Campus Substance Abuse Prevention Streamlined

As colleges and universities got into full swing this fall, so did the Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention. Operated by EDC’s Health and Human Development Division and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Higher Education Center has provided substance abuse and violence prevention support to campuses across the country since 1995. This past September, EDC won another four year contract to continue its work but with some important changes to streamline its services to campuses.

The Higher Education Center will now rely heavily on “Center Fellows” to provide training and assistance to campuses. These Fellows—researchers and experts in the field of substance abuse prevention and violence prevention—have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with campuses.

“Their expertise and real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t strengthens the quality and type of support we can offer colleges and universities,” says EDC’s Tracy Downs who works with the Higher Education Center. “We’re excited to be moving in this direction.” More than 40 Center Fellows have been identified to work with the Higher Education Center.

Technological advances will also enable the Higher Education Center to reach more campuses through self-paced online trainings and six new webinars about effective strategies for addressing substance abuse and violence. Given the current economic climate, this will enable colleges and universities to benefit from these professional learning opportunities without any additional expense.

Two annual Training Institutes at geographically diverse locations across the country will continue to allow professionals in the alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention and research fields to gather together to learn from and with each other. These Institutes complement the specialized in-person trainings on strategic planning and needs assessment that are offered by the Higher Education Center.

“With this new contract we will focus on streamlining our services to reach more colleges and universities, and provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to reduce alcohol, drug abuse, and violence on their campuses,” says Downs.

The Higher Education Center offers the following services to all institutions of higher education to assist them with addressing the problems of alcohol and other drug abuse, and violence:

• General information and assistance
• Trainings and other learning opportunities
• Evaluation support and assistance
• Publications
• Information about current prevention topics, news, legislation, research, or innovations
• Web content for specific audiences (e.g. parents, students, campus presidents)