Healthy Futures Evaluation

Healthy Futures is an age-appropriate program that targets change at different social ecological levels-individual, interpersonal, and organizational. The main component is a classroom-based relationship education curriculum, Nu-CULTURE, offered in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade for eight 50-minute sessions each year. A number of supplemental efforts aim to enhance the Nu-CULTURE program and create social supports: 1) virtual classrooms where participating youth are encouraged to visit age-appropriate youth websites; 2) daily interactive parental connection forms linked with Nu-CULTURE, a parent website, and workshops (True Connections); 3) a 10-week after-school program, Rhymin' it Write, encourages youth leadership; 4) a 6-week summer program, Code A, engages youth during out-of-school time after 8th grade.

The Control Curriculum offers students in the control group two 50-minute classes each year on general health education topics. Students in the 6th grade receive a class on puberty/reproduction and a class on bullying prevention; students in the 7th grade receive two classes on dating-violence prevention; and students in the 8th grade receive two classes on mental health promotion.