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Reach Today's Youth With an Effective Prevention Program That Resonates

A comprehensive, evidence-based prevention education for secondary learners, Grade 6 through High School, focused on developing a positive self-concept and instilling a positive system of thinking, acting, and feeling.

Positive Action's Prevention Series is a targeted health and wellness curriculum purpose-built for addressing the growing health problem of substance use. To instill healthy behavior and proactively prevent harmful habits, the series develops essential life skills,
such as informed decision-making, problem-solving, and self-management, while educating about the risks and consequences associated with alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use.
What's included
Scripted Lessons
37
Scripted Lessons
Supplemental Lessons
6
Supplemental Lessons
Digital Resources
69
Digital Resources
Engaging Tracks
22
Engaging Tracks
Bookmarks
6
Bookmarks
Play Scripts
9
Play Scripts
Activity Sheets
13
Activity Sheets
Interactive Storyboard Mural
9Piece
Interactive Storyboard Mural
Substance Impact Simulations
6
Substance Impact Simulations
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“Choices and Consequences”Game Board and Game Cards
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"Choices and Consequences": An educational game using real-life scenarios to show how choices about alcohol and substances affect health, relationships, and self-concept.
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“Take the Challenge”Game Cards
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"Take the Challenge": A fun, competitive game that tests knowledge of the physical and mental effects of alcohol and substances to raise awareness of real consequences.
mini arrowExplore the Prevention Series
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Comprehensive Substance Use Prevention Curriculum
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Systematic, Integrated Curriculum Design and Methodology
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Lead Prevention with Positive Action
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How Positive Action Enhances Prevention Program Success
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Delivering Real-World Success Through Research Outcomes
A Comprehensive Substance Use Prevention Curriculum for Health and Self-Concept

A Comprehensive Substance Use Prevention Curriculum for Health and Self-Concept

Preview Lesson in App

Substance abuse is a complex health issue that continues to grow and pressure the youth through traditional and new media.

Now, more than ever, health education and practical prevention strategies must be taught to cultivate essential life skills that prepare young learners to thrive personally and academically and grow into independent and competent individuals.

Comprised of six units, 37 core lessons, and six supplemental lessons, the Prevention Series awakens learners to the pivotal role of decision-making in substance-free living.

Throughout the series, the curriculum illustrates that the difference between a healthy lifestyle based on positive self-perception and substance use comes down to the quality of daily decisions, whether they are healthy or risky.

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240

How It Works: Whole-Self Approach to Substance Use Prevention

Anchored in the overarching theme of reaching one's dreams and positive self-concept development, the Prevention Series leverages learners' internal motivation for self-worth to nurture healthy behaviors across the four dimensions of the self: physical, intellectual, social, and emotional.
Every individual aspires to feel good about themselves and fulfill their dreams. The curriculum taps into this innate desire and guides learners to elevate each aspect of their self-concept through positive actions. As learners experience growth in these areas, they enhance their well-being and become more likely to make healthy, substance-free decisions.

The Prevention Series educates learners that as self-concept improves, so does the ability to resist or reverse substance use.

What Learners Gain: Skills and Competencies

Equipped with prevention strategies and knowledge on youth substance use, learners emerge more aware of and confident in refusing substance use.
The series empowers learners with the following set of competencies that prevent substance abuse and promote drug-free living:
Improved self-conceptImproved self-concept

With a positive self-perception, learners deem themselves capable of solving problems, resolving conflicts, and making decisions positively.

Healthy physical and mental health habitsHealthy physical and mental health habits

Learners practice good nutrition, adequate sleep, physical exercise, and care for their body and mind.

Informed decision-making and problem-solvingInformed decision-making and problem-solving

Understanding the distinction between responsible and risky behaviors, learners practice good decision-making that positively contributes to their personal and academic success.

Resilience and self-managementResilience and self-management

Learners discover healthy coping strategies to better manage their resources and emotions, helping them to face adversity without turning to substances.

Social skills and social awarenessSocial skills and social awareness

The prevention curriculum strengthens empathy, active listening, and respectful communication for easy navigation of peer and family relationships, avoiding negative peer pressure.

