Ages: 4-13
Contact: Lynn McDonald
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1025 W. Johnson Street
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: (608) 263-9476, FAX: (608) 263-6448
Families and Schools Together (FAST) is a collaborative parent-professional partnership, early intervention multi-family program for pre-school, elementary and middle school youth, ages 4 through 13, who are at risk for alcohol and other drug abuse, school failure, and juvenile delinquency. The program builds protective factors on multiple levels around children identified by teachers as being at risk for failure in school. FAST is now being implemented in over 450 schools in 31 states and five countries. The program targets families with 4- through 13-year-old children. FAST is an 8-week, multi-family group process structured to build social connections and reduce social isolation. FAST activities include 1) an outreach process by trained FAST team partners who invite whole family participation in FAST with face-to-face visits at the parents’ convenience, 2) an eight- week, multi-family engagement process for 8-12 families facilitated by a trained parent- professional partnership, and 3) an ongoing two-year FASTWORKS reunion process of monthly multi- family meetings of FAST graduates, run by the families and supported by the team.
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Model Program