Explain in detail the DARE Project. Be sure to include where this program was established, the program's philosophy, and any success / failure areas

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, commonly known as DARE, is undoubtedly the best-known school-based primary prevention program in the United States and perhaps the world. It was developed in 1983 as a collaborative effort by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles United School District to bring uniformed police officers into kindergarten and elementary grade classrooms to teach basic drug information, peer-refusal skills, self-management techniques, and alternatives to drug use.

The DARE program expanded quite rapidly. Today, it has been established in all fifty U.S. states, in all Native American schools administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in U.S. Department of Defense schools worldwide, and in school systems in many foreign
countries. There are also teacher-orientation sessions, officer–student interactions at playgrounds and in cafeterias, and parent-education evenings. Responses to Project DARE from teachers, principals, students, and police officers are typically enthusiastic, and it is clear that the program has struck a responsive chord over the years for a public that has pushed for active prevention programs in the schools. Part of this enthusiasm can be seen as arising from the image of police departments shifting their emphasis from exclusively "supply reduction" to a more proactive
social role in "demand reduction."

Yet, despite its success in the area of public relations, the research-based evidence supporting the effectiveness of DARE in achieving genuine reductions in drug use is weak. In general, children who participated in the DARE program have a more negative attitude toward drugs one year later than children who did not, as well as a greater capability to resist peer pressure and a lower estimate of how many of their peers smoked cigarettes.

There is little evidence for differences in drug use, drug attitudes, or self-esteem when young people are measured ten years after administration of the DARE program. The DARE program has also been criticized for advocating that children be questioned about possible drug offenders in their families. A DARE lesson called "The Three R's: Recognize, Resist, Report" encourages them to tell friends, teachers, or police if they find drugs at home.