Community & care
Prevention - Substance Use
Say It With Music helps schools, coalitions, and youth programs advance substance-use prevention goals by engaging students in our Psychological Effects of Music SEL books and interactive school assemblies that build healthy decision-making, coping skills, self-awareness, and positive alternatives to alcohol and drug use through our transformative sensory experience. The SEL assemblies have been described as fun AND life-changing and transformational. Many directors use the Music STEAM Recording & Team Building Programs to create a song and music video for substance use prevention campaigns.
Programming of this type may align with allowable activities under SAMHSA substance-use prevention funding, Drug-Free Communities coalition grants, and Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment; organizations may also explore state and local prevention funds.
FAQs
Straight answers.
Schools, districts, prevention coalitions, and community organizations searching for substance abuse prevention programs for youth, drug prevention programs for youth, and school-based drug prevention programs often want an engaging way to reinforce healthy decision-making — and to power awareness moments like Red Ribbon Week — alongside their core curriculum. Say It With Music supports substance use prevention by giving students a creative, music-driven outlet — through Music STEAM Recording Programs, SEL School Assemblies, and SEL supplemental books — that reinforces protective factors such as self-awareness, peer connection, goal-setting, and healthy coping. SIWM does not treat substance use disorders or guarantee behavioral outcomes; it provides youth engagement activities and social-emotional skill-building that can complement evidence-based drug and alcohol prevention initiatives, opioid and fentanyl awareness efforts, and positive youth development programming.
Say It With Music offers three resources youth organizations can fold into substance use prevention programming: interactive SEL School Assemblies, the Psychological Effects of Music SEL supplemental books, and hands-on Music STEAM Recording & Music Video Programs. Each engages students in music creation, discussion, and reflection that reinforces healthy decision-making and protective factors, complementing — not replacing — a school or coalition’s core drug and alcohol prevention curriculum.
Yes. If you’re searching for red ribbon assembly ideas, a red ribbon assembly, or red ribbon week assembly ideas, Say It With Music’s interactive SEL School Assemblies fit the occasion. SIWM delivers a music-driven assembly that reinforces drug-free, healthy-decision-making messaging, and it can be paired with hands-on enrichment activities such as our Music STEAM Recording Program. It complements your Red Ribbon Week campaign and school-based drug prevention programming rather than replacing your core curriculum.
SIWM supports substance use prevention by creating structured, engaging opportunities for youth to build self-awareness, communication, and decision-making skills through music. These are recognized protective factors in positive youth development. The program complements existing school-based drug prevention programs and prevention-coalition efforts rather than serving as a standalone clinical intervention.
No. SIWM does not claim to prevent, stop, or treat substance use. It provides youth engagement activities and social-emotional skill development that can be incorporated into a broader prevention strategy and can reinforce the protective factors that prevention professionals work to strengthen.
Music gives young people a compelling reason to participate and a healthy channel for self-expression. In SIWM’s Music STEAM Recording Programs, students write and produce songs and music videos, opening natural conversations about choices, peer influence, stress, and goals. This creative engagement can make prevention messaging more relatable and memorable for youth.
Students collaborate to write lyrics, record vocals, and produce music and video content while learning audio engineering and the science of sound. Facilitators weave in structured reflection and discussion tied to healthy decision-making, teamwork, and self-expression, giving prevention coordinators an alternative approach to engaging hard-to-reach youth.
The Psychological Effects of Music supplemental books are social emotional learning books for elementary students (grades 1–4) and older youth (grades 5–college) that reinforce self-awareness, emotional regulation, and healthy coping — skills associated with healthy decision-making. They can be used as a supplemental classroom or small-group resource alongside a drug prevention curriculum.
No. The books are a supplemental SEL resource. They reinforce protective-factor skills and can accompany, but do not replace, an evidence-based substance use prevention curriculum.
SIWM serves K–12 and youth/college-age audiences, with supplemental books available for grades 1–4 and grades 5–college. Programming can be tailored for middle school and high school students, who are common focus populations for youth substance use prevention.
Yes. SIWM programs can be delivered in schools, afterschool and expanded-learning programs, and community-based organizations, in person or virtually. Prevention coalitions and community organizations can use the programming for youth engagement and awareness activities.
Yes. SIWM is designed as a supplemental, engagement-focused resource that complements existing prevention curricula and coalition strategies rather than replacing them.
Organizations often investigate several categories: the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services (SUPTRS) Block Grant (formerly the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which includes a 20% primary-prevention set-aside), Drug-Free Communities (DFC) coalition funding, State Opioid Response (SOR) prevention dollars, and education funds such as Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) for the safe-and-healthy-students component. These are potential categories only; each has its own eligibility and allowable-use rules.
The SUPTRS Block Grant flows from SAMHSA to state substance-use agencies, which subgrant to local providers and coalitions. Drug-Free Communities grants go to community anti-drug coalitions. An organization would investigate whether its state agency or a local coalition could use prevention set-aside or coalition funds to bring in a supplemental youth-engagement resource like SIWM.
Confirm allowability with the specific funder or fiscal agent — the state prevention agency, the coalition’s grant manager, or the district’s federal-programs office. Ask whether a supplemental youth-engagement and SEL resource is an allowable, non-supplanting use under that funding stream. SIWM does not automatically qualify for any grant; allowability depends on the funder’s approved uses.
How this program runs
Same SIWM work. Built for Prevention.
Start with the social emotional learning books. Add a keynote. Bring a recording program when you want participants writing and performing — we produce the song and video.
Aligned with prevention priorities by strengthening protective factors, positive decision-making, healthy coping and peer connection. Youth use music and media to develop prevention messages while building SEL, leadership, resilience and community awareness. CASEL 5 SEL competencies; SAMHSA prevention framework & protective factors; trauma-informed, strengths-based practice; National Core Arts (Music/Media Arts).
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The Psychological Effects of Music
SEL books & curriculum
SEL books by Ava Johnson plus keynotes for the same rooms.
Ava the Aviator
Keynotes & assemblies
Interactive talks on the science of sound and the psychology of music.
The studio
Recording & music video program
Participants write and perform. We record, produce, and film.