Host a Workshop-By-Request

The Workshop-By-Request series is offered at no-cost to eligible California substance abuse prevention agencies or counties. These are one day hands-on and intensive trainings that offer information on state-of-the-art evidence-based prevention practices. The workshops are geared for 20 to 40 participants. Please go to http://ca-cpi.org/training/form_TA_application.php to request a workshop.

The following Workshops-By-Request are available:


The following includes a brief description for each training; presentation and training materials are also included.

Brief Intervention for Substance Using Adolescents

Developed by Christina Borbely, Ph.D. and Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

The goal of this one day training is to build skills of counselors working with adolescents. Brief Intervention is a short-term counseling intervention that consists of 2 to 4 sessions aimed at adolescents who use alcohol and/or other drugs. This training approach uses motivational interviewing, cognitive behavior therapy and the stages of change model to meet the needs of adolescents.

Learning Objectives:

  • Examining the counselor's attitudes and relationship with teens
  • Learning to teach adolescents how to take a more active and reflective role in decisions about their own behavior.
  • Identifying strategies that would support an adolescent driven plan to make decisions they see as beneficial
  • Increasing knowledge about drug and alcohol use among teens
  • Utilizing Motivational Interviewing to empower rather than enforce

Please come prepared to discuss specific goals and challenges, as this will aid us to better support your requests and answer your questions.

Painless Program Evaluation: A Step-By Step Guide to Measuring Outcomes

Developed by Christina Borbely, Ph.D. and Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

Conducting a solid and informative program evaluation is essential to providing effective prevention efforts and complying with the SDFSC grant requirements.

  • Part I is a capacity-building workshop designed to provide service providers with an overview of core program evaluation components, including practical and theoretical information for each stage of the evaluation process.
  • Part II is geared towards choosing and/or developing appropriate evaluation instrumentation that best measures your specific program outcomes.
  • Part III is designed to support local SDSFC program staff in your efforts to manage the data yielded by your SDFSC program evaluation. These capacity-building workshops are designed to develop your ability to be an informed participant in your program's evaluation process. The focus includes theoretical and practical knowledge and skill sets that you can apply independently or in collaboration with a program evaluator. Parts I, II, and III can be requested separately.

PowerPoint Presentation [PPT 10.2 MB]
Binder Materials [PDF 1.7 MB]

Got Data? A Step-By-Step Guide to Making Data Work for You

Developed by Christina Borbely, Ph.D. and Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

This is the second workshop in the Program Evaluation series. Collecting, entering, storing, processing, analyzing, and reporting data are essential components of accountability and program improvement. This workshop is designed to support local SDSFC program staff in your efforts to manage the data yielded by your SDFSC program evaluation. This capacity building workshop is designed to develop your ability to be an informed participant in your program's evaluation process. The focus includes theoretical and practical knowledge and skill sets that you can apply independently or in collaboration with a program evaluator. General guidelines and strategies for data management will be presented. This includes discussion of assessment schedules and database formats. In addition, there will be detailed focus on methods for summarizing findings from the program evaluation data. Finally, the workshop will provide recommendations for effective report writing and dissemination of impact findings to your key stakeholders. These topics are the next step in Painless Program Evaluation and align with the SDFSC grant requirements.

Please come prepared to discuss specific issues and challenges, as this will aid us to better support your requests and answer your questions. Please bring copies of your evaluation logic model (i.e. proposed outcomes) and evaluation instruments (surveys, focus group questions, interviews, etc.)

PowerPoint Presentation [PPT 1.3 MB]

Ain't No Mountain High Enough: Taking Your SDFSC Program and Evaluation to the Next Level

Developed by Christina Borbely, Ph.D. & Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

This workshop is designed to support local SDSFC program staff in advancing the sophistication of their program and evaluation designs. Options for progressive program design and increased evaluation rigor, as well as opportunities for recognition and credentials within the field will be highlighted. This capacity building workshop is designed to develop your ability to initiate steps toward and sustain the advancement of your SDFSC project. The focus includes theoretical and practical information and skill sets relevant for developing a more sophisticated program.

