WHAT COMMUNITIES CAN DO
Project DARE,
Los Angeles, California
The police department and school district have teamed up to create DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), now operating in 405 schools from kindergarten through grade 8 in Los Angeles. Fifty-two carefully selected and trained frontline officers are teaching students to say no to drugs, build their self-esteem, manage stress, resist prodrug media messages, and develop other skills to keep them drug free. In addition, officers spend time on the playground at recess so that students can get to know them. Meetings are held with teachers, principals, and parents to discuss the curriculum.
Research has shown that DARE has improved students' attitudes about themselves, increased their sense of responsibility for themselves and to police, and strengthened resistance to drugs. For example, before the DARE program began, 51 percent of fifth-grade students equated drug use with having more friends. After training, only 8 percent reported this attitude.
DARE has also changed parent attitudes through an evening program to teach parents about drugs, the symptoms of drug use, and ways to increase family communication. Before DARE, 32 percent of parents thought that it was all right for children to drink alcohol at a party as long as adults were present. After DARE, no parents reported such a view. Before DARE, 61 percent thought that there was nothing parents could do about their children's use of drugs; only 5 percent said so after the program.
As a result of the high level of acceptance by principals, teachers, the community, and students, DARE has spread from 50 elementary schools in 1983 to all 347 elementary and 58 junior high schools in Los Angeles. DARE will soon be fully implemented in Virginia.
Communities
Recommendation #11: