Mathewson Early Prevention Program (MEPP)
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Capacity building for prevention, early intervention, and recovery support programs and services.
DESIGNING A CAPACITY-BUILDING METHOD FOR PREVENTION EFFORTS
The Mathewson Early Prevention Program (MEPP) is a multi-year initiative of Transforming Youth Recovery (TYR). The program seeks to identify and implement best practices for substances misuse prevention, early intervention, and recovery support services.
During the current planning period, we are working to fully understand the current prevention and wellness system in Washoe County and collect baseline metrics. A local leadership team has been engaged to provide us with community knowledge and expertise and help us identify effective approaches to build the capacity of the county-wide prevention and wellness system.
Data collection compliments our work as the team seeks to assess the needs of youth and their families in the community, research best practices in the prevention and recovery field, identify gaps in services, and build inventories of resources that can be used to connect people to appropriate care, support, and enrichment programs and services.
Overall, community strategies are being developed using the processes and content areas recommended by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework.
Ultimately, the goal is to research and pilot what works in Washoe County and share our findings and method with communities nationally.
CAPACITY-BUILDING METHOD THAT TYR WILL BE DEPLOYING INCLUDES THESE EFFORTS: |
Effort 1: Find and make known the prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery support resources for families and children within the community. |
Effort 2: Build relationships with early advocates and supporters to orient and connect people to resources. |
Effort 3: Repurpose social and naturally occurring networks for influence and engagement. |
Effort 4: Study how people access, collect, and use resources to assemble help for others at points of entry. |
Effort 5: Define and collect the right outcome, health, and well-being indicators. |
Effort 6: Practice adaptive learning to identify pathway gaps and improve local conditions. |
We welcome hearing from groups and organizations who wish to join our prevention efforts.
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The 2016 State of Recovery High Schools report authored for the Association of Recovery Schools (ARS) contributes to the standards being adopted for educating and supporting students in recovery.