The following links connect you to programs that have been identified by groups of experts as "best practices." The National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention have all developed lists which are represented here. Please note that even though many of the same programs were evaluated by more than one group, the final lists are different.

One attempt to address the variation in standards used by prevention program evaluators across disciplines is being initiated by Prevention Technologies. This organization is championing an International Classification of Preventive Trials, which will set an agreed-upon "gold standard" for what should be reported in evaluation studies. The work group for this effort is listed at http://www.oslc.org/spr/registry.html.

Maintained by the Prevention Research Center of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

The Prevention Research Center at Johns Hopkins has a very practitioner-friendly and helpful web site. Available here are extensive intervention and assessment manuals, assessment instruments, publications, and more. The programs studied here include a comprehensive classroom prevention plan, the "Good Behavior Game," and the "Mastery Learning" program for first graders.

Maintained by the Princeton Health Press.

Life Skills Training is an empirically validated, commercially available drug abuse prevention curriculum targeting middle or junior high school students. This program has been named by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as a model program. The program runs for 15 Sessions (Year 1), 10 Sessions (Year 2) and 5 Sessions (Year 3). A Teacher’s Manual and Student Guide (for each year) are available. The program is designed to be implemented by Teachers, Peer Leaders, or Health Professionals. The web page is a bit slow to load. Unconventionally, the topics one may browse are along the top.

A brief fact sheet is available at: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/lstfacts.htm.

Maintained by the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Delaware

A jury of faculty members from four different colleges and universities in Delaware approved the recommendations made in this document. This is an excellent resource on best practices in preventive and early intervention with parents. The page contains a literature review, written in June 1998, that is very easy to "jump around" in, in order to access the sections that might be of greatest interest to a particular user. Sections of the review include: What can parent educators do to bring about change? What types of programs are most effective? Programming focused on specific parenting issues: Appropriate discipline, Antisocial behavior and chronic delinquency, Substance use prevention, Sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy, and Interparental conflict, Programming focused on parenting at specific stages of child development, and Programming focused on specific groups of parents.

Maintained by the University of Utah, with funding by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

"Exemplary," "model," and "promising" family-focused programs for the prevention of delinquency and other negative outcomes are organized and described here. A brief literature review is also presented. An innovative and informative matrix organizing programs by developmental stage targeted and type of prevention program (universal, selected, indicated) is found at http://www.strengtheningfamilies.org/html/model_programs/mfp_pg1.html.