Gwyndolyn Ensley, MEd, Building Blocks for a Healthy Future, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 5600 Fishers Ln., RWII, Rm. 800, Rockville, MD 20857, (301) 443-0581, GEnsley@samhsa.gov

Building Blocks for a Healthy Future is federally sponsored program that targets parents and caregivers of children ages 3 to 6. Building Blocks was crafted around six prevention principles, based on more than 20 years of research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). These six principles are family-related “protective factors,” situations and conditions that decrease a child’s chances for engaging in drug-related and other risky behaviors. They include communication, involvement, consistent rules, role modeling, choosing friends, and monitoring a child’s activities. The program’s goal is to educate parents and caregivers about the basics of prevention so that they can nurture and protect children and help them develop healthy, pro-social behaviors and attitudes. Building Blocks provides activities and suggestions to help parents and caregivers help children make decisions, gain confidence, and improve self-esteem. It helps children form healthy, lifelong habits and attitudes about exercise, healthy eating, friendships, and responsibility.

Learning Objectives:

• • Understand the dangers associated with risk factors and the benefits associated with protective factors.
• • Identify the protective factors that can be enhanced in the classroom and at home.
• • Describe creative methods to reach out to parents/caregivers throughout the community in order to facilitate protective factor discussions.
• • Utilize interactive tools to help parents/caregivers support protective factors in the classroom and at home through improved communication, monitoring, setting rules, role modeling and building healthy habits and positive attitudes.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employment