Age range

Website: www.niylp.org

Mission/Goals: Project Venture focuses on preventing substance abuse and developing peer relationships and group skills among high-risk American Indian youth and other youth through outdoors experiential activities, adventure camps, community-oriented service learning and classroom-based problem solving activities. Relying on traditional American Indian values, it focuses on engaging youth in positive, fun alternative-to-use projects.  It is part of the National Indian Youth Leadership Project, a community-based non-profit organization which focuses on developing leadership skills among American Indian youth to become capable and positive contributors to their communities.

Notes: The National Indian Youth Leadership Program also runs multiple other out-of-school time programs, including Walking in Beauty (an adapted version of Project Venture for adolescent girls), a 21st century after-school program, National Leadership Camp, Web of Life (another adaptation of Project Venture focusing on HIV prevention), and Coalition for Healthy and Resilient Youth.

Source(s): www.guidestar.org; www.niylp.org; SAMSHA model programs

Type of Evaluation: Experimental, with a repeated measures design with groups randomly assigned to treatment and control groups.

Objective: To determine how well the program was meeting its goal.

Impact/Outcomes: Compared with a control group, participants in the program initiated first substance use at an older age, significantly reduced lifetime alcohol and tobacco use, the frequency of inhalant use and 30-day alcohol, marijuana and other illegal drug use. Program participants also demonstrated less depression and aggressive behavior, improved school attendance and improved internal locus of control and resiliency. The program also lead to reductions in peer drug use. Among middle school females participating in Walking in Beauty, reductions in alcohol use in the past 30 days, stress related to drug use, future intentions to use drugs, perceived harm from drug use and attitudes toward drug use improved.