Youth-Led Prevention

Youth-led programs empower young people to influence change in their communities and provide areas for Ohio youth to develop essential learning, innovation, life, and career skills. By engaging in this process, youth contribute to building healthier, safer, and more resilient communities throughout Madison County.

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Adult/Parent Programs

Professional Development

Youth-Led prevention represents a sound investment through meaningful youth involvement in community prevention efforts.

Youth-led prevention began as a substance use prevention model and is now utilized with a range of emotional and behavioral health issues affecting youth.
Youth-led prevention is a comprehensive approach to addressing the emotional and behavioral health of youth and young adults.
Youth-led prevention encourages a stable peer network and protects students from being victimized or bullied.
Youth lead planning, decision-making, implementation, evaluation, and recognition processes.
Youth participate in local coalitions.
Youth are involved in the entire prevention process.

Sources of Strength

Sources of Strength is a strength-based, comprehensive wellness program that focuses on suicide prevention but impacts other issues such as substance abuse and violence. The program is based on a relational connections model that uses teams of Peer Leaders mentored by Adult Advisors to change peer social norms about help-seeking, and connection; recognizing students to individually assess and develop strengths in their life.

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Sources of Strength

STRATEGIC PLANNING FRAMEWORK (SPF) AND THE YOUTH EMPOWERMENT CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (YECF)

The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is one of two key frameworks that inform YLP in Ohio. The SPF is used to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate prevention strategies to create community-level change. In YLP, the guiding theory on how to implement the SPF is derived from the second key framework that informs YLP in Ohio: the Youth Empowerment Conceptual Framework (YECF; Holden et al., 2004). The YECF outlines the “structure and group processes by which adult allies promote and assist young people in developing the necessary skills to carry out community change” (Raffle & Leach, 2015).

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Teen Mental Health First Aid

Teen Mental Health First Aid teaches high school students how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders among their friends and peers. The training gives students the skills to have supportive conversations with their friends and get a responsible and trusted adult to take over as necessary.

The course will teach students how to apply the teen MHFA Action Plan to help a friend:
Look for warning signs.
Ask how they are.
Listen up.
Help them connect with an adult.
Your friendship is essential.

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