taken to scale in communities. It is this commitment that helps us persevere through the challenges brought about by COVID-19. We thank each one of you for your part in our community and for your involvement in this important effort.
We recognize that Blueprints has followers from all around the world. Wherever you are right now, we wish you well over the next weeks and months to come.
Sincerely,
|
|
|
Pamela Buckley, PhD
Director and Co-Principal Investigator
Blueprints Initiative
Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado Boulder
Pamela.Buckley@Colorado.edu
|
|
Karl G. Hill, PhD
Principal Investigator
Blueprints Initiative
Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado Boulder
Karl.Hill@Colorado.edu
|
|
|
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development is hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder, Institute of Behavioral Science, with current funding from Arnold Ventures and former funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Each intervention included in the Blueprints database has been reviewed carefully by an independent advisory panel that looked at research on the intervention’s impact, practical focus and potential for implementation in public systems.
|
|
|
Blueprints News & Resources
Relevant articles and helpful resources
Blueprints Advisory Board member and parenting scholar Dr. Frances Gardner, Professor of Child and Family Psychology in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, has collaborated with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, the Internet of Good Things, USAID and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a website with open-access online parenting resources during COVID-19. Go here to learn more.
Blueprints supports the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) in its efforts to encourage participation in the conversation about effective prevention strategies promoting protective factors around stress and anxiety, trauma, parental stress, and more especially during these difficult and uncertain times. SPR has asked that you connect with them online @SPROrg to share your knowledge, initiatives, and resources through your social media accounts using the hashtag #WeAreSPR.
MDRC is a nonprofit organization that designs promising new interventions, evaluates existing programs using the highest research standards, and provides technical assistance to build better programs and deliver effective interventions at scale. Blueprints responded to MDRC’s new project, “Reconnecting Youth: Putting Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Youth on a Path to Self-Sufficiency,” by recommending two Blueprints Promising programs: Youth Villages LifeSet and Year Up. MDRC’s project is seeking information about effective programs that provide services to help young people (ages 16-24) advance on education and employment pathways. To learn more, go to MDRC’s website.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently released a statement on Functional Family Therapy-Gangs (FFT-G). Blueprints certified the article referenced in this statement (Gottfredson et al., 2018) and decided FFT-G is part of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a Model Plus Blueprints Program. The certified outcomes include delinquency and criminal behavior and illicit drug use but not gang involvement. Users interested in a program that has been evaluated with a population that includes gangs can locate FFT on the Blueprints program webpage by searching under “program type” and selecting “gang prevention and reduction.” Go here to read more.
|
|
Featured Model Program
Project Towards No Drug Abuse (TND)
Blueprints Certified: 1997
Ages Served: Late Adolescence (15-18) – High School
Program Outcomes: Alcohol, Illicit Drug Use, Tobacco, Violence
A classroom-based drug prevention program designed for at-risk youth that aims to prevent teen drinking, smoking, marijuana, and other hard drug use.
Learn more > >
|
|
|
Featured Promising Program
Learning Together
Blueprints Certified: 2020
Ages Served: Early Adolescence (12-14) – Middle School
Program Outcomes: Alcohol, Antisocial-aggressive Behavior, Bullying, Conduct Problems, Delinquency and criminal Behavior, Illicit Drug Use, Mental Health, Sexual Risk Behaviors, Tobacco.
Learning Together is a school-based intervention grounded in schoolwide policies and systems, restorative practices, and social and emotional education with adolescents to reduce bullying and aggression and promote various dimensions of health and wellbeing. The program includes all-school staff trainings, restorative practices delivered by staff and specialized restorative practices for more serious behavior problems, action group meetings comprised of students and staff, and teacher-delivered lessons on social and emotional skills. The program lasts three years, during grades 8-10 in the United Kingdom (or middle school in the United States).
Learn more > >
|
|
|
|
Blueprints Interventions in the News
In case you’ve missed them, here are a few newspaper articles and web postings that feature some of our Blueprint’s Model and Promising Programs:
- The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) recently announced that seven NFP graduates will serve as “Parent Ambassadors” traveling the nation telling their stories and advocating for the evidence-based program, by engaging policymakers and the public to build awareness of the benefits of the NFP program. NFP (a Blueprints Model program) is a community health program in which nurses work with low-income, first-time pregnant mothers from prenatal care through the child’s second birthday. Go here to learn more about NFP’s Parent Ambassadors.
- More on Nurse-Family Partnership: The Tennessee Department of Human Services recently awarded a $5 million grant to East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) NFP which provides service for mothers from prenatal care through the child’s second birthday. NFP began working with ETSU in 2016, and since then has served over 300 women and seen the birth of 31 healthy babies. Read more about the award here.
- As part of the city’s implementation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Evidence2SuccessTM framework, Community leaders in Memphis are implementing two Blueprints Promising programs with the purpose of improving the health, academic success and emotional well-being of African American students: (1) Strong African American Families for teens living in rural communities with the aim to prevent conduct problems, substance use and other risky behaviors, and (2) Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, which aims to reduce children’s post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, as well as anxiety and depression resulting from exposure to violence. Go here to learn more about the efforts being made for Memphis African American students.
- Through Jefferson County (Colorado’s) Communities that Care (CTC) program, 14 high school students were able to attend the Youth Leadership Initiative Conference held Feb. 3-6 in Washington, D.C. where the students discussed with some of the nation’s leaders the major issues teenagers face and how grant funding has helped youth promote positive social change. CTC is a Blueprints Promising program. Go here to learn more.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Shelby & Darke County in Ohio was recently awarded with grants from the Walmart Foundation totaling $3,500. The program provides mentoring services to over 300 youth in this service area. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a mentoring program that matches a volunteer adult mentor to an at-risk child or adolescent. The goal of the program is to improve academic success, attitudes and behaviors, and provide social and cultural enrichment to at-risk youth. Blueprints certified this program as Promising. Read more about the award here.
- After studies showed that Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) (a Blueprints Model program) positively impacted behavioral and academic outcomes, educators and school board members in Frederick, Maryland are looking to expand the social-emotional learning program and implement it in all pre-k through second grade classrooms this school year. PATHS is a classroom-based enrichment program designed to reduce aggression and behavior problems. Go here to learn more about PATHS implementation in Frederick, MD.
|
|
|
|
