SALSA – Students Advocating Life without Substance Abuse -  is a presentation and leadership skills program for high school students, which promotes healthy drug free lifestyle choices while encouraging students to excel in school. High school students who have opted for alcohol-free and other drug-free lifestyles are an untapped resource for prevention education. Social norms theory states that younger students are prone to greatly overestimating the amount of alcohol and other drug use on the part of older students.

SALSA Goals

• To provide reinforcement to students who have made a healthy decision to refrain from alcohol and other drug use.
• To train students to be role models and leaders for younger students, peers, their school, and their communities.
• To train students to make presentations in the community and be advocates for healthy lifestyles.
• To reinforce the Student Leader’s commitment to health and non-use, thus strengthening his or her own protective factors.
• To reinforce the Student Leader’s commitment to health and non-use, thus strengthening his or her own protective factors.
• To strengthen academic motivation and performance of students through peer mentoring opportunities.

SALSA not only presents a model of healthy, productive older students, it also reinforces the reality that older kids are making healthy decisions about substance use. This positive norm greatly strengthens the younger students’ resolve to emulate healthy behaviors modeled by the older kids.

SALSA Youth Leaders introduce themselves and tell younger kids what they are doing at school, at home, in their family and social lives – what their academic and extra-curricular interests are, etc. They also demonstrate non-judgmental reasons for not using alcohol or other drugs, how to say “no” to peers who suggest use or other inappropriate behaviors, and finally, engage the younger students in fun and often humorous interactions that reinforce the younger students’ ability to feel good about themselve.

SALSA is a program that can make a significant difference in drug-use trends. The NHSDA reports, “the rates of past year illicit drug and alcohol use were lower for youths who had seen or heard drug or alcohol prevention messages at school in the past year compared with youths who had not seen or heard drug or alcohol prevention messages at school.”