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Keeping drug prevention for kids 'real': a culturally grounded substance abuse prevention curriculum makes kids and their input part of the program.

Article Excerpt
On any given day, young people in this country are presented with difficult choices. Simply saying no to offers of drugs and other risky behaviors can be an act of bravery and highly precarious. How can our youth turn away from these risks without being humiliated, losing friends, or possibly facing physical threats? How do we, as adults, enter that ever-changing world of adolescence and develop understandable, usable lessons?

This is the problem we face in school-based substance abuse prevention. We deal with kids who need help (even though they may not know it) and adults who want to help. Both groups speak very different "languages," including words, dress, and gestures. These differences are heightened when they include layers of cultural diversity arising from ethnicity, gender, economics, and geography.

This article is a synopsis of the Drug Resistance Strategies Project (DRS) and its keepin' it REAL (KIR) curriculum. It explains the ways in which the D RS Project uses communication and culture as starting points for school-based drug prevention.

Culture and Drugs

Ethnicity, race, and culture play significant roles in the type and frequency of substance use and abuse, as well as in the effectiveness of school-based prevention. (1) Although researchers recognize the importance of reflecting adolescents' culture in prevention programs, as well as their learning styles and the specific types of drugs and alcohol they are exposed to, few programs take these elements into consideration. This is the main focus of Penn State University's DRS Project, funded since 1989 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The project uses an ecologic resiliency model, which recognizes that indigenous cultural strengths can be capitalized, rather than trying to substitute an entirely...

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