Northwestern Community Services Prevention Information

Prevention services provide a variety of evidence based programs in school and community settings that are designed to address the prevention of a number of risky behaviors in youth, including substance abuse, violence, and mental health issues such as suicide. Partnerships with a number of youth-serving organizations help provide a variety of settings for the provision of services to a diverse range of children and youth. These services are designed to increase participants’ skills and enhance their resiliencies to better cope with life’s challenges and to help them succeed in school and other endeavors. Youth leadership skills are emphasized to encourage healthy youth development for all children and teenagers. Services are research based and evaluated.

Free Evidence-Based Programming Offered:

Community Based:

Parenting Wisely is an interactive, computer-based parenting program that is available for parents with children ages 3-18. The course allows “parents to view video scene enactments of typical family problems, effective and ineffective resolutions to these problems, as well as detailed text descriptions of each skill.” The program is currently housed at the Warren Clinic in Front Royal and there is no cost to complete it. Contact the Prevention Specialist to schedule a time that is convenient for you (the course takes about 3 hours to complete and can be done over a number of visits)
Ripple Effects Whole Spectrum Intervention System is an interactive, software-based adaptive intervention for students from 2-10. It is designed to enhance social-emotional competencies and ultimately improve outcomes related to school achievement and failure, delinquency, substance abuse, and mental health. The program is customizable in terms of both content and process. There are over 140 topics for grades 2-5 and almost 400 topics for grades 6-10 to choose from on the basis of the student needs and the goals being targeted.

School Based:

LEADS: For Youth (Linking Education and Awareness of Depression and Suicide) is a curriculum for high school students in grades 9-12 that is designed to increase knowledge of depression and suicide, modify perceptions of depression and suicide, increase knowledge of suicide prevention resources, and improve intentions to engage in help-seeking behavior
Ripple Effects Whole Spectrum Intervention System is an interactive, software-based adaptive intervention for students from 2-10. It is designed to enhance social-emotional competencies and ultimately improve outcomes related to school achievement and failure, delinquency, substance abuse, and mental health. The program is customizable in terms of both content and process. There are over 140 topics for grades 2-5 and almost 400 topics for grades 6-10 to choose from on the basis of the student needs and the goals being targeted.

Additional Resources

There are a number of additional resources that are available upon request. These include: pamphlets on a wide range of youth specific topics, a library of displays, videos and books focusing on substance abuse and other risky youth behavior, and presentations on related topics.

Community Collaboration

The prevention field firmly believes that community collaboration is necessary to help children and youth keep on a steady path to a productive and healthy adulthood and to assist them in navigating through life at their highest potential. When families, schools, and community agencies and organizations collectively work together to achieve those goals, everyone benefits. The prevention program at Northwestern Community Services is actively involved in a number of regional coalitions:

Youth Resource Alliance - Multi-County <--NEW!!
Warren Coalition – Warren County
Family Youth Initiative (FYI) – Shenandoah County
Page Alliance for Community Action (PACA) – Page County
CLEAN Inc. – City of Winchester, Frederick and Clarke Counties

Contact Information: