Youth to Youth Endorsed as Promising Practice

Dover Youth to Youth was recently notified by the New Hampshire Center for Excellence that it has been officially designated as a “New Hampshire Promising Practice”. This designation follows a review by an expert research panel of the results of Dover’s research into the drug prevention program’s effectiveness.

For the past 3 years the Youth to Youth program in Dover has been engaged in a process to allow its widely recognized youth empowerment program to be scientifically evaluated to determine the actual impact of the program on teens. In 2010 Dover Youth to Youth was selected for advanced assistance by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). This assistance included expert technical assistance in how to conduct the research as well as being selected to receive one of only fifteen $30,000 grants awarded nationally to get the process of measuring effectiveness started.

Being designated as a promising practice is an important intermediary step in the process of achieving official determination as having produced statistically significant outcomes through this formal evaluation. Once that final level is achieved, the Dover Youth to Youth program will be listed on the NH Registry of Evidence-Based Interventions (NH-REI). Once listed on the NH-REI and certified as a program shown to be effective, Dover Youth to Youth, and any communities looking to replicate the program, would have greater eligibility for funding opportunities.