University of Minnesota researcher awarded Prevention Science Award for Project Northland program

Center City, Minn. (June 26, 2006) - The nonprofit Hazelden Foundation, a national leader in drug and alcohol addiction treatment and prevention programs, today announced that Cheryl Perry, professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, was recently honored by the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) with the 2006 Prevention Science Award. The award acknowledges her extensive research and work in prevention, and her collaboration with Hazelden as author of Project Northland, an evidence based, multi-component community program to prevent drug and alcohol use among adolescents.

The Prevention Science Award was presented to Perry at SPR's 2006 annual meeting in San Antonio on June 1, and recognized her for using applied scientific methods to develop and test strategies for one or more preventative interventions or policies. Perry and her team at the University of Minnesota developed Project Northland and in 2000 published the curriculum with Hazelden for grades 6-8, which showed it reduced teen alcohol use by 30 percent after its initial three-year test program. 

"Project Northland allowed us to work at the community level as well as with schools, parents and peers to achieve positive outcomes with alcohol use prevention among teens," said Perry. "Fortunately, by partnering with Hazelden we have been able to disseminate the program all over the country, and even in other countries, and vastly spread its success."

Perry also received the Research Laureate Award from the American Academy of Health Behavior in 2004 for her work on Project Northland, and the program itself has been named an Exemplary Program by the U.S. Department of Education and a Model Program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

"The Project Northland curriculum reaches adolescents in their prime influential years," said Nick Motu, senior vice president of Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services. "Working with researchers like Cheryl from an exceptional institution like the University of Minnesota is crucial to developing effective programs that reach youth before peer pressure influences them to make unhealthy choices."

About the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
The Division of Epidemiology & Community Health at the University of Minnesota is an administrative division of the School of Public Health. The Division has been centrally involved for more than 60 years with regional, national, and international studies of the distribution and causes and the prevention of major diseases, while under the leadership of four directors. The Division stands out as a research institution, merging classical epidemiological observations with laboratory and population-based experiments in disease prevention and health promotion. As an academic institution, it is also ranked among the Top 10 Public Health programs in the country.

About the Society for Prevention Research
The Society for Prevention Research is an international organization focused on the advancement of science-based prevention programs and policies through empirical research. The membership of the organization includes scientists, practitioners, advocates, administrators and policymakers who are concerned with the prevention of social, physical and mental health problems and the promotion of health, safety and well being.