How to Use Facts on Tap and Transitions Resources

Facts on Tap and Transitions: Knowledge for Students, their Parents and Prevention Professionals

Transitions and Facts on Tap are designed to teach students about alcohol and other drugs and to help prevention professionals and parents reduce teen use.

Both programs, with their materials, website, training, and technical support, are designed to enhance school-based alcohol prevention efforts at both the high school and college level. Whether infused into an existing prevention program or acting as a foundation for a new effort, Facts on Tap and Transitions allow prevention professionals to have the tools they need to reach students their parents and the professionals who work with them.  The resources are flexible enough that to be used as a compete kit or as stand-alone resources.

Every soon-to-be, or current, college student can benefit from solid facts about alcohol and other drugs. Still, prevention brochures and pamphlets are rarely on the campus bestseller list. Facts on Tap and Transitions materials are destined to be campus favorites because they have been designed especially for today's students — a generation used to straight-talk and high voltage graphics.

We provide technical assistance and training in order to best integrate Facts on Tap or Transitions onto your school.  Prevention professionals, administrators, students and parents benefit from our trainings.  In addition, our staff is also available for personalized technical assistance and training workshops at a nominal fee (covers the cost of travel and staff time). 

Here are some ways to incorporate the Facts on Tap materials into college prevention:

• Include brochures in first-year survival kits given out during orientation.
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• Use materials as supplemental reading for classes on alcohol or drugs, college life, even biology or psychology.
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• Start a support group for students with a history of family substance abuse using the six-session curriculum.  Click here for a free PDF on Establishing Support Groups for ACOA/ACOSA Students.
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• Post PSAs at the health or counseling center, athletic department, or wherever students hang out. Or get them published in the campus newspaper.
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• Train student leaders and staff on substance abuse issues and on the effects of family substance abuse on students.
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• Use brochures in group and individual counseling, and with brief motivational encounters.
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• Get advice from Facts on Tap national program staff to cope with a crisis.
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• Use resources as a judicial tool for students who violate policy.
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• Prepare students for high-risk times, such as the first month of school, before visits home, breaks, exam times, and the last month of school.
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• Observe national awareness initiatives such as Alcohol Awareness Week, Date Rape/Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and HIV/AIDS Awareness Month.
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• Give materials to prospective parents as an example of prevention activities.

Using the Parents' Guide - Making the Transition

Getting teens ready for college requires more than just academic preparation — it also means being ready socially. Involving parents is one of the best ways to get students ready to go.

For Colleges

• Consider including a copy of the Parents' Guide - Making the Transition in mailings to parents of prospective students or incoming freshman.
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• Provide copies for campus' Parent Association

For High Schools

Make copies available for parents in the high school's guidance office

• Send copies home to all high school junior and senior parents along with other college prep information you might be sending them
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• Host a parent's workshop that covers all college prep topics including alcohol and other information for parents and include copies of the Parents' Guide

Tips for keeping parents involved and knowledgeable:

• Include information on alcohol and other drugs as part of parent workshops on college preparation
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• Share with parents on-line and print resources about the social transition to college and greater independence
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• Create a program to support parents as their teen transitions from high school to college. Make sure they know how to find resources on their teen's campus.
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• Prepare parents for the ups and downs of the end of high school and the first year of the college experience, and remind them of students' heightened vulnerability to alcohol and other drugs during this period.
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• Help parents think through the messages they may create by allowing high risk behavior in supervised settings
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• Provide parents with ideas about how to respond to situations involving high risk behaviors, including emerging drinking or drug problems.
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• Make sure students have access to college prep that goes beyond academics. Reach out to the high schools in your area or other feeder high schools and provide students with education to help them success on your campus.
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• Continue to communicate with high school alumni and their parents during the college years.

To Order

Customize a resources package that's right for your campus. Choose a ready-made Kit or select individual components to fit into your existing program. Call 800-488-DRUG if you have any questions.

Click here to see Resource Catalog or to Place an Order.

For more infomation, contact

Bessie Oster, Program Director
646-505-2062
boster@phoenixhouse.org