IMPOWER provides free, evidence-based prevention programs offering support and guidance to students in many of the schools in Orange and Seminole Counties. Services are focused on children and youth who present emotional or behavioral patterns that interfere with their academic performance.

ALPHA Prevention Program 

Currently offered in eight Seminole County Public Schools, the ALPHA Prevention Program is a school-based education program offered at no-cost to families, for elementary, middle school and high school students who present negative behavior patterns that interfere with their academic performance and/or who are at risk for substance abuse.

Established in 2008, the program focuses on reducing risk factors and increasing the protective factors that will prevent alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drug use before students are exposed to them.

ALPHA utilizes a systematic approach for success by creating an environment that is conducive for growth on personal, social and educational levels within academic settings. The program incorporates students, parents, teachers and mentoring staff in cooperative efforts on behalf of the student.

In FY2019-2020 more than 150 children in eight (8) Seminole County Public Schools benefited from ALPHA.

Third grade students who participated in substance abuse prevention services for at least 75% of the school year increased their knowledge in this area by 42% on average.

Benefits of ALPHA include…

• Behavior modification
• Emotion regulation
• Greater knowledge of tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse
• Improved decision making
• Improved friendships with pro-social peers
• Increased self-awareness and self-esteem
• Individual goal setting
• Mindfulness
• Positive encouragement

Download our ALPHA brochure here.

CHAMPIONS Prevention Program

CHAMPIONS, our newest prevention program, launched in 2020 thanks to generous grant funding provided by the West Orange Healthcare District, Proud Founding Champion of Healthy West Orange and Orange County Government Citizens’ Commission for Children.

Utilizing the same intensive, highly structured evidence-based curriculum as our established ALPHA Program, CHAMPIONS incorporates added mental health counseling and treatment services to decrease the risk of alcohol and drug abuse, improve academics and behavior as well as family functioning.

CHAMPIONS is currently offered at five (5) schools within Orange County Public Schools.

Benefits include…

• Decreased at-risk behaviors including substance abuse/misuse
• Greater resiliency and coping skills
• Healthier lifestyles
• Improved academic performance
• Long term recovery
• Strengthened family relationships

Download our CHAMPIONS brochure here.

For information about our school-based prevention programs email jhixon@impowerfl.org.

IMPOWER Prevention Program Testimonials

I started working with IMPOWER almost 5 years ago. I started with ALPHA and fell in love with the program. To this day kids still contact me from it, and I am always so happy to hear how well they are doing in middle school and in life in general. Nowadays I work with the CHAMPIONS Program. Whether it is receiving notes of love on my desk or on my board, seeing the beautiful faces of the kids we serve smiling at me, or hearing the Administrator at Ventura Elementary School tell me that they haven’t heard anything bad about my kids since they started in the program; it all makes me believe every single day that our programs work and that we are really “making a difference” in this world.” – Ceu Moreno, MFT, CHAMPIONS Counselor

Thank you to our Prevention Program supporters:

Central Florida Cares Health System, Inc. (CFCHS)
Seminole County Public Schools
Orange County Government, Florida
Orange County Public Schools
West Orange Healthcare District, Proud Founding Champion of Healthy West Orange