Project Wise-Up: The Ins And Outs Of A Successful Prevention Project - Work in School to Educate Yourself for Prevention

Parks & Recreation, March, 1999 by Bertha Cato, William Chen, Neil Rainford

Unless certain destructive behaviors exhibited by today's youth are halted, they have the potential of permanently affecting the health and well-being of our country's most precious human resource. The epidemic of school shootings that struck Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Pearl, Miss.; and Springfield, Ore., is just the tip of the iceberg. Today's youngsters are incapable of handling the dynamics of many of the challenges and decisions to which they are exposed. Fact: The national high-school dropout rate for 16- to 19-year-olds is nine percent. Intensifying this reality is the juvenile violent-crime arrest rate for homicide, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault: 305/100,000 (The Annie B. Casey Foundation, 1994).

In Florida, where this success story evolved, the 1994 high-school dropout rate for 16- to 19-year-olds was 13 percent, and the juvenile violent-crime arrest rate was 805/100,000. The state's Alachua County provides even more disturbing statistics. From 1993 to '94, there were 698 cases of detention, 62 percent of which involved African-Americans. Managers transferred 197 of these youngsters to adult court.

These trends, especially as they relate to African-American youth, prompted the prevention initiative Project WISE-UP (Work in School to Educate Yourself for Prevention). After becoming familiar with these statistics, a principal investigator resolved to develop her ideas and find funding for a prevention intervention. The process also involved finding a co-principal investigator and partners, and developing the intervention. Hopefully, this article will contribute to the body of knowledge validating recreation, decision-making, and crime and drug education as valuable strategies in the prevention effort, and share factors contributing to the success of Project WISE-UR

Our success story began in 1994 when the principal and co-principal investigators persuaded the local police department, the Alachua County school board, and the local juvenile justice department to enter into a partnership. The investigators then lobbied with a local member of the Florida House of Representatives and achieved several opportunities to share their ideas and strategies with state-level and juvenile justice stakeholders. The investigators, along with a graduate student, delivered presentations to the state attorney general and members of Florida's Appropriation Committee and Juvenile Justice Department. Goals and objectives were presented in a very logical and systematic manner.

They discussed program components in relation to goals and specific behavioral outcomes. This shed a new light on the potential of recreation, decision-making, and drug and crime education as factors in the prevention equation. As a result, the project's initial two-year funding was extended to a third year.

The Nature of Project WISE-UP

Investigators marketed this program as an innovative, collaborative, client-centered approach to substance abuse and delinquency prevention. The focus was placed upon the early intervention of "high at risk, middle school, African-American youth." Program segments were comprehensive, innovative, interactive, client-centered, and family-oriented, comprising a continuum of integrated, interactive activities consisting of dominant components of a student's environment, community, school, peer group, and family. This element was achieved using an after-school program (the WISE-UP Educational Module), field trips, the game of chess, and a parental component.

Through increased resiliency and protective factors, WISE-UP sought to reduce the risk that youths will engage in dysfunctional behaviors like drugs and crime. This goal was to be accomplished by improving the referrals and academic standing of participants, while decreasing absences and in- and out-of-school suspensions; improving leisure attitudes and participation, while increasing knowledge of the harmful effects of drugs and criminal activities; and improving family interaction through a family-enrichment program.

The Participants

Over the three-year period, 100 middle-school students from a neighborhood housing project in Gainesville participated in the project. Participants were characterized by multiple risk factors including economic distress, alcohol and drug experimentation, chronic failure in school, high school-suspension rates, and learning disabilities. The community's 174 households are predominantly headed by single female minorities. Police regularly patrol this area plagued with drug use, prostitution, violence, and loitering. Busing students to an across-town, upper-middle-class school compounded their problems and at-risk tendencies.

Program Impact

In its first year, the program was responsible for slowing down the rate of academic deterioration. The cases of students being administratively promoted to upper grades were lessened. After two years of participation in Project WISE-UP, participants began to boost grade-point averages (from 1.7 to 2.1), while decreasing absence rates (cut by 54 percent) and school-suspension rates (dropped 76 percent). The number of referrals plummeted by 54 percent. In addition, participants showed improvements in goal-related protective factors, their knowledge about drugs and alcohol increased, leisure perceptions improved by three percent, pre- and posttests on leisure attitudes revealed a seven percent increase, conflict-resolution and decision-making scores increased by 10 percent, family bonding showed a five percent increase, and study habits improved by two percent.