Statement of Training Philosophy

Addressing alcohol and other drug abuse and violence on campus takes knowledge, skills, an understanding of campus culture, and the willingness to rise to a challenge! To be successful in addressing these problems, it is important to recognize that alcohol and other drug abuse and violent behavior (AODV) among students results from a variety of influences in the physical, social, economic, and legal environment. For this reason, the Center promotes broad-based change at the institutional, community, and public-policy levels.

Campuses need a combination of strategies to change the environment that affects AOD abuse and violence among students. These strategies include:

• Promoting social, recreational, extracurricular, and public service alternatives to AOD abuse
• Creating a health-promoting social, academic, and residential environment
• Limiting alcohol availability
• Restricting marketing and promotion of alcoholic beverages
• Enforcing campus AODV policies and state and local laws

This approach to prevention is referred to as environmental management. Combined with education and early intervention strategies, it forms the basis of a comprehensive approach to prevention in higher education. The Center's training events provide participants with the knowledge and skills to move from theory to practice in implementing targeted, well-planned, comprehensive prevention programs.

The Center's trainings are facilitated opportunities for teams to think through the AODV problems of their campus and community environment, and to learn about a planning process that will support them in moving to action. In order to do this, the Center's training program lays the groundwork for a deep and long-term commitment to a campus and a community – not just a one-time training event.

The Center's training programs take into account the particular needs and resources of each campus and community team, to "meet people where they are." Training facilitators gauge a team's training needs via needs-assessment questionnaires, conference calls with training site coordinators, and on-site participant evaluations. In some cases, the Center's trainers will combine material from the different modules into a "hybrid" training event in order to meet the particular needs of the participants.