OurFutures (formerly Climate Schools) is a suite of digital health interventions delivered to secondary school students via online cartoon lessons and interactive activities, co-designed with young people.

The programs are underpinned by a social influence and harm-minimisation framework, and designed to equip students with knowledge and skills to prevent substance use and improve well-being. The development, evaluation and translation of the OurFutures interventions represents a program of research in collaboration with >20 institutions and >60 researchers globally. 

The OurFutures programs have been evaluated via 8 world-first randomised controlled trials in >240 schools with >21K students, demonstrating OurFutures to be effective in preventing alcohol, cannabis and ecstasy use, and reducing psychological distress, up to 3 years post-intervention. Impressively, results also showed long lasting effects on preventing harmful alcohol use 7 years after delivery. These findings represent some of the longest follow-up data, and largest and most sustained effect sizes in the AOD prevention field to date.

Our research has also established the innovative OurFutures delivery method to be acceptable and feasible to implement in schools, which has led to global partnerships to adapt OurFutures in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Germany, Ireland, Colombia, the UK & NZ.

In Australia, we are currently trialling the efficacy of the newly developed OurFutures Vaping program in a RCT with 40 schools across Australia. This is the first rigorously evaluated digital intervention to prevent the use of e-cigarettes in Australia. 

Strong & Deadly Futures is an empowering, school-based alcohol and drug prevention program that is culturally inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

The program is guided by an Aboriginal Reference Group, chaired by co-investigator Professor Michael Doyle, a proud Bardi man, with representation from participating communities and 10 Aboriginal community‑controlled health organisations.

The program responds to evidence that effective and culturally safe prevention approaches must incorporate cultural strengths and be developed in collaboration with communities.

In partnership with First Nations creative agencies, Gilimbaa, Garuwa, and Cause/Affect, and with funding from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, extensive consultations were held across 26 communities in WA, QLD and NSW. These informed the development of four regionally tailored illustrations (Inland, Coastal, Kimberley, Far North Queensland).

The six‑lesson, cartoon‑based program adopts a strengths‑focused social and emotional wellbeing framework, highlighting connection to culture, community and Country. Prevention messages are delivered through an animated story supported by lesson plans and class activities that reinforce learning.

We are finalising an NHMRC-funded cluster randomised controlled trial across 22 schools in these communities to evaluate the program's effectiveness in preventing alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use while enhancing wellbeing over a two-year follow-up. With funding from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, we have expanded the program to include a four-lesson vaping prevention module, incorporating community consultation and pilot trial phases.

Health4Life is a school-based program that seeks to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases, and to empower Australian adolescents to improve their physical and mental health, by addressing key health risk behaviours: alcohol use, smoking/vaping, physical inactivity, poor sleep, poor diet and excessive recreational screen time. 

We are currently trialling the Health4Life Parents & Teens program, a new digital intervention for parents and carers of adolescents experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.

Using the innovative Multiphase Optimisation Strategy, and in consultation with parents and teens, this study aims to develop an effective and efficient intervention to support parents to improve their teens health and wellbeing.

Mind your Mate is a school-based program to prevent mental ill-health and substance use problems in adolescents by providing them with accurate, evidence-based knowledge and skills to actively support their peers and promote early help-seeking. 

The app-based version of the program has been shown to reduce depression symptoms in adolescents. We are looking to evaluate a 4-lesson classroom-based program to improve mental health, help-seeking and peer-support among high-school aged students.

Positive Choices is an online portal to help school communities access trusted, evidence-based drug education resources and prevention programs.

Research suggests the teenage years are when alcohol and other drug use are first initiated. This highlights the importance of intervening early with young people to prevent drug use uptake and associated harms.

School staff and parents can play an important role in protecting young people from drug-related harms and empowering them to make positive choices.

There are a number of effective drug and alcohol prevention strategies, including online programs such as Our Futures that can be implemented within schools with ease and limited training. Despite this evidence base, effective prevention is not widely implemented.

Teachers, school counsellors, and parents are the primary sources of contact for young people seeking advice or help for drug use issues, thus it is crucial they are equipped with accurate information and evidence-based harm prevention strategies.

To meet this need, the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing funded the development of Positive Choices, to support school communities to access and implement evidence-based alcohol and drug prevention strategies.

The portal was developed in consultation with experts and key consumer groups (i.e., students, parents/caregivers, and school staff), and tailored resources have been developed for and in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples, and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse groups.

Since launching in 2015, Positive Choices has disseminated evidence-based prevention resources to >4.3million people.