Most recently, UNC Greensboro’s three year, multi-longitudinal evaluation completed in 2021 concluded “D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL Elementary School Curriculum is Evidence-based, Successful and Effective.” And, it is the only evaluation ever conducted reviewing prevention education curricula taught by law enforcement officers, rather than teachers. D.A.R.E. has partnered with prestigious educational institutions to adapt curricula proven to be effective. A comprehensive study completed in 2021 by UNC Greensboro – the only one ever conducted reviewing a prevention education curricula taught by law enforcement officers rather than teachers – concluded D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL Elementary School Curriculum is Evidence-based, Successful and Effective.
From a prevention perspective, the pre K-12, D.A.R.E. keepin’ it REAL curricula are targeted at all students (i.e. “universal” prevention) rather than being targeted at students with specific risk factors (“selected” prevention) or at students who are already using drugs (“indicated” prevention). The California Healthy Kids Resource Center, a division of the California Departments of Health and Education, professional Research & Evaluation staff ensure optimal services for families and children by providing internal and external stakeholders with useful tools and information that can be used for program evaluation, forecasting and strategic planning, contract compliance, and advocacy. The Center lists keepin’ it REAL as “research validated”…its equivalent of an evidence-based ranking. A series of scientific studies in the 1990s and 2000s cast doubt on the effectiveness of D.A.R.E., with some studies concluding the program was harmful or counterproductive.
Core Topics
Further, these programs offer neither a nationwide training system for instructors nor a rigorous process to ensure that training centers are accredited. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program is the most comprehensive drug prevention curricula in the world taught in thousands of schools throughout America’s 50 states and its territories, as well as in 50+ other countries reaching more than 1.5 million students annually. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led 10 Signs That Someone You Know Is Using Crack Regularly series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. D.A.R.E. America recognizes that its comprehensive pre K-12 curricula are only one, although a potentially significant part of an overall and comprehensive approach to drug use and abuse. It is important to note that all law enforcement agencies are officially committed to the mission of reducing the supply of drugs (i.e., supply reduction) as well as reducing the demand (demand reduction) for drugs via prevention.
Use of children as informants
Not only is D.A.R.E. still around, it’s growing with education programs in every state in America and many other countries. Since 2018, more than 500 communities throughout the United States launched a new D.A.R.E. program. Elementary, middle, and high school curricula, as well as critical enhancement lessons on subjects including opioid abuse prevention, vaping, teen suicide, and internet/social media safety are now being taught in these communities by D.A.R.E. Instructors who attended one of the 40 two-week, intensive D.A.R.E. training courses conducted annually.
- D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary and middle-school curricula are based on Socio-Emotional Learning Theory which identifies basic skills and processes needed for healthy youth development.
- D.A.R.E. curricula have been proven effective and evidence-based through multiple studies.
- The California Healthy Kids Resource Center, a division of the California Departments of Health and Education, professional Research & Evaluation staff ensure optimal services for families and children by providing internal and external stakeholders with useful tools and information that can be used for program evaluation, forecasting and strategic planning, contract compliance, and advocacy.
- Never did he imagine that his friend’s younger sister would draw him into a compromising situation, one that led to a hasty marriage.
The Most Comprehensive Drug Prevention Curricula in the World
In its September 10, 2014 issue, Scientific American published an article entitled, The New D.A.R.E. Program – this one works. The article notes that Richard Clayton, Ph.D., a retired prevention researcher formerly of the University of Kentucky, was also once an outspoken critic of D.A.R.E., has since been invited to join D.A.R.E.’s board of directors and chair its Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. Brené has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. He paid the price.Lucian Banks, the Duke of Grovemont, was still grieving his mother’s death when a simple wedding invitation turned his life upside down. Never did he imagine that his friend’s younger sister would draw him into a compromising situation, one that led to a hasty marriage.
At Oslo Business Forum, Dr. Brené Brown sat down with moderator Pellegrino Riccardi to discuss daring leadership and why it’s an essential skill for the future.Vulnerability and Courage are InseparablePellegrino opened the discussion by asking Brené to explain vulnerability. “It is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. It is the emotion we experience during times of risk-taking and when we feel exposed.” At the core of Brené’s message is the idea that courage cannot exist without vulnerability. In conversations with leaders from various fields—including military Special Forces and NFL athletes—this point became undeniably clear.
D.A.R.E., an international 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is the most prevalent drug abuse prevention program in the United States, and is often referred to as the most prevalent drug prevention program in the world. The program focused primarily on what it calls “gateway” drugs, such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants, which allegedly lead to harder drug use. D.A.R.E. offers the most comprehensive prevention curricula available for K-12 students anywhere.
With each passing year, D.A.R.E.’s success was seen in classrooms and homes leading to rapid growth and expansion. As each decade passed and success increased, the challenges facing children and families also grew. Today, through the leadership of D.A.R.E.’s dedicated Board of Directors, and the tireless commitment and hard work of tens of thousands of officers and educators throughout America and around the globe, D.A.R.E strives each day to achieve its vital mission… to fulfill a vision. This year millions of school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. is the only international drug prevention curricula to hold consultative status with the Committee on Non-Government Organizations of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Multiple government organizations and institutions, as well as highly respected journals, have endorsed and favorably reported upon D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL curricula.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., is an American education program that tries to prevent use of controlled drugs, membership in gangs, and violent behavior. It was founded in Los Angeles in 1983 as a joint initiative of then-LAPD chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District12 as a demand-side drug control strategy of the American War on Drugs. For more than three decades, D.A.R.E. has also been an international program with its curricula having been taught in more than 28 other countries.
Brené’s research challenges the traditional view that vulnerability is a weakness, presenting it instead as an essential component of courage.”There is no courage without vulnerability.” D.A.R.E. provides children with an opportunity to learn and practice good decision-making skills to lead safe and healthy lives. Through KARE, D.A.R.E. also gives to children’s hospitals and other children’s charities and shelters.
The Commission’s report identifies keepin’ it REAL as one such intervention programs. Facing unparalleled drug abuse among our youth in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, visionary Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1983 launched an unprecedented and innovative substance abuse prevention education program – Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The primary goal of most school-based, curriculum-driven prevention programming is to encourage decisions to never use drugs, or at least facilitate a significant delay in the onset of use of drugs. The focus of social-emotional learning principles in the D.A.R.E./keepin’ it REAL curricula could be critical elements in decisions to not continue using drugs, to encourage decreasing and/or completely stopping the use of drugs. Its unparalleled delivery system utilizing law enforcement officers as instructors and the fact that it was the first program of its kind anywhere in the world have individually and collectively played a critical role in D.A.R.E.’s growth and expansion.