This OJJDP-funded project, managed by the University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV), will help communities to replicate model programs that are effective in reducing youth violence.

      Between 1996 and 1998, CSPV reviewed more than 400 delinquency, drug, and violence prevention programs. Using scientific criteria it had established for assessing program effectiveness and evaluation standards, CSPV selected ten programs as Blueprints for Violence Prevention. The assessment criteria included an experimental design, evidence of a statistically significant or marginal deterrent
effect, replication by at least one additional site with demonstrated effects, and evidence that the deterrent effect was sustained for at least one year after treatment.

     Brief descriptions of the selected programs follow:

  Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the oldest and best known mentoring program in the United States. The program primarily serves 6-18 year old disadvantaged youth from single-parent households.

  Bullying Prevention Program has as its major goal the reduction of victim/bully problems among primary and secondary school children.

  Functional Family Therapy is a short-term program designed to engage and motivate youth and families to change their communication, interaction, and problem-solving. It also helps families to use external resources.

  Life Skills Training is a three-year drug use primary prevention program that provides life skills and social resistance skills training to junior high and middle school students.

  Midwestern Prevention Project is a comprehensive, population-based drug prevention program that targets junior high and middle school students. The program uses five intervention strategies--mass media, school, parent, community organization, and health policy--to combat the community influences on drug use. The strategies are introduced sequentially over a five-year period.

  Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care is an effective alternative to residential treatment for adolescents exhibiting chronic delinquency and antisocial behavior. Youth are provided treatment while placed in supervised foster families for six to
nine months.

  Multisystemic Therapy is an effective treatment for decreasing antisocial behavior of violent and chronic juvenile offenders. The program targets specific factors in each youth's and family's environment (family, peer, school, neighborhood) that contribute to antisocial behavior, thereby, helping parents deal effectively with their children's behavior problems.

  Prenatal and Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses sends nurses to homes of pregnant women who are predisposed to infant health and developmental problems to improve parent and child outcomes. Nurse visitors work with families through the first two years after birth of their first child.

  Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies is a multiyear, universal school-based prevention model for elementary aged youth. It is designed to promote emotional competence, including the expression, understanding, and control of emotions.

  Quantum Opportunities is an educational incentives program that combines education, development, and service activities, with a sustained relationship with a peer group and a caring adult for disadvantaged teens during their high school years.

     CSPV has described these inventions in a series of "Blueprints." Each "Blueprint" describes one model program in detail and includes evaluation results and practical experiences encountered by those using the intervention. The cost for each Blueprint publication is ten dollars (plus shipping/handling), which covers the cost of publishing.

     In June 1998, OJJDP funded CSPV to provide intensive Training and Technical Assistance for replication of the model programs. For more information regarding Blueprints Violence Prevention Project: Training and Technical Assistance or to order any of the "Blueprints," contact:

Phone: 303-492-8465
Fax: 303-443-3297
Web site: http://www.Colorado.EDU/cspv/blueprints/