PACT is a highly focused health promotion/risk reduction program targeted specifically at African-American adolescents. PACT builds on existing research showing that primary and secondary prevention programs are most successful with economically disadvantaged and minority youth when developed with sensitivity to racial, ethnic, and cultural issues. The program aims to create a learning environment directly relevant to the lives of African-American teenagers. The PACT approach blends well-established cognitive methods and focuses training materials on the problem of interpersonal violence. PACT is based on the rationale that adolescents who lack skills in communication, negotiation, and problem solving have a limited range of alternatives with which to address interpersonal conflicts. Therefore, the program provides structured training on the specific behavioral components of social skills that help young people form and maintain violence-free relationships. PACT is highlighted in the Drug Strategies publication Safe Schools, Safe Students: A Guide to Violence Prevention Strategies, in the 1998 Annual Report on School Safety, and in the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence’s Peacing It Together: A Violence Prevention Resource for Illinois Schools.

Target Population

- Grade Level: from  Sixth grade to  Twelfth grade