Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this reporting period included:? (1) Youth in 4th through 8th grade living in three rural school districts in Wayne County, (2) the?parents and caregivers of youth living in three rural school districts in Wayne county, (3) school teachers, administrators, and school staff in Wayne County, and (4) other parents, concerned citizens, and mental health and substance abuse professional living in the 30 rural counties in PA, (5) high school aged youth living in rural counties. Changes/Problems:Our rate of recruitment for Guiding Good Choices and Mental Health First Aid has been steady from the first year. We are working to finish our project and transition programming to Wayne County Drug and Alcohol. We have made successful adjustments to our recruitment plan for MHFA and expect to improve the dissemination and training related to that program significantly in Year 3. Family programming will continue in the same fashion as year 2. We have also made some edits to the way Social Media TestDrive is delivered to multiple grades to make it more manageable for facilitators. For example, if the library teacher is the implementor and she sees grades 6-8, she now chooses 4 modules to implement to each grade. Now the students will not get repeated modules and 4 modules per grade is more manageable than 12 modules per grade. We also stressed to the SMTD implementors that all modules can be used as standalone lessons, and not all need to be completed to be effective. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Due to this project, we have continued to provide multiple opportunities for training and professional development in this second project period. Mental Health First Aid: This project provided the opportunity to certify 48 people as Mental Health "First-Aiders." Social Media Test Drive: We trained six educators in 3 regional school districts to implement the Social Media Test Drive program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We share Guiding Good Choices data and information about program participation and outcomes of program participants at PROSPER team meetings. At our meetings we have representatives from Drug and Alcohol, Wayne County School Districts, Wayne County Memorial Hospital, the Cooperage project, and Children's Behavioral Services. Wayne County Drug and Alcohol have also shared our outcomes from GGC with their agency. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? (1) Continuation of Expanded PROSPER program offerings in rural northeast Pennsylvania. PROSPER Infrastructure: We are continuing our regular PROSPER meetings, setting dates in advance and meeting agendas well in advance to ensure time is being used efficiently. We are working to support sustainability of project activities through transitioning PROSPER program implementation to be led by Wayne County Drug and Alcohol, in coordination with the PROSPER teams. Family-focused Programs, Guiding Good Choices: We set programming dates well in advance of their kick-off this fall, are using former participants to assist with recruitment, and are providing incentives to increase participation. We are also planning to offer a virtual session in the winter, and an additional session this spring, to reach our programming goals in all three participating school districts. Too Good For Drugs: All three school districts are continuing to implement the Too Good For Drugs curriculum. We are continuing to provide support as needed for implementation monitoring. (2) Use PROSPER to address the increasing mental health needs of the individuals and families in rural northeast Pennsylvania. Mental Health First Aid: We took some steps in Year 2 that will help situate us for strong participation and wide dissemination of Mental Health First Aid in Year 3. One of our school districts, Wallenpaupack, expressed interest in having groups of students trained in Mental Health First Aid. Consequently, we reviewed program offerings and training needs and in Year 3 are training two Extension Educators to facilitate MHFA-Teen. The PROSPER team is making plans with Wallenpaupack School District to implement MHFA-Teen to multiple groups of students, during 6 of their Health classes during the school day. Wallenpaupack School District will be the first district to try teen MHFA in the next project period. Act 48 credentialling (i.e., providing continuing education credits) for the MHFA-Adult and MHFA-Youth should continue to increase the motivation to participate in the course. Also, in year 3, we are planning to integrate changes to our implementation plans to offer the course at night; we received feedback from teachers that this would increase the likelihood that they could participate. We have also opened-up participation to other rural counties in Pennsylvania. Social Media Test Drive: We are making great progress with Social Media Test Drive and many more students have been involved in this program than we expected, given that teachers, in addition to parents, have decided to implement this course with their students. We are continuing our regular communication and offers of assistance to implementing teachers, the principals of implementing schools, and the PROSPER teams. (3) Expand PROSPER's reach and influence in rural Pennsylvania. Year 2 has improved connectivity to rural counties for our statewide rural-population-focus webinars. We are beginning to examine the effectiveness of our outreach to rural communities through the statistics that are tracked through our constant contact database and registration and attendance information for our program offerings. We will consult with key collaborators in hard-to-reach rural communities as needed to problem-solve any challenges we are having with reach.