Episode #117 High Truths on Drugs and Addiction with Dr. Pamela Buckley and Blueprints for Healthy Youth

Blueprints for healthy youth contain over 100 randomized control evidence based program that at proven to prevent either youth drug use, violence, bullying, or other adverse behaviors. Not only that, primary prevention in youth saves money. Just before the DARE program did not end up being evidence based, does not mean there are not other programs that are successful. Our children are our future, we must be investing in prevention at a young age to protect their brains from drugs.

Pamela R. Buckley, PhD, is a senior research associate in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her expertise is in evidence-based decision-making, i.e., the use of scientific evidence to inform decisions about social programs and policies for youth (ages 0-24 years). Her scholarship focuses on interdisciplinary and applied research to understand what works, for whom and under what circumstances, and in generating reliable evidence concerning responses to educational, health, and social problems. She has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on over five million dollars in grants, has had her work supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, and has published in outlets such as American Educational Research Journal, Exceptional Children, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Prevention Science.

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development. Providing a registry of Experimentallhy Proven Programs.

The Blueprints mission is to provide a registry of evidence-based interventions that are effective in reducing antisocial behavior and promoting a healthy course of youth development and adult maturity.

Most programs implemented in communities to improve youths’ lives, unfortunately, do not produce the hoped-for effects when rigorously evaluated, or cost more to implement than they produce in benefits. Blueprints promotes only those interventions with the strongest scientific support. It does so by providing a list of interventions certified as Promising, Model or Model Plus that communities can adopt with confidence.

Interventions certified by Blueprints are family, school, and community-based and target all levels of need — from broad prevention programs that promote positive behaviors while decreasing negative behaviors to highly-targeted programs for at-risk children, troubled teens or formerly incarcerated adults that get them back on track.