The five SS/HS Elements comprise the core content areas to be addressed when developing a comprehensive plan to address youth violence prevention and mental health promotion. The Elements are one of three components of the SS/HS Framework that includes the five Elements, five Strategic Approaches and seven Guiding Principles. SS/HS State Program grantees have successfully used the SS/HS Framework to focus on activities, curricula, programs, services, strategies and policies in a manner that responds to the state and communities’ needs and gaps.
Select an Element below to learn more:
- Element 1: Promoting early childhood social and emotional learning and development focuses on children (0-5) with an emphasis on the development of social and emotional skills that will lay the foundation for future healthy interpersonal relationships, association with non-violent peers, and improved academic achievement.
- Element 2: Promoting mental, emotional, and behavioral health focuses on enhanced integration, coordination, and resource sharing of mental, emotional, and behavioral health services and programs.
- Element 3: Connecting families, schools, and communities focuses on linking families, schools, and communities together to increase and improve the quality of their engagement in planning and implementing programs and activities that assist students.
- Element 4: Preventing behavioral health problems (including substance use) focuses on addressing the prevention and reduction of risk factors associated with behavioral health problems, including substance use, in coordination with broader environmental strategies that address change at the individual, classroom, school, family, and community levels.
- Element 5: Creating safe and violence-free schools focuses on identifying and addressing issues, conditions, behaviors, and policies that contribute to unsafe school environments and violence in schools.
Use the SS/HS Framework tool to see examples of how the intersection of the different Elements and Strategic Approaches creates change at the state and local levels.
