Addressing Youth Substance Use and Prevention through Social-Emotional Learning: Implementing the Second Step Curriculum

Partnering with Brown County Schools, The Aldrich Project Advisory Group worked to expand access to substance use prevention programming for students in grades K-6 through the implementation of the evidence-based Second Step social-emotional learning curriculum. As an interprofessional community health project, undergraduate and graduate students from the IU Bloomington School of Nursing, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, School of Public Health, and School of Social Work collaborated to develop, implement, and evaluate the creation of videos for grades K-6 to complement e-learning requirements during COVID-19. The overall goal of this project was to increase social-emotional learning skills and strategies for school-aged youth creating more confident, resilient, and healthy youth in rural communities.