Universal Opioid and Other Substance Use Prevention Planning

Universal Opioid and Other Substance Use Prevention Planning: New Tools for K-12 Educators and Prevention Partners 

*This is an online course- Launches Thursday, January 19, 2023

Audience: All school personnel, including General and Special Education Administrators and Teachers, Student Support Services Professionals, and other support staff

Description:

Participants in this online course will learn about a five-step prevention planning process and a collection of user-friendly tools that offers Connecticut administrators, educators and prevention partners a guidebook for strengthening their school-based substance misuse prevention programming. Resources covered in the course include: worksheets for determining school/district readiness to engage in prevention planning efforts; tips for convening a prevention planning team; an online tool for assessing current prevention programming and identifying program gaps; a synthesis of evidence-based prevention programming; and a case study illustrating how one fictional community engaged in this planning process.

The course can be taken independently or as a team to raise awareness in the area of prevention; it can also be taken using the downloadable tools and participating in monthly course conversations. There is an application to request coaching and technical assistance from SERC Consultants.

The overview of the course will take approximately one hour to complete. The entire course with the downloaded tools and course conversations has approximately four 1-hour sessions. Guidance and support is provided through drop-in virtual office hours and via email.

This new resource was developed by SERC and funded by the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Funding is made possible in part by a State Opioid Response Grant (SOR) from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).

 For content questions, please contact Christina Simms, SERC Consultant, (860) 632-1485 ext. 346 or simms@ctserc.org. or Bianca Irizarry, SERC Consultant, (860) 632-1485 ext. 216 or irizarry@ctserc.org

For registration questions, please contact Emma Velasquez, SERC, (860) 632-1485, ext. 218 or velasquez@ctserc.org.