Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 6, 1 Iune 1989 — OHA Grant Renewed For Substance Abuse Prevention Education Project [ARTICLE]

OHA Grant Renewed For Substance Abuse Prevention Education Project

By Christine A. Valles Grants Specialist The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has received a second grant from the U.S. Department of Education for its Substance Abuse Prevention Education Project. The new grant for $150,503 will allow OHA to eonhnue the prevent'ion education project that was begun in July 1988. The Substance Abuse Prevention Education Project is a partnership between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Castle Medical Center Aleohol and Addictions Programs, the Honolulu Poliee Department and the Hawaii State Department of Education (see article in Ka Wai Ola O OHA, March 1989). The project will take plaee in sixth and eighth grade classes in 30 public schools on Windward O'ahu, Maui, Moloka'i and Lana'i. In

some schools, the project may also serve fourth grade students. The goals of the project are: • to eliminate substance abuse in the lives of young people, • create a cooperative effort among school personnel, law enforcement officials and parents, and • develop a cooperative model whieh ean be adopted or adapted by other schools and eommunities. The program goals will be met by involving parents, "foster grandparents," teachers, prevention experts, and poliee officers in a concerted educational effort that focuses on providing factual information about aleohol and other drugs combined with skill building exercises in the areas of decision making, problem solving, resisting drugs, coping with peer pressure, and building self esteem. The project has three major components: • a series of educational workshops for parents and school personnel supplemented by technical assistance taught by Castle Medical Center, • a two-week in-school program for sixth and eight grade students also taught by Castle Medical Center, and • an intensive two-week summer program eonducted by the Honolulu Poliee Department for seventh and eighth grade students considered at risk of drug or aleohol abuse. For this second grant proposal, OHA competed against nearly 400 other applicants. OHA's proposal for the first year of this project was ranked number one out of a field of 296 applications.