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? At the end of this project period, we are reporting several accomplishments relating to the development of PROSPER infrastructure and adapting the program offering to ensure we are implementing relevant programs to meet the increasing mental health needs of rural Pennsylvania communities. (1) Continuation of Expanded PROSPER program offerings in rural northeast Pennsylvania; PROSPER Infrastructure: Three PROSPER teams are fully functioning in rural Northwest Pennsylvania: Wallenpaupack, Wayne Highlands, Western Wayne. Wallenpaupack - 11 team members, ten meetings between September 2023 - August 2024. Wayne Highlands - 11 team members, ten meetings between September 2023 - August 2024. Western Wayne - 12 team members, ten meetings between September 2023 - August 2024. Family-focused Programs, Guiding Good Choices: All three school districts recruited families and we held in person programming in two locations across the county. Though recruitment numbers are small, families report liking the program and we have 100% retention for a 100% graduation from the program. Wallenpaupack - 5 families graduated from the Guiding Good Choices program in Fall 2023. Wayne Highlands - graduated 3 families from the Guiding Good Choices program in Fall 2023. Western Wayne - graduated 1families from the Guiding Good Choices program in Fall 2023. Virtual Implementation - Group-based family programming is slow to return after the pandemic. As a result, we also implemented a virtual Guiding Good Choices session in the winter 2024. We graduated 5 families from the virtual implementation in February 2024. Overall, 14 families and 17 adults benefitted from the Guiding Good Choices program implementation in the second project year. Too Good For Drugs: All three school districts implemented the Too Good For Drugs curriculum for 6th (n = 554), 7th (n = 544), and 8th (n = 543) graders, reaching a total of 1,641 youth last schoolyear (2023-2024). (2) Expand PROSPER to address the increasing mental health needs of the individuals and families in rural northeast Pennsylvania; Mental Health First Aid: The Mental Health First Aid program is piquing interest in teachers, school district staff, PROSPER team members, and parents of middle school youth across the region. In year 2, we conducted "First Aider" courses for adults in Wayne county. Additional conversations occurred with Susquehanna, Mercer, and Bradford which are likely to lead to additional course offerings in Year 3. First-Aider Courses: We conducted 6 Mental Health First Aid "First Aider" courses to support youth in need across Wayne County. A total of 48 individuals benefitted from programming in this second project year, earning their "First Aider" certification from the sponsoring organization. We can now offer Act 48 Credits for PA K-12 Educators for completing the course. Act 48 in Pennsylvania is the ongoing professional education that all certified educators are required to participate in. Social Media Test Drive: We prepared 6 teachers to implement the program during the school day. Adjustments have been made in implementation. Each school district has one or two teachers implementing all 12 modules. Teachers can decide what modules to use and with what grade. Subject times that the modules are being implemented include library, computer science, and guidance. Program Implementation: 550 students participated in the Social Media Test Drive program in year two. (3) Expand PROSPER's reach and influence in rural Pennsylvania. We held two Webinars geared toward Pennsylvania's 30 rural counties. Webinar 1: The topic for the first online seminar was Rural Mental Health. This was held in May of 2024. The webinar featured the Documentary Film Greener Pastures and Discussions. One hundred (n = 100) attended the session. Webinar 2: The topic for the second online seminar was an opportunity to explore the parent education program, Thrive, and overcome barriers to connect with participants. This was held in August of 2024. Sixteen (n = 16) attended the session.

Publications

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this reporting period included: (1) middle school-aged youth living in three rural school districts in Wayne County, (2) theparents and caregivers of youth iving in three rural school districts in Wayne county, (3) school teachers, administrators, and staff in Wayne County, and (4) other parents, concerned citizens, and mental health and substance abuse professional living in the 30 rural counties in PA. Changes/Problems:Our rate of recruitment into Guiding Good Choices and Mental Health First Aid has been slower than expected in the first year, consequently we have not expended all related implementation expenses as expected in Year 1. As explained in the prior section, we have made adjustments and expect to improve recruitment into programs during Year 2. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Due to this project, we provided multiple opportunities for training and professional development in this first project period. Mental Health First Aid: We leveraged funds from other sources to train two community members involved in the project in the full certification course for Mental Health First Aid. Though other funds were used to cover the cost of the training, these two individuals would not have gone through the certification training were it not for this project. Hence, we consider this as a "project provided" opportunity for training and professional development. Too Good For Drugs: We leveraged funds from other sources to train one region-targeted school district, Wallenpaupack Area School District, in Too Good For Drugs, a substance use prevention program for elementary and middle school students. Social Media Test Drive: We trained educators in 2 region school districts to implement the Social Media Test Drive program. Guiding Good Choices: We leveraged funds from other sources to train seven community members, from the school district, the county drug and alcohol provider, and other interested individuals to facilitate the Guiding Good Choices program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly share information about program participation and outcomes of program participants at PROSPER team meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?