We moved campus-based alcohol and drug prevention efforts from a focus on individual behavior change to strategies that change the broader campus and community environment.

Established in 1993 by the U.S. Department of Education, HHD’s Higher Education Center (HEC) for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention works with colleges and universities to develop strategies to prevent alcohol and other drug use among students. Its broad approach involves changing the social, cultural, and policy environment on campuses and surrounding communities.

HEC works with college presidents, campus officials, and community members to reduce “happy hours” and free drinks in local bars; enforce age 21 laws; provide substance-free residence halls; eliminate alcohol-sponsored athletic and other events; and work with community coalitions and local merchants to reduce access to alcohol.

HEC provides publications, training, and technical assistance to individual campuses to implement and evaluate this environmental approach.

We pioneered the development of skills-based health curricula for U.S. youth and expanded the work globally.

More than 20 years ago, EDC created the Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM), a skills-based health education curriculum for grades 7 - 12. THTM is frequently updated and continues to be one of field’s most important health education products.

THTM offers carefully staged, interactive methods for students to acquire communication, decision- making, and risk-assessment skills. An independent national evaluation of THTM with 5,000 students showed that high school seniors reported significantly lower rates of drug use than a control group of their peers.

THTM was recently recognized as a Promising Program by an expert panel of the U.S. Department of Education. Globally, we are working with partner organizations, synthesizing the theory and research on the skills-based approach, and documenting case studies in various countries.

For the Pan American Health Organization, and for UNICEF and the World Health Organization, we have developed reference documents, which include results of a survey we conducted with international health and education agencies about the challenges and successes they face in implementing skills-based health education.

We contributed groundbreaking research on what works to reduce high-risk behaviors among low-income, multi-ethnic youth in urban middle schools.

HHD conducted the first-ever study to evaluate community service, in combination with classroom health instruction, for its ability to reduce violence and foster healthy behaviors among economically disadvantaged youth.

Through the Reach for Health Study, we showed that when New York City middle school students’ community service work (three hours per week) was combined with health instruction, both their violent behavior and high-risk sexual activity dropped significantly.

We have had a major impact on the way U.S. schools approach violence prevention by focusing on the pivotal role of the student bystander.

Anecdotal reports suggest that bystanders were often aware of plans for school shootings before they happened. Our Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders curriculum is one of the first to examine the role of the bystander as a potentially critical person in preventing violent confrontations. It was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Promising Program, based on its unique approach to violence prevention.

The 12-session curriculum for middle school students aims to prevent or reduce violence by encouraging young people to examine their roles as either aggressors, victims, or bystanders, and help them develop problem-solving skills and new ways of thinking about how to respond to conflict. Students are encouraged to confide in a teacher or other trusted adult when they hear threatening statements or have knowledge of a student with weapons. The curriculum is currently used in 44 states.

We have led U.S. research efforts to identify effective clinical and community-based strategies to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection.

HHD was on the cutting edge of prevention research shortly after HIV was first identified as a major public health threat in the mid 1980s. Currently, HHD is funded by the National Institutes of Health to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, cost, and success of using a social network strategy to increase early HIV testing among at-risk Latino and African-American populations.Trained volunteers are recruiting peers to come to clinics for testing.

One of HHD’s most successful HIV/STD projects was the VOICES/VOCES program. That project showed the cost-effectiveness of using brief video-based HIV/STD prevention films in clinics and community agencies, along with group counseling, to promote behavior change and reduce the incidence of new infections.

We have played a longstanding role in developing the capacity of health, education, criminal justice, and community agencies to implement policies and strategies that foster healthy lifestyles and reduce risk behaviors.

For example, our National Training Partnership for Comprehensive School Health Education has worked with all state departments of education, 18 large school districts, and 9 territories to strengthen their capacity to provide training and professional development in health and HIV prevention to state and local agencies.

The Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies strengthens the capacity of state and local agencies to implement evidence-based alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse prevention strategies for youth and their families in 11 northeastern states.

And the Children’s Safety Network works with state, local, and national maternal child health agencies, strengthening their capacity to address the root causes of injuries, suicide, and violence, which are responsible for the greatest number of deaths and hospitalizations in children and adolescents.

We serve the World Health Organization and other UN agencies in building country capacity to address the health of students and teachers through schools and communities.

In its role as the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center to Promote Health Through Schools and Communities, HHD has advanced the concept of the Health Promoting School, which provides a healthy psycho-social environment for students and teachers through policy measures, classroom instruction, and the provision of health and nutrition services.

We also provide support for WHO’s Mega Country Network to advance school health programs, and we have worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization on improving nutrition through health-promoting schools in a province in China.