Guiding Good Choices (GGC)
Formerly named Preparing for the Drug-Free Years, Families that Care
Parents with children in grades 4
GGC has been implemented in diverse urban and rural communities across the United States with parents and children from various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. It has been tested with Hispanic, African-American, Samoan, Native American, and Caucasian families.
GGC consists of five two-hour sessions usually held over five consecutive weeks. The curriculum can also be presented in ten one-hour sessions. During these sessions, parents learn to establish a family policy on drug use. They learn to teach their children resistance skills, to recognize the importance of creating opportunities for adolescents to have meaningful roles in the family, and to practice techniques for self-control in order to reduce family conflicts. Two volunteer workshop leaders facilitate sessions. Ideally, one leader is a parent. The sessions are interactive and skill-based, with opportunities for parents to practice new skills and receive feedback from workshop leaders and other parents. Video-based vignettes demonstrate parenting skills through the portrayal of a variety of family situations. Participants also receive a Family Guide containing family activities, discussion topics, skill-building exercises, and information on positive parenting. GGC has been offered to parents in schools, work sites, churches, community centers, homes, hospitals, and prisons. Parents who attend all five sessions are awarded a certificate of completion at the program's end.
The workshop leaders who conduct GGC should be skilled in providing parenting workshops, understand the principles of adult learning, and be knowledgeable about risk and protective factors as they relate to prevention. It is recommended that this two-person team consist of a parent and someone with group facilitation experience. While the program kit provides all of the tools needed by workshop leaders to deliver GGC workshops, it is recommended that leaders attend the Guiding Good Choices
Channing Bete Company
One Community Place
South Deerfield, MA 01373-0200
Phone: (877) 896-8532 or (800) 499-6464
E-mail: CustSvcs@channing-bete.com
Web site: www.channing-bete.com/ggc/
A Core Program kit (containing materials for use by workshop leaders: two copies each of the Workshop Leader's Guide, the Workshop Video and the Family Guide, and CD containing PowerPoint presentations) is $729, plus $12.79 per Family Guide for each participating family (quantity discounts available for 10 or more Family Guides). A Workshop Leader
Program results suggest that the intervention has a statistically significant effect on promoting proactive communication from parent to child. In controlled studies, the GGC program has been shown to:
- reduce alcohol and marijuana use by up to 40.6%
- reduce progression to more serious drug abuse by 54%
- increase the likelihood that nonusers will remain drug-free by 26%
Evaluation tools are contained within the GGC program package. The GGC Workshop Leader
- Communities That Care- Developmental Research and Programs Effective Program
- Strengthening America
Hawkins, J. D., Catalano R. F., & Kent L. A. (1991). Combining broadcast media and parent education to prevent teenage drug abuse. In L. Donohew & H. E. Sypher & W. J. Bukoski (Eds.), Persuasive communication and drug abuse prevention (pp. 283
