Overview

• Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health and Cherokee Nation Behavioral Health co-developed two prevention programs, Connect Kits for Family Action and Connect Brief Intervention, to strengthen family ties and deliver individualized coaching to 10th–12th graders.
• A cluster randomized trial in 20 rural Oklahoma high schools ran from 2022 to mid-2025 with biannual student surveys tracking alcohol, cannabis and opioid use.
• Students in intervention schools reported 18% less alcohol use, 26% less binge drinking, 11% less cannabis use and 40% less prescription opioid misuse compared with comparison schools.
• Trial results published August 6 in the American Journal of Public Health validate the programs’ effectiveness in tribal and resource-limited settings.
• All 20 schools now have full access to the prevention programs, paving the way for broader implementation in similar rural and tribal communities.