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YSAPPA Program Archive YSA06

Project ALERT
Phyllis L. Ellickson, Robert, Ellen R. Harrison, Kimberly McGuigan

Project ALERT (Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training), developed and field tested over a ten-year period by the RAND Corporation of Santa Monica, California, is a school-based drug prevention curriculum for middle school students (sixth, seventh or eighth graders), with boosters the following year. The Project ALERT video-based curriculum focuses on cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants, so called "gateway" drugs that are most widely used by young people and typically precede use of harder drugs. The interactive, sequential curriculum is highly participatory and uses questions-and-answer techniques, role modeling, small-group exercises, games, and repeated skills practice--methods that allow teachers to adjust the program content to diverse classrooms with different levels of information and drug exposure. Students receive eleven core lessons the first year, and three booster lessons the second year. The lessons are designed to be taught one lesson per week. Program leaders are required to attend a one-day professional development workshop provided by the BEST Foundation For A Drug-Free Tomorrow.

Note: Curriculum materials for implementing Project ALERT are only available at the BEST Foundation Training sessions. These include a teacher's manual, a teacher orientation and demonstration video, eight interactive student videos, and 12 full-color classroom posters. An optional and complimentary teen leader manual is also available upon request. The program package distributed by Sociometrics does not include the curriculum materials. It includes a Project ALERT preview video, a brochure, a User's Guide describing the program and its evaluation in detail, materials for evaluating the program (such as questionnaires, process evaluation forms, consent forms), as well as a CD-ROM that gives general tips and guidance on program implementation, as well as evaluation techniques and concepts.

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