The Prevention and Education department of the Alcohol and Drug Council of Tompkins County offers a variety of programs to meet your needs for quality information and education related to substance abuse.
PEER EDUCATION PROGRAM
Our friends and peers are perhaps some of the most important and influential people in our lives. We go to friends for help, advice, support, and they come to us as well. It is no surprise that the 1988 Tompkins County Youth Bureau Needs Assessment showed 67% of respondents seeking advice from friends most often. With this in mind along with the need for a new drug and alcohol prevention program at the time, the Peer Education Program (PEP) was developed in 1989.
Sponsored by The Alcohol & Drug Council of Tompkins County, the Peer Education Program provides information, education, counseling, and referral services to all residents of Tompkins County. What's unique about this program is that it trains high school students to present a series of six interactive workshops for middle school students on topics ranging from peer pressure to drug and alcohol prevention. After a successful pilot program at Ithaca High School in 1990, PEP expanded, and now close to 50 Peer Educators lead workshops in Dryden, Ithaca, Lansing, Newfield, and Trumansburg for over 500 middle school students.
High School Students join the Peer Education Program for a variety of reasons. Some want to make a difference, some have personal experience with drugs and alcohol and want to educate others, and some just want to help others learn to adopt a healthy and happy lifestyle. Peer Educators are recruited and referred by friends and teachers, required to fill out an application, and are interviewed before being selected for a position on the PEP team.
Training begins in the fall and is ongoing during the school year. By attending an introductory session and weekly training sessions during either lunch or a free period, Educators learn classroom facilitation and presentation skills along with drug and alcohol information and all material that will be presented during the workshops throughout the school year.
Peer Educators also play an essential role in shaping the workshops. The skeletons are presented to them, but they are responsible for working together with other Peer Educators and the Peer Trainer to arrive at many of the specific details and presentation tactics for each workshop. This helps keep the workshops dynamic, original and fun while communicating very important messages.
Working in teams of two or three, Peer Educators present the series of six workshops on topics including: basic drug and alcohol information, peer pressure, decision making, the influence of the media, and life in high school.
The life skills that are both taught and learned are important to and affect not only the middle school students, but the Educators as well. Whether it be information about drugs or what it takes to stand up in front of a class and present that information, the Peer Education Program gives students a chance to learn something new, make a difference, and effect positive change.
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
More information for parents can be found on our parents page.
OPEN MINDS PROGRAM
The Open Minds Workshop, is a daylong workshop that provides education about alcohol and other substances in an interactive, experiential environment. Referral to the Workshop offers young people a unique combination of meeting mandated requirements while being challenged to examine their own history, values and patterns of use of alcohol and other drugs. The focus of the day is to educate young people about the risks of use and to understand the distinction between use, abuse and dependence, and to potentially self identify an alcohol or other drug problem if they have one.
Most participants are referred by the court system, the disciplinary arm of their university or another authority. Students are typically referred after having been charged with an offense such as, underage drinking, attempting to purchase alcohol with a false I.D., public drunkenness, or similar substance related violation.
The Open Minds Workshop is a program offered by The Alcohol & Drug Council of Tompkins County that provides basic alcohol and drug awareness education for young adults. Workshops are offered one Saturday a month from 8:30am to 4:30pm with a break for lunch. Cost of attendance is $150.00. Call ADC for specific dates at (607) 274-6288.
DRUG FREE WORKPLACE PROGRAM
What can employers do to combat drug and alcohol abuse and its many detrimental effects on the workplace, such as decreased productivity and increased accidents, turnover, absenteeism, and worker’s compensation costs?
The Alcohol and Drug Council has developed Drug Free Workplace presentations for local businesses. These educational programs have been received well by the staff and management and seen positive outcomes. Comments from an administrator at one of these businesses wrote “Your multimedia presentation incorporating two presenters, overheads, videos and handouts was very effective. If I measure the success of the presentation by the interest and conversations initiated as a result of the workshop, then your effort was a complete success.”
An important step that the Alcohol and Drug Council can also assist with is helping companies to develop a formal written policy against drug and alcohol abuse. We can also tailor a program to meet the specific needs of a business. |