(1) Expand PROSPER program offerings in rural northeast Pennsylvania. PROSPER Infrastructure: We are continuing our regular PROSPER meetings, setting dates in advance and meeting agendas well in advance to ensure time is being used efficiently. We are also continuing our outreach to the Office of Rural Health and the local public schools. Family-focused Programs, Guiding Good Choices: We set programming dates well in advance of their kick-off this fall, are using former participants to assist with recruitment, and are providing incentives to increase participation. We are also planning to offer a virtual session in the winter, and additional sessions this spring, to reach our programming goals in all three participating school districts. Too Good For Drugs: All three school districts are continuing to implement the Too Good For Drugs curriculum. We are continuing to provide support as needed for training and implementation monitoring. (2) Adapt PROSPER to address the increasing mental health needs of the individuals and families in rural northeast Pennsylvania. Mental Health First Aid: We took some steps in Year 1 that will help situate us for a strong recruitment to any one of the Mental Health First Aid "First Aider" courses. For example, our work to get the course to count for Continuing Education credits for Educators, Social Workers, and other professional bodies, should increase the motivation to participate in the course. Also, we are starting to offer the course during different days of the week and times, to make it more convenient for a variety of individuals to participate. We may try an in person session rather than virtual, during which we can supply refreshments. If needed, we can also open-up registration to the other 30 rural counties in Pennsylvania. We may also offer sessions directly to our PROSPER team members. Social Media Test Drive: We are making great progress with Social Media Test Drive and many more students have been involved in this program than we expected, given that teachers, in addition to parents, have decided to implement this course with their students. We are continuing our regular communication and offers of assistance to implementing teachers, the principals of implementing schools, and the PROSPER teams. (3) Expand PROSPER's reach and influence in rural Pennsylvania. We laid the groundwork in Year 1 for improved connectivity to rural counties in Year 2 for our statewide rural-population-focus Webinars. We conducted major internet searches of individuals in key positions across Pennsylvania: educators and school district administrators; police and judicial system employees; drug and alcohol treatment and prevention staff; mental health counselors; and others. We now have a thorough database of possible contacts in all 30 rural counties and are beginning to conduct outreach regarding our programming to all 30 rural counties. In addition, we will analyze our reach and participation data by zip code or county to assess which rural counties we are reaching and which ones we are not yet being successful in reaching. We will consult with collaborators as needed to problem-solve any challenges we are having with reach.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? At the end of this project period, we are reporting several accomplishments relating to the development of PROSPER infrastructure and adapting the program offering to ensure we are implementing relevant programs to meet the increasing mental health needs of rural Pennsylvania communities. (1) Expand PROSPER program offerings in rural northeast Pennsylvania; PROSPER Infrastructure: Three PROSPER teams are fully functioning now in rural Northwest Pennsylvania: Wallenpaupack, Wayne Highlands, Western Wayne. Wallenpaupack - 9 team members, six meetings between October 2022 - May 2023. Wayne Highlands - 11 team members, eight meetings between October 2022 - August 2023. Western Wayne - 10 team members, eight meetings between October 2022 - July 2023. Family-focused Programs, Guiding Good Choices: Though recruitment numbers are small, families report liking the program and we have 100% retention for a 100% graduation from the program. We expect this successful experience will help us with recruitment next fall. Wallenpaupack - graduated 5 families from the Guiding Good Choices program in Spring 2023. Wayne Highlands - graduated 3 families from the Guiding Good Choices program in Spring 2023. Western Wayne - graduated 4 families from the Guiding Good Choices program in Spring 2023. Virtual Implementation - Group-based family programming is slow to return after Covid. As a result, we also implemented a virtual Guiding Good Choices session in the summer. We graduated 3 families from the virtual implementation in July 2023. Overall, 15 families benefitted from the Guiding Good Choices program implementation in the first project year. Too Good For Drugs: All three school districts implemented the Too Good For Drugs curriculum for 6th (n = 477), 7th (n = 465), and 8th (n = 480) graders, reaching a total of 1,422 youth last school-year (2022-2023). (2) Adapt PROSPER to address the increasing mental health needs of the individuals and families in rural northeast Pennsylvania; Mental Health First Aid: The Mental Health First Aid program is peaking interest in teachers, PROSPER team members, and parents of middle school youth across the region. We conducted both Mental Health First Aid Overview sessions and "First Aider" courses for adults in Wayne and Susquenhanna counties. Overview Sessions: We conducted 6 Mental Health First Aid Overview sessions in Wallenpaupack to elicit interest in registering and taking the program in the summer and this fall. First-Aider Courses: We conducted 4 private Mental Health First Aid "First Aider" courses to support youth in need across Wayne County. A total of 29 individuals benefitted from programming in this first project year, earning their "First Aider" certification from the sponsoring organization. We are also working on connecting this course with Act 48 Credits in PA, which handles the continuing education credentialing process for PA K-12 Educators. Social Media Test Drive: We conducted introductory sessions and prepared teachers to implement the program during the school day. Overview Sessions: We reached 38 parents and teachers in 2 different school districts with this content. Eighteen teachers decided to implement the program during the school day after the overview session and discussion with their principal. Program Implementation: 425 students have participated in the Social Media Test Drive program. (3) Expand PROSPER's reach and influence in rural Pennsylvania. We held two Webinars geared for Pennsylvania's 30 rural counties. Webinar 1: The topic for the first webinar was Mental Health First Aid. This was held on January 17, 2023. The webinar covered describing the need for mental health programming in Pennsylvania, the theory behind the program, its outcomes, and information on how to attend a course. Seventy-six (n = 76) attended the session. Webinar 2: The topic for the second webinar was digital citizenship and online safety, and we presented the Social Media Test Drive as an answer to help parents and educators guide youth interactions with social media. This was held on August 31, 2023. Sixty-nine (n = 69) attended the session. We have met with our Office of Rural Health to assist with outreach in to Pennsylvania's rural counties.

Publications