Botvin LifeSkills Training is designed to address the social and psychological factors that contribute to substance use and other risky behavior.

Instead of simply giving young people information about drugs, it teaches skills they can actually use: personal self-management, communication, decision-making, social competence, and resistance to peer pressure.

Randomized research has demonstrated significant prevention effects involving cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and excessive alcohol use, as well as substance-use knowledge and interpersonal skills. PubMed

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Young people need more than a rule telling them what not to do. They need the ability to recognize a situation, think through choices, communicate effectively, manage pressure, and act.

How We Deliver It

Neighborhood Ministries delivers LifeSkills within a trauma-informed environment that emphasizes practice, dignity, relationship, and skill development rather than shame. FY26 combined target: 90 youth across two funding streams.

CATCH My Breath is designed specifically to prevent youth vaping.

The curriculum helps students understand e-cigarettes and nicotine while strengthening their ability to resist peer influence, think critically about marketing, and make informed choices.

Published evaluation research found lower e-cigarette initiation among participating students, and CATCH reports that students were substantially less likely to initiate vaping one year after participating compared with control schools. CATCH — Proven Effectiveness

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Vaping presents a prevention challenge that looks different from traditional cigarette prevention. Products, social norms, flavors, technology, and marketing have changed rapidly. Young people need current information and practical skills.

How We Deliver It

We provide accurate information without relying primarily on fear or shame. Students are encouraged to ask questions, discuss what they are seeing among peers, and practice making their own informed decisions. FY26 combined target: 205 youth across two funding streams.

keepin' it REAL was developed through Arizona State University and is especially relevant to our work because its original research included young people in Phoenix.

The program was developed with youth, using their real experiences to identify practical ways of navigating substance-related pressure.

REAL stands for:

• Refuse
• Explain
• Avoid
• Leave

The curriculum also develops decision-making, problem-solving, communication, assertiveness, goal-setting, and risk-awareness skills. ASU Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Young people do not encounter risk in identical circumstances. Giving them four different resistance strategies increases agency and allows them to decide which response makes sense in a particular situation.

How We Deliver It

Facilitators emphasize choice, culturally responsive conversation, real-life practice, and skill development. FY26 combined target: 55 youth across two funding streams; FY25 reach (12 youth) was limited by district budget cuts, and Neighborhood Ministries is rebuilding school partnerships to grow enrollment.

Youth 360Rx provides accessible education about prescription drugs, opioids, misuse, and associated risks.

The presentation is available in both English and Spanish.

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Opioids and prescription medications present particular risks that young people need to understand clearly. The program provides a focused way to address those risks within our larger prevention strategy.

How We Deliver It

We provide information without stigmatizing addiction or people affected by substance use. The emphasis is on understanding risk, making safer choices, and recognizing when additional help may be needed. FY26 combined target: 200 youth across two funding streams.

Evidence note: We currently describe Youth 360Rx as evidence-informed, rather than evidence-based, unless additional independent evaluation establishes a stronger designation.

Active Parenting of Teens helps parents navigate the changing relationship that comes with adolescence.

The curriculum addresses communication, responsibility, boundaries, conflict, and sensitive issues including substance use.

Active Parenting reports more than four decades of evaluation across its parenting programs, including research specifically examining Active Parenting of Teens. Active Parenting — Research Studies

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Parents and caregivers are part of the protective environment surrounding a young person. Strengthening communication at home makes prevention more than something that happens in a classroom.

How We Deliver It

We approach parents as partners with knowledge, experience, and strengths — not as people who need to be corrected. FY26 combined target: 105 parents across two funding streams.

TIC for Teens helps adolescents develop a basic understanding of trauma, stress, resilience, and emotional regulation.

Young people gain language for what happens in the brain and body when they experience stress and explore healthier ways of responding. The curriculum is delivered in partnership with the Arizona ACEs Consortium.

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

A young person who understands their stress response has more options available than someone who simply experiences that response as anger, panic, shutdown, or overwhelm.

How We Deliver It

Young people can learn about trauma without being required to disclose their own traumatic experiences. The goal is understanding and skill-building, not forcing vulnerability.

Therapeutic arts provide structured opportunities for young people to notice, express, and regulate emotions through creative activity.

Activities can include visual art, movement, rhythm, music, reflection, and other forms of expression.

Why Neighborhood Ministries Uses It

Not every difficult experience is easily put into words. Creative practices can provide another way to develop self-awareness, regulation, connection, and healthy coping.

This is consistent with Neighborhood Ministries' larger prevention goal: helping young people expand the range of responses available to them when they experience stress. FY26 combined target: 300 youth across two funding streams.