COPES, Inc.

Beginning as a tentative and pioneering prevention program in Louisville, KY in the 1970's, the Council on Prevention and Education: Substances (COPES) has evolved into a nationally recognized and innovative prevention agency. COPES has demonstrated and published results in peer-reviewed scientific journals across the diverse fields of substance abuse prevention, HIV prevention, violence prevention, prison recidivism, and family strengthening, including special curricula for fatherhood, motherhood, healthy relationships and healthy marriage. While remaining local in service delivery, COPES has also expanded globally through curriculum dissemination, awards, honors, recognitions, presentations, publications, consultations and trainings. Through a licensing agreement with Resilient Futures Network, COPES' award-winning Creating Lasting Family Connections® (CLFC) curriculum is recognized on several national and international evidence-based program repositories, including the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP).
The agency was incorporated as the Council on Prevention and Education: Substances in 1981. By 1985, COPES had received a steady flow of requests to develop programs for special populations in our service area. Partnerships quickly multiplied to include local schools and universities, various social services providers, local businesses, police, juvenile justice workers, churches, health providers, military institutions, substance abuse prevention agencies and centers of recreational activity. Since then, COPES has added many more local, state and national partners, including Dismas Charities, Inc., Volunteers of America of Kentucky, and the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
By 2000, COPES had already received the National "Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention" Award three times for various programs. COPES was also selected to join the International Youth Foundation "YouthNet", a global effort to replicate highly successful programs as demonstrated by research. Only the most rigorously evaluated and effective programs for youth meriting world-wide replication are found worthy of receiving this great honor.
As a result of this growing international recognition, Thomas P. Gullota, editor of the "Prevention in Practice" library series requested COPES Executive Director, Ted N. Strader, to write a book about the core concepts of CLFC. Ted published Building Healthy Individuals, Families, and Communities: Creating Lasting Family Connections (Strader, Collins and Noe, 2000) with Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers in 2000. In the book, Ted demonstrates how connectedness is a critical protective and healing force in human beings -- young or old, rich or poor, male or female. Deep, healthy human connections build strong protective shields (or immunity) to prevent harm and provide both nurturing and healing support, even when challenges penetrate this shield. From this reference, Mr. Strader coined the term, "Connect-Immunity." COPES programs are designed to help people reconnect to themselves, their innocence, their family and their community in order to improve the quality of life for all.
Over the past 30 + years, COPES staff members have published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Adolescent Research, The Journal of Volunteer Administration, Social Work, Journal of Community Practice, and Criminal Justice Policy Review. COPES has also received numerous awards, honors and recognitions at the local, state and national level. In 2010, COPES received an unprecedented 4th National Prevention Network (NPN) Exemplary Program Award; and in 2011, COPES was selected to participate in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA's) prestigious Service to Science Academy.
The following is an abbreviated list of national agencies recognizing COPES programs: the Administration for Children and Families, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the US Department of Education, Health Canada, the National Prevention Network (NPN), and more. All of these agencies have recognized COPES programs as effective, evidence-based and worthy of national or international dissemination.
COPES began as a local "grassroots" prevention entity but has expanded into an internationally recognized agency that has never forgotten the need to recognize local differences and to include the target population's involvement in every step of program design and implementation. As a result, the agency continues to serve local populations, and has developed a number of evidence-based programs in use all across our nation and in several other countries. COPES' award-winning programs and services continue to empower individuals, families and communities around the world in making positive strides toward greater health, success and wellbeing.

The original Creating Lasting Family Connections® program consists of 6 modules. The parent modules are: "Developing Positive Parental Influences", "Raising Resilient Youth" and "Getting Real". The 3 youth modules are: "Developing a Positive Response", "Developing Independence and Responsibility", and "Getting Real". Each of the 3 individual parent trainings is a 5-6 session module with each session lasting from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours depending on breaks and the possibility of including a meal. Each of the individual youth trainings is a 5-6 session module with sessions lasting 1 to 2-1/2 hours in length, again depending on snacks, breaks and/or a meal being provided. (Sometimes it is very helpful for recruitment if families are provided meals in conjunction with the program.) An optional Parent and Youth combined "Getting Real" session usually requires an additional two or three sessions.

• Refusal skills
• Bonding with mother and father
• Honest communication
• Participation in family rule-setting
• Bonding with community
• Social skills

• Appropriate parental substance use knowledge and beliefs
• Appropriate parental substance using behavior
• Family strengthening skills
• Family management skills (including family meetings)
• Fatherhood skills
• Motherhood skills
• Healthy marriage skills
• Bonding with youth
• Involvement of youth in family rule-setting (both substance related and not)
• Help-seeking for family and personal problems

• Family stability, harmony, cohesiveness, and positive communication
• Family recreational and community activities

• Youth and parent perceptions of community support
• Access to health and social services
• Community empowerment
• Responsiveness and flexibility of social service provision
• Community service

• School bonding by youth
• School attendance
• Positive school climate