• Because we care

• To believe in themselves

• Because it works

• To reach America

• Because you care

Because we care.

They're our kids. Our future. Our legacy. And we all want the same thing for them - the best.

We want their futures to be bright, and secure, and healthy, and safe. And we want them to succeed. To join us in the worlds of business and commerce, law and medicine, manufacturing and selling, teaching and serving.

That's why we care. About their ability to cope with the challenges of life in contemporary America. About their capacity to resist the negative influences around them, to focus instead on their strengths and their potential.

And that's why we support D.A.R.E

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To believe in themselves.

D.A.R.E. A simple acronym with a big message. Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It's a crusade that works.

D.A.R.E. teaches our children - from kindergarten through high school - that popularity can be found in positive behavior, that belonging need not require them to abandon their values, that self-confidence and self-worth come from asserting themselves and resisting destructive temptations. D.A.R.E. reaches them not just that they should refuse drugs and alcohol, but how to do so.

D.A.R.E. gives our children the tools they need to build a better, fuller, more satisfying life.

The program was created in 1983 as a joint venture of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. D.A.R.E. sends a highly-trained police officer into fifth and sixth grade classrooms every week for 17 weeks to teach students how to refuse drugs and alcohol.

Assigned a "beat" in which they visit each of five schools one day a week, D.A.R.E. officers reach hundreds of thousands of students every year.

The program follows a carefully structured curriculum, focusing on topics such as personal safety, drug use and misuse, consequences of behavior, resisting peer pressure, building self-esteem, assertiveness training, managing stress without drugs, media images of drug use, role models, and support systems.

Separate components have been developed to introduce kindergarten through fourth grade students to the D.A.R.E. program and to follow-up in junior high and high school classrooms, spreading the D.A.R.E. message throughout the schools.

By getting the message from a street-wise police officer - one who's been out there, one who knows how drugs and alcohol can destroy lives - kids take that message seriously.

And, by getting to kids when they're most vulnerable to social pressure - when they're 9, 10, and 11 years old or sooner - D.A.R.E. helps them build the willpower and the belief in themselves that they'll need to stay on track as they forge their futures.

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Because it works.

D.A.R.E. has been doing its job for more than a decade. And it's succeeding.

It's not a one-hour, once-a-year visit by a stranger. It's four-and-a-half months of straight talk and conversation, with someone who becomes a friend, a confidant, an ally. It leaves a lasting impression on kids and their families. And more.

In two studies,* one by the Evaluation and Training Institute and another funded by the National Institute of Justice, a sample of students who had completed the D.A.R.E. curriculum shows:

• significantly less substance abuse, including cigarettes and alcohol;
• a sharp decrease in school vandalism and truancy;
• improved student work habits;
• reduced tension between ethnic groups;
• reduced gang activity;
• a more positive attitude toward police; and
• better student rapport with teachers and school officials.

And now D.A.R.E. is working nationwide, even worldwide. For all our kids.

* Source: "A Short Term Evaluation of Project D.A.R.E" by Bill Dejung. Published in Journal of Drug Education, 1987.

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To reach America.

Sparked by the extraordinary success of D.A.R.E. in Los Angeles, many law enforcement agencies and school districts sought to have D.A.R.E. in their communities.

The demand was overwhelming. So D.A.R.E. America was established to meet this new need. D.A.R.E. America has been supporting the D.A.R.E. program since 1984.

D.A.R.E. America, a non-profit corporation, is a potent resource for communities across the country, helping them to establish D.A.R.E. programs - or to improve an existing one.

The specific functions of D.A.R.E. America are: financial support for instructor training, coordinating fund raising and sponsorship opportunities, and regularly monitoring instruction standards and program results. It also helps provide participating communities with educational materials, program outlines, student workbooks, drug awareness information for parents, information pamphlets for citizens and community groups...everything needed to put D.A.R.E. to work.

And work it has.

D.A.R.E. is taught in thousands of communities worldwide. The program has expanded into all 50 U.S. states, Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Canada, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines.

D.A.R.E. also is the official program of the Department of Defense Dependent Schools worldwide.

But its continued growth depends on you.

As a leader in your community, you can make things happen - right now. Meet with your local law enforcement agencies, your school board, chamber of commerce, business and professional associations. Help establish D.A.R.E. in your city, your home town.

D.A.R.E. America is a non-profit program dependent on private and corporate donations for its success. But it's a Blue Chip investment. Contributions to D.A.R.E. head straight for the classroom, reaching our young people before they're captured by drugs and alcohol. Reaping benefits for generations to come.

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Because you care.

The nation's leading law enforcement officers agree on one thing. They aren't about to beat the drug problem from the supply side. Not in our lifetime... and maybe not in our children's.

Only by attacking the drug problem from the demand side can we hope to halt the flow of drugs. And that' where our children are. Let's be there with them. Let's D.A.R.E. to win.