CASASTART
An Effective Practice
Description
CASASTART (Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse/Striving Together to Achieve Rewarding Tomorrows) is a substance abuse and delinquency prevention program serving high-risk young adolescents and their families. CASASTART is composed of eight components designed to reduce neighborhood, family, peer group, and individual risk factors. To attain its goals, CASASTART brings together key stakeholders in a community, including families, schools, law enforcement agencies, and social service and health agencies. Program sites are able to adapt the program to fit their specific needs and strengths. The style and level of implementation across the sites is not uniform.
Goal / Mission
CASASTART's primary goals are (1) to provide youths with the services and support they need to become productive, law-abiding citizens; and (2) to create a safer environment for adolescents and their families through the reduction of crime and illegal drugs in their neighborhoods.
Results / Accomplishments
The program has yielded a number of sizeable positive outcomes with regard to drug use and drug sales. Moreover, studies showed that positive program effects were sustained a year after the program intervention ended. Results for the violence indicator are also encouraging. While CASASTART youths experienced improvements in the areas of reduced substance use and criminal behavior, they did not exhibit similar improvements in educational outcomes, such as improved school attendance and higher grades. Although CASASTART youths were significantly more likely to be promoted in school than control youths, the size of this gain was very small.
About this Promising Practice
Organization(s)
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
Primary Contact
Lawrence F. Murray, LMSW
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
633 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
(212) 841-5208
LMurray@casacolumbia.org
http://www.casastart.org
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
633 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
(212) 841-5208
LMurray@casacolumbia.org
http://www.casastart.org
Topics
Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Health / Adolescent Health
Community / Crime & Crime Prevention
Health / Adolescent Health
Community / Crime & Crime Prevention
Organization(s)
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
Source
Promising Practices Network
Date of publication
Nov 2005
Date of implementation
1992
For more details
Target Audience
Children