General Planning Guides

• Ames, E. E., Trucano, L. A., Wan, J. C., and Harris, A. L. (1992). Designing School Health Curricula: Planning for Good Health, Second Edition. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown Communications, Inc.

This 230-page manual focuses on how to develop school health curricula that provide students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to make healthier choices. Designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice, it outlines a step-by-step process that practitioners (e.g., health educators, teachers, curriculum coordinators, and administrators) can use to apply their pedagogical knowledge to the reality of health instruction in schools.

• Center for Mental Health in Schools (2001). Organization Facilitators: A Change Agent for Systemic School and Community Changes. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available online at http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu (click on Center Materials, then Special Reports and Center Briefs).

This 43-page report explores the critical role of the "organization facilitator" in developing school-community partnerships, obtaining buy-in for new programs, institutionalizing and facilitating program replication, and scaling up new approaches to prevention.

• Getting to Outcomes: Develop Capacity (Spring, 2000). Rockville, MD: U.S. SAMHSA/CSAP's National Center for the Advancement of Prevention and Centers for the Application of Prevention Technologies. Available online at http://www.preventiondss.org/.

This training guide describes the nuts and bolts of strategic planning, including creating a vision and a mission, setting goals and objectives, deciding on activities, and developing action steps. It emphasizes the importance of assessing your organizational capacity, as well as the overall capacity of your community to embrace and support your initiative.

McKenzie, J. F. and Smeltzer, J. L. (1997). Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Health Promotion Programs, Second Edition. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

This comprehensive book provides all of the background and application information needed to plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs in a variety of settings. Each chapter of the book includes chapter objectives, a list of key terms, presentation of content, a chapter summary, review questions, and activities. In addition, many of the key concepts are further explained, with information presented in figures, tables, and the appendices.

• VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Action Plan): An Overview (2000). University of Kansas Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development and AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. Available online at http://ctb.ukans.edu/tools/EN/chapter_1003.htm.

The Community ToolBox website provides myriad "how-to tools" designed to help practitioners with the different tasks necessary for community health and development. There are sections on leadership, needs assessment, community assessment, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluation. This chapter provides an overview of the strategic planning process based on the acronym VMOSA: Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plan.

Drug and Violence Prevention Strategies

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1999). Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs—August 1999. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/bestprac.htm.

This evidence-based guide from the Office on Smoking and Health is designed to help states plan and establish effective tobacco control programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use. It identifies and describes the key elements for effective state tobacco control programs, including programs designed for communities and schools.

• Crawford, D. and Bodine, R. (1996). Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention and U.S. Department of Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Available online at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/conflic.pdf.

This guide for educators, juvenile justice practitioners, and others working in youth-serving organizations provides background information on conflict resolution education; an overview of four widely used, promising, and effective approaches; and guidance on how to implement conflict resolution education programs in various settings.

• Dwyer, K. and Osher, D. (2000). Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide. Washington, DC: U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, American Institutes for Research. Available online at www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/actguide/action_guide.pdf.

This guide, which follows up on the 1998 publication Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools, emphasizes early intervention and prevention and the importance of teamwork among educators, mental health professionals, parents, and students.

• Dwyer, K., Osher, D., and Warger, C. (1998). Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Available online at www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/gtss.html

This manual is intended to provide schools and communities with reliable and practical information about what they can do to be prepared for and to reduce the likelihood of violence. It presents a brief summary of the research on violence prevention and intervention and crisis response in schools. Specifically, it describes the early warning signs that relate to violence and other troubling behaviors, and the action steps that schools and communities can take to prevent violence, intervene and get help for troubled children, and respond to school violence when it occurs.

• Green, M. W., Travis, J., and Downs, R. (1999). The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools: A Guide for Schools and Law Enforcement Agencies. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Available online at http://www.ncjrs.gov/school/home.html.

This document provides basic guidelines to law enforcement agencies and school administrators and encourages their collaboration as they decide what, if any, security technologies to consider as they develop safe school strategies. The guide is designed to help them analyze school vulnerability to violence, theft, and vandalism, and suggests possible technologies to address these problems effectively.

• Kumpfer, K. L. and Alvarado, R. (1998). Effective Family Strengthening Interventions. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. Available online at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/171121.pdf.

The first bulletin in its Family Strengthening Series, this document describes OJJDP's Strengthening America's Families Initiative and highlights the crucial role families can play in preventing delinquency and violence among adolescents. It covers such topics as the effectiveness of family intervention programs, behavioral parent training, family training, and family skills training.

• Sherman, L. W., Gottfredson, D. C., MacKenzie, D. L., Eck, J., Reuter, P., and Bushway, S. D. (1998). Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Available online at http://www.preventingcrime.org/171676.pdf.

This Research in Brief summarizes the methods and conclusions of a congressionally mandated evaluation of state and local crime prevention programs, and includes an overview of effective school strategies.

• Sloboda, Z. and David, S. L. (1999). Preventing Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents: A Research-Based Guide. Washington, DC: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health. Available online at http://165.112.78.61/Prevention/Prevopen.html.

Using a question-and-answer format, this guide is designed to help community leaders take the first steps in assessing their local drug abuse problems and developing comprehensive and effective prevention strategies. Questions were solicited from state and local drug abuse prevention practitioners and key leaders in national prevention organizations. Answers were developed in consultation with prevention scientists.

• Thornton, T. N., Craft, C. A., Dahlberg, L. L., Lynch, B. S., and Baer, K. (2000). Best Practices in Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/bestpractices.htm.

This sourcebook examines the effectiveness of specific violence prevention practices in four key areas: parents and families; home visiting; social and conflict resolution skills; and mentoring. It also provides a comprehensive directory of resources for more information about programs that have used these practices.

• U.S. Department of Education and the Bias Crimes Task Force of the National Association of Attorneys General (1999). Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crimes: A Guide for Schools. Washington, DC: Author. Available online at www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/archives/Harassment/harassment.pdf.

This guide is designed to provide elementary and secondary schools with practical guidance to help protect students from harassment and violence based on race, color, national origin, sex, and disability. The laws enforced by the U.S. Department of Education protect students from discrimination on these bases. The guide may also be of assistance in protecting students from harassment based on sexual orientation, religion, or other grounds that are covered by state or local laws or that schools recognize as particularly damaging to their students.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. Available online at www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/
  home.html.

This 460-page report offers an overview of scientific advances in the study of mental health and of mental illnesses that affect at least one in five Americans. A chapter devoted to children and mental health describes the forces that maintain children's and adolescents' mental health and keep them on course to become mentally healthy adults. It identifies factors that may place some children at risk for mental illness and others that may protect children from risk, and how services can be designed and operated to best suit the needs of children.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2000). Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General. Washington, DC: Author. Available online at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence/.

This report examines the factors that lead young people to gravitate toward violence, reviews the factors that protect youth from perpetrating violence, and identifies effective research-based preventive strategies.

• U.S. Public Health Service (1999). The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent Suicide 1999. Washington, DC: Author. Available online at: www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/calltoaction/calltoaction.htm.

This report introduces a blueprint for addressing suicide, using the acronym AIM—Awareness, Intervention, and Methodology. It presents action steps that were developed through a public-private collaboration of non-governmental organizations, federal and state governmental agencies, corporations and foundations, and public health, health, and mental health experts.