Project SUCCESS

Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) is a school-based intervention focused on preventing and reducing substance abuse among high-risk middle-school and high-school aged youth.

Counselors are trained and placed in local schools to provide a range of substance abuse-related services. Working with students, school administrators, and parents, counselors facilitate changes in attitudes, behaviors, and school policies to help prevent and reduce future substance abuse. This is accomplished through five different program components including a prevention education series, individual and group counseling, school-wide awareness and outreach activities, parent programs, and referral services.

The goal of Project SUCCESS is to prevent and reduce substance abuse in high-risk middle-school and high-school aged adolescents.

Two studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Project SUCCESS. The first study included 425 students who were assigned either to participate in Project SUCCESS or to be in the control group. The Project SUCCESS students showed a 37% decrease in substance abuse, and 23% quit using substances as compared to 5% of the control group. Project SUCCESS students also had decreased associations with peers who used substances and decreased problem behavior.

In the second study, 363 students attending a mainstream middle-school and high-school were assigned either to participate in Project SUCCESS or to be in the control group. Students who participated in Project SUCCESS were less likely to have ever used marijuana, prescription drugs, or sniffed/huffed at the time of posttest. They were also less likely to have smoked in the last month or have ever used a substance when alone at posttest.