Cynthia R. Knowles works nationally helping schools, agencies, and businesses maximize the effectiveness of their prevention programs through student and employee training, curriculum review, data analysis, awareness education, and program evaluation. She works as the Health and Wellness Coordinator at Livonia Central School, Livonia, New York; as a lecturer at the State University of New York at Geneseo; as a supervisor of student teachers in health education at the State University of New York at Cortland; and as a professional ski instructor. Previously she has been the Director of Rehabilitation for a 135-bed homeless shelter, a psychotherapist for adolescents and their families, and a regional coordinator for the Safe and Drug Free Schools grant program. Through articles and training seminars, she advocates for truth, accuracy, and youth involvement in the field of violence and substance abuse. She teaches participants to question their sources and to validate all information before passing it on. Her politics are simple: She believes that all of us—parents, teachers, and neighbors—have the ability to change the world significantly through our interactions with youth. She believes in prayer and miracles but is still slightly superstitious and overinsured. Cynthia welcomes your feedback, especially your experiences, challenges, insights, and successes with using this book for program evaluation.
Despite the growing availability of information on effective drug and violence prevention programmes, schools continue to use programmes that have not been proven effective. Some are using model programmes, but have changed the content or design enough so that the features that made them effective are gone. Or worse, they continue to use programmes that have been proven ineffective simply because that is what is easiest, or most familiar. The school shootings over the last few years are solid reminders that schools can no longer do just anything and call it adequate prevention. It is more critical than ever to learn from the examination of previous prevention efforts and not make the same mistakes a second time in this new arena of violence prevention.