PowerPoint Presentation [PPT 2.2 MB]

Stop the Train, I Want to Get On!

Developed by Jan Ryan

The public school system sometimes operates like a futuristic bullet train that speeds along fueled by the national vision of educating everyone having difficulty finding the time to stop at the platforms full of people, programs, and systems ready and willing to help. This capacity-building workshop is designed to assist SDFSC program staff by providing concrete tips and strategies for establishing and maintaining school partnerships. The ultimate goal of this workshop is to create long-term sustainable partnerships with school systems. Come on board!

Binder Materials [PDF 1.4 MB]

Environmental Prevention: Strategies for Engaging Youth

Developed by the Amy Benjamin, Maureen Sedonaen, Eric Rowles, and Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

Traditional prevention methods have been aimed at changing the behavior of individuals through educational programs, self esteem exploration and refusal skills so they will choose to abstain from using alcohol or other drugs. While these programs have shown some results, their impact is limited. This one day workshop is designed to support local SDFSC staff in their efforts to incorporate an environmental prevention approach - one that seeks to change the settings and messages young people are exposed to that both inadvertently and deliberately make drinking and drug use appealing.

Youth in Focus: Conducting Youth-Led Focus Groups!

Developed by Angela Da Re

Conducting focus groups is an excellent way to gather non-scripted information from community members and engage young people in a meaningful way. Focus groups play an important role in community assessment, as well as evaluation, and can be a particularly useful strategy for understanding the "why" behind common norms, attitudes, and perceptions. When done well, focus groups foster dialogue, providing participants a chance to build on each others' ideas in a safe, non-judgmental setting, which can add a level of depth and understanding to an issue. This workshop is appropriate for youth who will be engaging in focus group efforts and their adult allies. Participants will be trained on techniques for developing focus group questions, focus group interviewing and facilitation techniques, as well as steps for summarizing and utilizing the data collected. Participants will leave with an understanding of question development, interviewing and facilitation techniques, and gain a practical understanding of how to train others, including their young partners, in these skills.

Recruitment and Retention: Culturally Appropriate Strategies

Developed by Rocco Cheng, Ph.D., Martha Madrid, and Kerrilyn Scott-Nakai

Effective recruitment and retention strategies are critical to ensuring successful programs. Achieving strong participation rates is often challenging for prevention providers; this is particularly true when agencies are providing new services or outreaching to new communities or populations. This workshop is intended to assist programs by highlighting applied strategies for increasing outreach success and participant engagement. Both proactive and reactive recruitment strategies will be discussed as well as social marketing techniques and a number of retention strategies. The workshop will have a particular

emphasis on parent participation strategies and culturally appropriate techniques for facilitating participation.

PowerPoint Presentation [PPT 417 KB]

Discussing Difficult Issues: Crises and Opportunities

Developed by Dustianne North and Jerry Sherk

Empowering young people to make their own decisions fosters personal growth, self esteem, and leadership development. Too often adults focus on giving advice and providing direction versus approaching communication with youth through a non prescriptive and problem solving lens. This is a hands-on capacity building workshop focusing on strategies for effectively communicating with youth regarding sensitive topics and difficult situations. Participants will learn and practice strategies for problem solving with youth while maintaining a positive relationship and differentiating between sensitive topics, issues of concern, and crises requiring more immediate intervention and/or referral.

The California Governor’s Program Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Technical Assistance (SDFSC TA) project ended on September 30th, 2011. The project was funded by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) and managed by the Center for Applied Research Solutions (CARS).

Publications and resources are still available to access through this archived website. If you are a California alcohol, drug or violence prevention program, you may be eligible for no-cost training and technical assistance services.

For further questions, please contact us at 1 (877) 568-4227 or carsinfo@cars-rp.org.

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