Overview
Educating youth with evidence-based information about substance use is an important part of harm reduction. PreVenture is a prevention program for youth ages 12-18 that uses personality-focused interventions to promote mental health and reduce the risk of substance use. As a population level, school-based intervention, it has been shown to reduce or delay youth substance use in several studies across the globe. For more information about the program, visit the PreVenture Program website.
The PreVenture Pilot National Research Study was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of an online adaptation of the evidence-based in-person program. The research took place at multiple sites across Canada, including a Foundry-led site in British Columbia. Through this study, facilitators were trained in the PreVenture program methods and led workshops for youth. Youth provided feedback and answered surveys to measure the effectiveness of the program.
The national pilot was led by a group of researchers from across the country. The research leads for the BC site of the PreVenture Study were Drs. Steve Mathias (Co-Executive Director at Foundry and Clinical Associate Professor at University of British Columbia) and Skye Barbic (Head Scientist at Foundry and Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia) and the program implementation was done in partnership with Foundry Virtual and school district partners from North Vancouver.
Funders
The program delivery for this pilot was supported by a donation to the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation in Montreal, Quebec, and funds were distributed by the VentureLab team to support research activities.