Luz Academy of Tucson
Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse
Abstract
Luz Academy of Tucson will launch an unprecedented collaborative among five Latino charter schools: Calli Ollin Academy, Toltecalli Academy, Pima Partnership High School, and ACE Charter High School. The purpose of Unidos en Prevencion y Salud (UPS) Project is to develop and implement an alcohol prevention reduction program aimed at Latino underage drinking. This project supports Goal 3 of the U.S. Department of Education's Strategic Plan, the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of National Drug Control Policy's national drug strategy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy 2010 initiatives.
Luz Academy proposes to use the Sembrando Salud curriculum, one of SAMHSA's proven science-based programs aimed at underage drinking by Latino youth. The Sembrando Salud program was developed by John Elder, Ph.D. It has been shown that this program significantly reduced alcohol use among high-risk Latino youth, ages 11-16. The program also has a family component to address parent-child communication and changes on the perceived effects of alcohol use. The Sembrando Saludo curriculum will be complemented with the adaptation of the Aztec Prevention Drinking model.
The project expects to achieve the following outcomes for the program group at the conclusion of the project: (1) 5 % reduction or delay of alcohol use among program participants (as cited by Alvera Stern, acting director of CSAP's division of prevention application and education as a realistic outcome measure, see Children and Youth Funding Report, Feb. 6, 2002); (2) statistically significant changes in alcohol knowledge gains and positive change in attitudes towards alcohol use; (3) statistically significant decrease in 30-day alcohol use, (4) statistically significant increase in decision-making skills due to parents involvement; (5) To create a Latino/Hispanic charter schools coalition working together to prevent alcohol and other drug use and improve academic achievement. These expected outcomes provide a base measurement against which to validate the success of the UPS Project.
The project will employ three full-time employees including the Project Director,
Program Coordinator, Project Assistant, Site Coordinator and Program Evaluator.
The Executive Director will serve as the Principal Investigator. The project
expects to serve approximately 630 students and 400 parents annually.
