Protecting You/Protecting Me^TM gives students essential knowledge and skills that . . .

• Increase their non-use attitudes and decisions
• Increase their intentions not to ride with an impaired driver
• Improve their ability to protect themselves when they have no option but to ride with a driver who is not alcohol-free

Protecting You/Protecting Me helps reach children before they have fully shaped their attitudes and opinions about alcohol use by youth and their role in preventing it. The curriculum focuses on the effects of alcohol on the developing brain during the first 21 years of life.

The lesson descriptions reinforce the fact that the brains of children and adolescents are still maturing and respond to alcohol in a dramatically different fashion than adults', putting children at a much higher risk. The curriculum provides a series of 40 lessons, eight lessons each for grades 1-5. Each grade level has its own materials:

• Grade 1: curriculum, three storybooks, 7 posters
• Grade 2: curriculum, 1 poster
• Grade 3: curriculum, 3 posters
• Grade 4: curriculum, 3 posters
• Grade 5: curriculum, DVD, and 1 poster
• Spanish language take-home materials for parents

Protecting You/Protecting Me is the only curriculum that teaches children how to protect themselves and make informed decisions on this topic. The curriculum covers specific ways to handle difficult situations such as reducing the risks if riding with a driver who is not alcohol-free.

Research shows that the risk for alcohol and other drug use skyrockets when children enter the sixth grade, between the ages of 12 and 13. To be effective in preventing alcohol use by teenagers, we must reach out to and educate children in grades 1-5. MADD's National Elementary School Project is a nationwide effort to prevent alcohol use by youth, and Protecting You/Protecting Me is an important first step in the project.