The students from Clarke N. Johnsen Junior High School were ushered into a dark gym in front of three screens. They sat for a moment, expectant. Then, all at once, the music started and pictures danced on the screens. Using music, vignettes from movies, and stories from real-life students, a positive message of striving for success, learning to work hard and avoiding pitfalls like drugs and alcohol was driven home in MTV fashion.

This was the kick-off for Life Skills Training, a joint effort between the Tooele County School District and Tooele City’s Communities that Care program. The training is designed to teach seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students the skills to make positive decisions and enjoy a happy, healthy, and productive life.In the five-year period since the founding of Communities that Care, the program has been successful at promoting positive youth development, and has grown into what is now a fully funded city program.“We reached the goals we set five years ago for reduction of youth anti-social behaviors and substance abuse,” said Milo Berry, community coordinator for Communities that Care.

Five years ago, the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group approached the city and offered a $300,000 grant for five years to establish the Communities that Care program in the city. The program is a model for building community support to build positive factors in the community that help youth develop while reducing factors that put them at risk. It is based upon the work of a team of researchers from the University of Washington.

Initially the program had one staff member, Berry, a retired Tooele High School teacher and coach. As programs were implemented, Communities that Care added staff to help coordinate the programs.

Today Communities that Care employs two full-time and one part-time person. “The Communities that Care program proved to be very successful,” said Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy. “The city council agreed to continue funding the program after the grant expired because we wanted to continue the positive progress that was being made.”

The city council approved $125,000 in its 2008 budget for Communities that Care.

The program began by assembling community leaders and youth advocates to study surveys of youth behavior and current programs available in the community for youth. This group identified three community wide problems that the program works to address: youth anti-social behaviors, low commitment to school, and family conflict.

Programs with proven track records of success were chosen for each target. Life Skills Training was chosen for anti-social behaviors. Another in-school program, Lions Quest, was chosen for low commitment to school. Guiding Good Choices, a community-based education program for parents was chosen to deal with family conflict.

Last week’s assembly was the kick-off for Life Skills Training, an educational program for Tooele City students offered by the city’s Communities That Care program and the Tooele County School District. The program has been integrated into the school curriculum now for five years. It is designed to teach youth skills to help them make healthy decisions and develop into positive, productive citizens. The curriculum, developed by a psychologist at Cornell University, was adopted as part of the Communities That Care program’s efforts to reduce anti-social behaviors in youth.

After four years, there is evidence the program has been working, according to Jaclynn Bonilla, program manager for Tooele city Communities that Care.

Among eighth-grade students in Tooele city, the percentage of students reporting that they had used alcohol in he last 30 days decreased from 31 percent in 2004 to 15 percent in 2007. Cigarette use decreased from 11 percent in 2004 to 5 percent in 2007. Use of other drugs showed a similar decline.

In terms of antisocial behaviors tracked by the survey, school suspensions decreased from 22 percent to 16 percent, incidents of drunkenness at school decrease from 18 percent to 8 percent, and vehicle theft or attempted vehicle theft decreased from 4 percent to 2 percent.

Other programs adopted by Communities that Care have yielded similar results. The risk profile for low commitment to school shows a steady decline from 55 percent in 2004 to 45 percent in 2007, and family conflict reduced from 58 percent to 52 percent.

“It is worth every penny,” said Patrick Dunlavy, Tooele City Mayor. “Without it we would have no programs to help our youth.”

Tooele City’s Communities that Care program has also received national recognition for its success. Milo Berry just returned from Indianapolis, Ind., where he made a presentation at the National Prevention Conference sponsored by the National Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

“They asked me to talk about the Tooele City model of success,” Berry said.

The Communities that Care program will soon be shared with the rest of the county, Berry said. The Tooele County School District will be a recipient of a $1.2 million federal grant to implement Communities that Care programs throughout the district.

“Communities that Care works because it belongs to the community,” Berry said. “Community leaders and volunteers have worked hard to make it work.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com