Orange County Friday Night Live Partnership
The Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) is recruiting schools to start Friday Night Live (high school), Club Live (middle school), and FNL Kids (upper elementary) clubs for the 2024-2025 school year. At the Friday Night Live (FNL) and Club Live levels, students build leadership skills while implementing alcohol, vaping, and other drug prevention projects on their school campuses and in their communities. FNL Kids clubs focus on healthy habits and positive character traits. OCDE provides school site advisor(s) and students with training, shirts, materials, resources, and ongoing technical assistance at no cost to Orange County public, private, and charter schools. The program can be combined with an existing club that has similar goals, and it can provide support for Tobacco-Use Prevention Education youth development projects.
For more information, visit the
OCFNLP website or contact Elke Petras at 714-966-4458 or epetras@ocde.us.
PAL® - Peer Assistance Leadership
The PAL Peer Assistance Leadership Program is a school-based, peer-to-peer youth development program for students in grades 4-12 built upon a philosophy of students helping students. The mission of our PAL program is to develop youth leaders who connect with their peers to create a caring, safe, and supportive school environment for all. PAL peer leaders help build a positive school climate through youth leadership, mentoring, conflict resolution, cross-age teaching, peer helping, service learning, and prevention activities. The PAL program supports skill development in the areas of leadership, communication, team building, and problem solving. The program can be implemented as a club, class, or incorporated in to an existing leadership program, where students receive training in the PAL curriculum and plan campus outreach activities. An effective PAL program can help schools implement many of the researched-based activities that enhance youth engagement and connectedness to school and community, two of the most important protective factors for all types of high risk behaviors.
For more information, visit the
PAL website or contact Deirdre Hill at 714-966-4342 or dhill@ocde.us.
Student Advocates for Mental Health
The goals of the Student Advocates for Mental Health (SAMH) program are to engage, train, and support students in youth-led efforts to increase mental health awareness, promote suicide prevention, reduce stigma related to mental illness, and increase access to support services on school campuses and in the community. To accomplish these goals, the program provides education, guidance, materials and resources to support student leadership groups to implement activities and events for their school communities. This opportunity is available at no cost for Orange County public, private, and charter schools.
For more infomation, visit the
SAMH website or contact Stephanie Loscko at 714-966-4319 or sloscko@ocde.us.
Tobacco Use Prevention Education
The goal of the Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE) program is to reduce youth tobacco and vape use by helping young people make healthy, informed decisions. This is achieved through tobacco-specific, research-validated educational instruction and activities that build knowledge, social skills, and youth development assets. TUPE also supports schools in educating families and staff on tobacco and vape use prevention. The TUPE program is funded by tobacco tax revenue and provides prevention programs for students in grades six through twelve.
For more information, visit the TUPE website or contact Stephan Lambert at 714-966-4412 or slambert@ocde.us.
