The strategies to the left have been provided to assist Florida Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) Coordinators in applying for their SDFS Entitlement Grants. In compliance with the Principles of Effectiveness, youth-based programs must be "based on research or evaluation that provides evidence that the programs used prevent or reduce drug use, violence, or disruptive behavior among youth."

To file under the "Promising Program" category on the Florida SDFS Entitlement Application, districts must list the major strategies, or program components, included in their program. For each strategy there must be at least one citation (that's the research or evaluation part) that provides evidence that the strategy has been effective in preventing or reducing drug use, violence, or disruptive behavior among youth.

Methodology: These strategies were identified by examining some of the 2000-2001 SDFS Entitlement Applications. Every effort was made to obtain each article cited. Those that were gathered by early December were given to a team of graduate students from Florida State University's School of Social Work. Under the direction of Dr. Jorge Delva, these students then read each article and rated it on generalizability and other factors. Only the strategies that they felt were supported by the literature have been included on this website. To read their comments, just click on the underlined part of each citation. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader).

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