Collaboration to brings evidence-based alcohol prevention curriculum to elementary students

Center City, Minn. (June 13, 2006) - The nonprofit Hazelden Foundation, a national leader in drug and alcohol addiction treatment and prevention programs today announced it has entered an agreement with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to publish the adult-led implementation of Protecting You/Protecting Me, the only research-based, model curriculum that teaches children in grades 1-5 the impact of alcohol on the developing brain and how to protect themselves if riding in a car with an alcohol-impaired driver.

The curriculum, which provides a series of 40 lessons, covers specific ways to handle unsafe situations, how to make good decisions, ways to resist peer pressure, how rules and laws protect us, how to talk to parents and other adults and the difference between the brains of people over 21 and those under 21.

"Research shows that the risk for alcohol and other drugs skyrockets when children enter the sixth grade, between the ages of 12 and 13," said Kris Van Hoof-Haines, vice president of Content Development for Hazelden Publishing and Education Services. "To prevent alcohol use by teenagers, we must reach out and educate children before they have fully shaped their attitudes and opinions about alcohol use."

Protecting You/Protecting Me is a nationwide effort to prevent alcohol use by youth developed by MADD in collaboration with Hazelden to publish the adult-led program.

"Protecting You/Protecting Me works," said Glynn Birch, MADD national president. "We know that students who've received the curriculum have increased knowledge of the effects of alcohol on the developing brain, increased perceptions of the potential harm of alcohol use, and increased intentions not to drink alcohol underage in the future. This education helps students make smart, healthy decisions about alcohol to help keep them safe."

Hazelden has been a leader in delivering evidence-based middle and high school prevention programs. Protecting You/Protecting Me fills a needed gap in the Hazelden line by reaching elementary students. 

Hazelden and MADD are promoting the new program throughout the year at prevention and education conferences nationwide, in addition to print promotion. The program will be available to the public in October 2006, and the cost of each grade level curriculum binder is $125.00.

First developed in 1998, Protecting You/Protecting Me has been named a Model Program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and has been endorsed by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association.

MADD, founded in 1980, has become one of the largest crime victim's organizations in the country and has helped save more than 300,000 lives. Its mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. For more information, visit http://www.madd.org/ or http://www.pypm.org/.