The Gatehouse Project

Description

The Gatehouse Project is a school-based intervention designed to build the capacity of school communities to address the emotional and mental health needs of young people. The program includes classroom and whole-school components, providing strategies to increase students’ connectedness with the school, and increase students’ skills and knowledge for dealing with the challenges of daily life.

Evaluation Evidence

A rigorous evaluation of the Gatehouse strategy utilising random assignment of schools has been completed. Random assignment of schools to the program was associated with reductions in adolescent drug use (Bond et al., 2004), antisocial behaviour and risky sexual behaviour (Patton et al., 2006). The intervention is currently being disseminated and evaluated in Canada.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Boards may need to employ a consultant to assist with developing monitoring and implementation plans.
• Boards should negotiate agreements to receive regular progress reports and request to observe some activities.
• Monitoring information should include: program coordination; training plans and delivery; and implementation of selected components.
• Request pre-post monitoring of trends in risk and protective factors, and compare to control schools where feasible.

Implementation Tip

CTC Ltd. is interested in supporting Australian training events.