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About the Program

Because we care.

They're our kids. Our future. Our legacy. And we all want the same thing for them, the best.

We want their futures to be bright, and secure, and healthy, and safe. And we want them to succeed. To join us in the worlds of business and commerce, law and medicine, manufacturing and selling, teaching and serving.

That's why we care. About their ability to cope with the challenges of life In contemporary America. About their capacity to resist the negative Influences around them, to focus instead on their strengths and their potential. And that's why we D.A.R.E.

D.A.R.E. A simple acronym with a big message. Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It's a crusade that works.

D.A.R.E. teaches our children - from kindergarten through high school - that popularity can be found in positive behavior, that belonging need not require them to abandon their values, that self-confidence and self-worth come from asserting themselves and resisting destructive temptations. D.A.R.E. teaches them not just that they should refuse drugs and alcohol, but how to do so.

D.A.R.E. gives our children the tools they need to build a better, fuller, more satisfying life.

The program was created In 1983 as a joint venture of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. D.A.R.E. sends a highly trained police officer Into fifth and sixth grade classrooms every week for 17 weeks o teach students how to refuse drugs and alcohol. Separate components have been developed to introduce kindergarten through fourth grade students to the D.A.R.E. program and to follow-up in junior high and high school classrooms, spreading the D.A.R.E. message throughout the schools.

Assigned a "beat" in which they visit each of five schools one day a week, D.A.R.E. officers reach thousands of students every year.

The program follows a carefully structured curriculum, focusing on topics such as personal safety, drug use and misuse, consequences of behavior, resisting peer pressure, building self-esteem, assertiveness training, managing stress without rugs, media Images of drug use, role models, and support systems. Click here to see chart.

By getting the message from a streetwise police officer - one who's been out there, one who knows how drugs and alcohol can destroy lives - kids take that message seriously.

And, by getting to kids when they're most vulnerable to social pressure - when hey're 9, 10, and 11 years old or sooner - D.A.R.E. helps them build the willpower nd the belief in themselves that they'll need to stay on track as they forge their futures.

The D.A.R.E. curriculum is based on research which indicates that effective prevention instruction must focus on providing accurate information, coping and decision making skills, and positive alternatives to substance abuse. Scare tactics that teach only the harms of drugs are de-emphasized. Teens want to act grown up. Many of them think that smoking, drinking, and exotic drugs are their passport to adulthood.

D.A.R.E. attempts to teach students what being grown up really means - resisting peer pressure, making your own decisions, and learning to cope with life's problems in positive ways.

A heavy dose of instruction. A unique feature of D.A.R.E. is the use of police officers as instructors, D.A.R.E. officers receive intensive training to enable them to effectively teach in the classroom. In the selection of officers, great emphasis is placed on human relations and communication skills.

• Providing accurate information about drugs and alcohol;
• Teaching students decision-making skills;
• Showing students how to resist peer pressure;
• Providing students ideas for alternatives to drug use.

D.A.R.E. Instructors employ a variety of activities, such as group discussions and role playing. A healthy exchange of ideas and feelings is an important part of the learning process.

D.A.R.E. has been doing its job for almost a decade and it's succeeding. It's not a one-hour, once-a-year visit by a stranger. It's four-and-a-half months of straight talk and conversation, with someone who becomes a friend, a confidant, an ally. It leaves a lasting impression on kids and their families. And more.

• significantly less substance abuse, including cigarettes and alcohol:
• a sharp decrease in school vandalism and truancy;
• improved student work habits;
• reduced tension between ethnic groups;
• reduced gang activity;
• a more positive attitude toward police; and
• better student rapport with teachers and school officials

And now D.A.R.E. is working nationwide, even worldwide. For all our kids.

Sparked by the extraordinary success of D.A.R.E. in Los Angeles, many law enforcement agencies and school districts sought to have D.A.R.E. in their communities.

The demand was overwhelming. So, in 1987, D.A.R.E. America was established to meet this new need.

D.A.R.E. America, a nonprofit corporation, is a potent resource for communities across the country, helping them to establish D.A.R.E. programs - or to IMPROVE an existing one. The specific functions of D.A.R.E. America are: financial support for instructor training, coordinating fund-raising and sponsorship opportunities, and regularly monitoring instruction standards and program results. It also helps provide participating communities with educational materials, program outlines, student workbooks, drug awareness information for parents, information pamphlets for citizens and community groups ... everything needed to put D,A.R.E. to work.

And work it has.

President George Bush's endorsement underscores that: "I've been out there and witnessed the program In action. D.A.R.E. sends these police officers into the classroom to work with the kids, build their self-esteem, teach them that they can refuse when they're pressured to try drugs. . ."

D.A.R.E. is taught in communities across the face of our nation and in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and American Samoa.

D.A.R.E. Is the official program of the Department of Defense Dependent Schools worldwide.

The nation's leading law enforcement officers agree on one thing. They aren't about to beat the drug problem from the supply side. Not in our lifetime ... and maybe not even in our children's. Only by attacking the drug problem from the demand side can we hope to halt the flow of drugs, And that's where our children are. Let's be there with them. Let's D.A.R.E. to win.

For Further Information Contact:

Jefferson Parish D.A.R.E. Community Relations Division
Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
(504) 376-2401