Self-honesty and self-improvementSelf-honesty and self-improvement

With the overarching theme of reaching one's dreams, learners practice goal setting, growth tracking, and developing a growth-oriented mindset.

Where the Prevention Series Makes a Difference

The Prevention Series is a versatile program that is effectively implemented in a wide range of settings.

Schools, health agencies, juvenile justice, after-school organizations, substance treatment agencies, and other organizations committed to youth health can benefit from adopting the Prevention Series as part of their comprehensive approach to substance use prevention.

Through integration with any Positive Action secondary curriculum, schools can implement the series to promote physical and mental health and improve overall school climate.
Health agencies and community organizations may use the curriculum as part of their outreach initiatives to raise awareness and prevent substance abuse among the youth.

Juvenile justice programs can incorporate the curriculum to support rehabilitation and help at-risk youth develop better decision-making and life skills. Meanwhile, after-school organizations can implement the series as part of enrichment activities focused on personal development and well-being.

Effective Together: How Positive Action Enhances Prevention Program Success

Prevention Series is designed to be integrated with any Positive Action curriculum from Grade 6 through High School.

The combination of the core curriculum and specialized prevention instruction addresses both immediate and long-term risks that influence adolescent behavior.
Addressing Distal Influences with Positive Action Core Curriculum

Addressing Distal Influences with Positive Action Core Curriculum

Distal influences are root causes or environmental influences that increase the vulnerability to substance use over the long term. These include low self-concept, negative school climate, lack of self-management strategies, poor mental health, and others.

As a comprehensive, daily curriculum, Positive Action gradually and consistently introduces

foundational concepts and strategies that address distal risk factors,

allowing learners to internalize a positive system of thinking, acting, and feeling.

Ultimately, learners develop physical and intellectual health habits, relationship-building skills, and self-management and self-improvement strategies that enable them to resist substance abuse.
Addressing Proximal Risk Factors with the Prevention Series

Addressing Proximal Risk Factors with the Prevention Series

Proximal risk factors are the immediate, situational reasons for adolescents to experiment with substances. These include peer pressure, curiosity, immediate access to substances, or emotional challenges or negative thought patterns.

The Prevention Series provides targeted lessons on building strategies and skills to recognize and resist proximal influences. Learners recognize unhealthy situations, hone assertiveness skills to handle peer pressure, challenge substance use myths, and learn healthy coping skills.
With both grade-level and Prevention Series curricula working together, learners can confidently make safe, healthy choices. They develop healthy decision-making capacity needed to remain substance-free despite both distant influences and present-day risks.
Why Positive Action's Prevention Series Works

Why Positive Action's Prevention Series Works

Traditional prevention programs have largely focused on addressing only the most proximal causes of behaviors, such as increasing knowledge or shifting attitudes. This approach has failed to produce lasting change and, in some cases, even proven ineffective, as it overlooks the distal influences that shape behavior over time.

The Positive Action program targets foundational distal influences and affects multiple behaviors, empowering learners with lifelong skills for personal success.
By integrating the Prevention Series, both the indirect causes and immediate triggers of unhealthy behavior are addressed. The synergy between the core curriculum and preventive instruction enhances both long-term behavioral resilience and academic outcomes.

A Systematic, Integrated Curriculum Design and Methodology for Comprehensive Development

The Positive Action program is a whole system with a comprehensive set of integrated and interactive components that addresses the school's entire eco-system: school, family, and community.

All the components coordinate around a universal theme, or philosophy, and fit together seamlessly into any configuration or work as a whole. These components work together as a powerful, coherent approach to affecting change throughout the whole school community or within its individual parts.
The philosophy is applied through the Thoughts-Actions-Feelings Circle, which is reinforced throughout the Prevention Series units. As the Circle illuminates the complete behavior process, learners better understand how to begin conscious whole-self change, improving the four areas of the self. It illustrates how thoughts lead to actions and actions to feelings about the self, which lead to more thoughts. The Circle can be positive or negative.

