The Youth Connection Substance Abuse Prevention Program
The Youth Connection's Substance Abuse Prevention Program is a FREE, highly-interactive skills-based program designed to promote positive health and personal development for youth. Each year we educate hundreds of youth using the Botvin Lifeskills Training program, a research-based curriculum that focuses on three personal objectives for our youth:
Personal Self-Management Skills
General Social Skills
Drug Resistance Skills
Students understand the consequences of substance use, risk-taking, and the influences of the media.
In addition, we provide service learning activities where students can find creative ways to spread TYC’s anti-drug use message, including the use of photos, video and presentations.
We work with the Detroit Police Department in partnership with the Institute for Population Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery to conduct alcohol and tobacco compliance checks so businesses in our neighborhoods do not sell to underage youth.
We provide outreach to several foster care facilities to offer the training in-house at these agencies around the city. Some of our partner agencies include Wolverine Human Services, Children’s Center of Michigan, Covenant House and Mariner’s Inn.
We work together with our partner prevention agencies to take the substance abuse prevention education message to Lansing to advocate for more funding of anti-drug, alcohol and tobacco programming. Also, we spread TYC’s anti-drug message at every TYC event. Together, we work to make our community drug-free and healthy.
William Costello, a MPH graduate from Wayne State University School of Medicine examines pre and post test of Middle and High school youth who participated in our program. TYC uses Botvin LifeSkills, a research-based curriculum that focus on decreasing drug, tobacco, and alcohol use in adolescents. Results show the comparison of all pre-test and post-test of students who participated in our Substance Abuse Prevention program, that the numbers decreased of adolescents who used tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol within the past 30 days!