MADD
Tailors Alcohol Use Prevention Program for Native American Cultures
Press Release
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
511 E. John Carpenter Frwy. Suite 700
Irving, TX 75062
www.madd.org
Native American High School Students to Teach Curriculum Sign Pledge
to Stay Alcohol Free at Honoring Ceremony as Part of Training
South Sioux City, NE - Continuing its expansion of culturally diverse
programs, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) announced it has
adapted its nationally recognized elementary alcohol use prevention
program, Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM), to be culturally
appropriate for Native American students.
"Underage drinking permeates all races and ethnicities; its
tragedies are felt in every community across the country,"
said Wendy J. Hamilton, MADD national president. "Protecting
You/Protecting Me plays a crucial role in protecting the lives of
children, and we want to ensure all students can relate to the lessons
so they can make smart, healthy decisions about alcohol."
The specialized curriculum will be available this fall to Native
communities, but trainings to infuse the classroom-, curriculum-based
program into schools are already underway. Over 50 junior and senior
high school students from the Winnebago, Omaha and Santee Tribes
marked the middle of their three-day training with an Honoring Ceremony
where they signed a pledge with their parents to stay alcohol and
drug free and to be good role models.
"No one is telling elementary students about the dangers of
alcohol and they really need to know," said Kellie Bass, member
of the Winnebago Tribe and training participant. "Kids look
up to us as role models and we tell them it's okay not to drink.
It's information that can change their lives."
Teachers, community members, prevention specialists and counselors
from three Nebraska Tribes-the Omaha, Santee and Winnebago-along
with representatives from the Rocky Boy reservation in Montana,
Arizona's Tohono-O'Odham Indian Reservation and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs attended the first PY/PM training using the adapted curriculum
in June in South Sioux City.
The Native American cultural adaptation of PY/PM was funded by
a Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Substance
Abuse Prevention (CSAP) grant. To adapt the curriculum effectively,
MADD partnered with the Red Road Project for Native American Youth
Leadership. The Red Road Project-created from a joint U.S. Department
of Education and CSAP grant-joins teens, children, elders and reservation
communities to prevent alcohol abuse.
"We have tailored Protecting You/Protecting Me to address
and reflect tribal values and traditions," said Pat Stone,
Red Road Project coordinator. "By encouraging youth leadership
in conjunction with the curriculum, we are charting a course for
future community strength and leadership."
In each community, a Red Road Project coordinator, who is a tribal
elder or other trained adult, works with the PY/PM teen peer helper
to tell stories, discuss problems and add the vital link to tribal
tradition that is so crucial to curriculum's success. The coordinators
not only spend time in elementary schools incorporating native language,
traditions and spirituality in the classroom, but also commit to
participating in monthly activities in the community.
"You have to start with the youngsters," said Warner
Earth, a Winnebago tribal elder. Using examples from his community's
past, as well as his own past, he tries to show children the gains
that can come from abstaining from alcohol use, especially at a
young age. He added, "I encourage children, 'You can be anything
that you want to be. All you have to do is go after it.'"
More than 50 percent of Native American child pedestrian (6-15
years-old) fatalities are alcohol-related and half of those fatalities
involve children who have been drinking. Over 12 percent of Native
American youth ages 12-17 are binge drinkers.
Alcohol is the number one drug choice of youth, killing 6.5 times
more young people than all other illicit drugs combined. Underage
drinkers consume about 10 percent of all the alcohol purchased in
the United States. On average, kids take their first drink of alcohol
at age 12. Research shows that if youth wait until age 21 to begin
drinking, they are less likely to become alcohol dependent and drinking
drivers.
PY/PM is the first and only program of its kind to use the latest
scientific brain research to teach children about how alcohol affects
their growing bodies. It also teaches them how to keep themselves
safe from underage drinking and drunk driving. PY/PM consists of
a series of 40 classroom-based lessons of eight lessons per year
for grades one to five.
Since PY/PM's inception in 1998, approximately 88,000 elementary
students in 19 states and Guam have received the curriculum. In
May 2002, PY/PM was recognized by CSAP as a Model Program, the highest
level of endorsement given to an education program by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA). PY/PM also is endorsed by the
American Medical Association, the National Elementary Principals
Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For more information, please visit www.pypm.org or contact Amy
George at 469-420-4493 or amy.george@madd.org
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