Introducing: MI-LEAP

MI-LEAP (Michigan Model for Health: Learning to Enhance and Adapt for Prevention) is a partnership with Wayne State University and MISHCA and in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of MI-LEAP is to support MMH responsiveness to the needs of high school students. We want to do this by minimizing the barriers and maximizing the effectiveness of MMH, specifically focusing on students exposed to trauma. School-based universal prevention, such as MMH, has the potential to improve health outcomes among youth exposed to trauma. Among youth ages 12-17 in the U.S., over 30% have been exposed to two or more ACEs in their lifetime (Bethell et al., 2014). With this in mind, interventions we sought to incorporate trauma-informed approaches into MMH and keep the components that make it effective. 

MI-LEAP has three main components: 

1. a tailored MMH curriculum, 
2. teacher training focused on trauma-informed approaches, and 
3. implementation support for teachers. 

The pilot study will take place starting in the fall of 2021 and we will be recruiting at least 10 schools from Genesee and Oakland counties. The schools will be randomly assigned to receive either the standard MMH curriculum or the adapted, MI-LEAP curriculum. We will evaluate MI-LEAP by asking teachers to track their activities, completing a student survey before and after the intervention, and interviewing teachers about their experiences. We want to understand how teachers received these adapted materials, how students engaged them, and potential changes in student well-being after the intervention. 

We are currently enrolling high school health teachers from Genesee and Oakland counties. Interested teachers can visit the MI-LEAP website or email our study team. 

To learn more about the MI-LEAP project, or for questions, please visit our website, www.mmhleap.org, or email mi-leap@wayne.edu.