The positive actions needed for the development of one's whole self are outlined in a six-unit structure.

Six-Unit Structure: How the Prevention Program Reaches Each Stage of Substance Use

Each Positive Action curriculum is organized into the same six-unit structure across all grade levels. This universal framework provides a common language and understanding throughout the entire system and develops a shared vision for everyone.

In the Prevention Series, the six-unit structure is related and mapped to the stages of substance abuse.

The units' alignment with the stages of substance use strategically addresses the psychological, behavioral, and emotional dynamics that occur at each stage. This structure provides a scaffolded framework of targeted, developmentally appropriate strategies that nurture healthy decision-making, build resilience, and interrupt patterns that lead to substance use.

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Immersive, Experiential Methodology That Strengthens Prevention Efforts

Accessible through the Pasela app, the Prevention Series uses two compelling stories to deliver relevant content throughout the curriculum. Each chapter illustrates the concepts through relatable narrative, characters, and choices that mirror real-life challenges.

As the storylines progress through each unit, learners internalize the effects of substance use on the whole self, as well as the far-reaching consequences beyond themselves. They more fully understand how actions lead to outcomes, and how preventive choices can change the course of their lives for the better.

Dream Wake

"Dream Wake" is a story about regret, choices, and unfulfilled dreams. It follows a news reporter interviewing a former classmate in prison about the life-changing decisions he made. Together, the characters retrace the actions that led to their fate.

The story depicts how harmful decisions, such as substance abuse, lead to consequences and the death of dreams. With regret emphasized, the story successfully reinforces the importance of positive choices to achieve health and happiness.

Escape from the Shadow

"Escape from the Shadow" is an allegorical play that follows a group of friends as they face and unravel the dark and dangerous secret behind a mysterious shadow lurking in the woods.

In each chapter, students take on the roles of the characters, gradually uncovering the symbolic meaning of the shadow. As they engage in the characters' perspectives, learners gain insight into how substance use, or any harmful habit, such as gambling, unhealthy gaming, or overeating, slowly and gradually damages each dimension of the self, making it increasingly difficult to escape from.

In addition to the storylines, the Prevention Series utilizes music, comprehensive fact sheets, informative illustrations, supplemental lessons, and experimental hands-on activities and games that educate about the effects of substance use and reinforce the value of prevention for overall health and well-being.

Delivering Real-World Success Through Research Outcomes

The Positive Action program simultaneously achieves outcomes in numerous areas: academics, social-emotional learning, physical and mental health, character and behavior, and the reduction of many problem behaviors, such as discipline referrals, bullying, violence, and substance use.

“Risk-related behaviors were substantially reduced for students who participated in the program, providing evidence that a comprehensive school-based program can have a strong beneficial effect on student behavior.”
—American Journal of Public Health, 2009 Aug; 99(8):1438-1445.

RCT Study Confirms Strong Prevention Outcomes

A clinical trial examined the impact of a five-year trial of Positive Action on the prevention of substance use, violent behaviors, and sexual activity among young students. The findings of the research revealed that:

  • Students in the Positive Action program showed a 58% reduction in the odds of using substances and engaging in violent behaviors.
  • There was also a 76% reduction in the odds of voluntary sexual activity—a key indicator of risky behavior in adolescence.
  • These outcomes place Positive Action at the high end of effectiveness when compared with other school-based prevention programs, which typically show average behavior reductions of around 17.5%.

Middle school and high school are critical windows for prevention, as behavior during this time is formative for adulthood. The proven impact of Positive Action to significantly delay or prevent risky behaviors suggests a meaningful contribution to learners' long-term health, safety, and well-being.

Lead Prevention with Positive Action

Positive Action's Prevention Series offers a comprehensive, evidence-based secondary curriculum designed to promote substance-free living and prevent harmful habits that lead to substance use. The system's components—philosophy, approach, structure, and methodologies—seamlessly work together to address both proximal and distal risk factors that influence behavior.

With Positive Action, learned prevention concepts and nurtured healthy behaviors will last. Lead prevention education with Positive Action for true, sustained behavioral change!

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