In-School Prevention & Education

The Council on Recovery offers local schools a variety of prevention and education programs for grade-levels 3-12. Each evidence-based program is developmentally sound and appropriate for the grade-levels indicated below:

Life Skills Training for Students in Grades 3 through 5

We provide the nationally-recognized Botvin LifeSkills Training Elementary School program as a comprehensive, dynamic, and age appropriate substance abuse and violence prevention program for upper elementary school students. This highly effective curriculum has been proven to help increase self-esteem, develop healthy attitudes, and improve students’ knowledge of essential life skills. Program objectives include:

• Personal Self-Management Skills to help students enhance self-esteem, solve problems, reduce stress and anxiety, and manage anger.
• General Social Skills to help students meet personal challenges such as overcoming shyness, communicating clearly, building relationships, and avoiding violence.
• Drug Resistance Skills to help students build effective defenses against pressures to use tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.

Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG®) Program for Students in Grades 6 Through 8

Our CBSG Program is a unique, multi-cultural, evidence-based preventive intervention program. It is designed for boys and girls, ages 4-17, whose high-risk situations - including adverse childhood experiences, attitudes and behaviors - place them at risk for future behavioral and health problems including substance abuse, delinquency, and violence.

Our support group model sets CBSG apart from other approaches. Participants meet in confidential, small group settings. They are taught essential life skills to help them cope with difficult family situations, resist negative peer pressure, respect themselves and others, set and achieve goals, make healthy choices, and refuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

All Stars for Students in Grades 6 Through 8

The Council’s All Stars program helps students identify positive ideals and future aspirations. They participate in games and discussions to establish positive expectations with their peers. The goal is to eliminate peer pressure to engage in risky behaviors such as alcohol, tobacco, drug use, bullying, fighting, and sexual activity. By asking students to commit to personal standards of behaviors, All Stars promotes bonding with family, school and community, and it encourages parents and kids to talk about healthy aspirations and commitments.

Choices Program

The Choices program is the Center for Recovering Families’ unique prevention and counseling program for middle and high school students. Working from a base of proven successful prevention efforts, Choices incorporates two critical elements typically missing in other school programs: A focus on multiple high-risk behaviors, and programming tailored to fit a specific school culture.

Choices counselors assess the culture of each participating school to identify critical factors that influence the adoption, success, and sustainability of the program. They then tailor prevention services that include faculty, parents, and students fully integrate them throughout the school. The result? A far-reaching, comprehensive approach that promotes social and emotional competence, changes perceptions about standards of behavior, and helps students develop critical life skills. The Choices counselor stays with the school every step of the way, serving as program administrator on campus and providing confidential counseling and therapy services to students.

The Choices program works. Schools that have implemented it have shown consistent and sustained decreases in reported high-risk behaviors. To learn more, read this comprehensive review of the Choices program and its effectiveness that was recently published in the Journal of Addiction. If you would like more information about obtaining the Choices program for your school, please call 281.200.9262 or use the Contact Us form.