PROJECT ALERT

Project ALERT is a drug prevention curriculum for middle school youth 11 to 14 years old.  Objectives of the program include enabling the middle school students to: 1) Develop reasons not to use drugs 2) Identify pressures to use them 3) Counter pro-drug messages 4) Learn how to say no to external and internal pressures 5) Understand that most people do not use drugs and 6) Recognize the benefits of resistance.
The first year's program consists of eleven lessons, taught a week apart. These lessons are reinforced during three additional lessons in Year 2. The highly participatory curriculum makes extensive use of questions-and-answer techniques, small-group exercises, role modeling, and repeated skills practice. These methods allow teachers to adjust program content to diverse classrooms with different levels of information and drug exposure. 
Risk factors that are addressed with Project ALERT include early initiation of substance abuse, favorable attitudes toward substance abuse, protective factors focusing on skill development, and educational strategies.  Project ALERT has been demonstrated effective with all ethnic groups and in both rural and metropolitan communities.