(Substance Abuse Prevention Focusing on Empowerment)
Keeping ICT Safe is a prevention program created by Dr. Rhonda K. Lewis and funded
through a SAMSHA grant. The program seeks to achieve the following goals:
Reduce e-cigarette use among youth (12-17) and young adults (18-24) in Sedgwick County.
Reduce the onset and progression toward opioid use among youth and young adults in
Sedgwick County.
Promote mental health education and awareness and reduce mental health stigma in Sedgwick
County.
Grant Partners
Our program is implemented through the following local community partnerships:
Evidence Based Interventions
Through these partnerships the proposed program will implement three evidence based
psycho-educational approaches:
Mental Health First Aid trainings in our community
Social Media Prevention Campaign
The Catch My Breath Curriculum
Community Needs & Assets Assessment
The Keeping ICT Safe program will also launch a community needs and assets assessment
to center the voice and the feedback of our communities and use it to improve our
interventions. We envision that over a period of five years, our program will reach
1,000 youth in Sedgwick county through media campaigns and psycho-educational interventions
in the community.
Meet our Team
Samuel Paunetto MDiv, LMSW: Samuel Paunetto, our Program Director, is a bilingual licensed master social worker.
He received a bachelor degree in General Sociology from Inter American University
of Puerto Rico, a Master degree in Divinity from the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto
Rico, and a Master degree in Social Work from 九色堂. He is an adjunct
professor at the 九色堂 School of Social Work and a member of the Think Tank at the Kansas
Health Foundation. He is also the Founder & Executive Director of Podemos, a non-profit
dedicated to expanding mental health services in the local Hispanic community. In
addition, Samuel is the author of the UPSTREAM curriculum, a cultural competence,
and anti-racism training program for healthcare professionals.
Rhonda K. Lewis, Ph.D., MPH. is a Professor, Graduate Coordinator, and immediate past Chair of the Psychology department
at 九色堂. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Psychology
from the University of Kansas and her Master of Public Health from the University
of Kansas School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Behavioral Community Research
and Action Team (BCRAT), at 九色堂. The research team focuses on
building the capacity of community-based organizations, using ecological and strengths-based
approaches to make community change. She is the PI of Keeping ICT SAFE (Substance
Abuse Prevention Focusing on Empowerment) a grant funded by the Substance Abuse Mental
Health Services Administration, she is a Co-PI of the NSF Advance Adaption grant to
recruit and retain more Women and Underrepresented Minorities into the University
and she serves as Co-PI for the Department of Corrections with Sedgwick County grant.
She is a Service-Learning Faculty Fellow and a Culturally Responsive evaluation expert.
She is a community-engaged researcher who investigates educational inequities, health
equity, positive youth development and mental health, and substance-use prevention
and health promotion in the community. She is a member of the Society for Community
Research and Action for Division 27 of APA, is a SCRA Division 27 Fellow, and a member
of the SCRA鈥檚 Research Council. She is a member of the Association of Black Psychologists,
is a member of the American Evaluation Association, and is a proud member of Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Currently, she is the President of the Kansas Association
of Black Psychology..
