Enhance resilience

MU Extension’s Community Health Engagement & Outreach (CHEO) is partnering with communities across Missouri to create sustainable programs for promoting positive youth development and strong families, and to facilitate translation of prevention science into widespread community practice by utilizing the evidence-based delivery system PROSPER (an acronym for PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience).

The PROSPER model provides the framework for impactful community partnerships between MU Extension, local school districts, and additional community-based organizations focused on improving opportunities for youth and families. Through the expansion of this community partnership, a local PROSPER Team is created to support the implementation of two evidence-based programs with middle school students and their families: Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14 and Botvin LifeSkills Training.

• Strengthening Families Program: for Parents and Youth 10-14 is a 7-session series delivered to middle school students and their parents/caregiver, offered in the evenings or on weekends. As a universal program, any family can benefit from the tools, skills and strategies included in the series. The World Health Organization named the Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14 as the #1 prevention program out of 6,000 programs analyzed for long-term effect on substance use and misuse.
• The Botvin LifeSkills Training Middle School program is a groundbreaking substance abuse and violence prevention program based on more than 35 years of rigorous scientific research. Proven to be the most effective evidence-based program used in schools today, LifeSkills Training is comprehensive, dynamic, and developmentally designed to promote mental health and positive youth development. In addition to helping kids resist drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, the LifeSkills Training Middle School program also effectively supports the reduction of violence and other high-risk behaviors.

For additional information on how your community can benefit from becoming a PROSPER Community, please contact Michelle McDowell, community health senior program coordinator, at mcdowellm@missouri.edu.