The APPLE Training Institutes, developed and coordinated by the University of Virginia's Gordie Center and funded by the NCAA, are the leading national substance misuse prevention and health promotion conferences for student-athletes and athletics department administrators. The goal of the APPLE Training Institute is to assist colleges in applying the comprehensive APPLE model to their campus environment. Over the course of a weekend, student-athletes and administrators create an institution-specific action plan to prevent student-athlete substance misuse and promote health and wellness.
The APPLE Training Institute offers teams of student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, administrators, and alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) prevention specialists an opportunity to evaluate the ATOD environment within their athletics departments and develop specific actions plan to enhance prevention efforts. Since 1991, over 50% of all NCAA member institutions have attended one of the annual conferences.
In the summer of 2016, the APPLE Conference was renamed the APPLE Training Institute to better reflect the intent and structure of the curriculum and ongoing support to schools in implementing their action plans. The curriculum-based APPLE model is led by a team of faculty and experts in the field of substance misuse prevention and college athletics. The weekend is structured around measured learning outcomes and participants leave with an action plan to take back to their institution. After 25 years, the mission, structure and goals of APPLE are the same that athletics departments across the country have come to expect from this experience.
APPLE participants will:
- Improve relationships between administrators and student athletes
- Increase their understanding of the APPLE model
- Increase their ability to impact substance misuse problems
- Increase student ability to confront teammates
- Increase student leadership skills
- Increase knowledge of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) issues for student-athletes
- Increase knowledge of effective ATOD prevention programs
- Create a clearly defined, measurable action plan