Have You Met Prevention Academy Yet?!

The new school year has kicked off and you’re in it!  Whatever has transpired already, congratulations on making that transition out of the summer and into the new year.  (If you’re reading this as a new high schooler, welcome!)

This year, Prevention Academy is visiting schools in Delaware and Montgomery Counties, and I happen to know our Prevention Specialists are eager to get into your classrooms and meet you – this I know because I’m one of them.  We spent a good amount of time over the summer preparing and hiring and training so that you get the up-to-date, science-based prevention education that will help you make decisions about your health moving forward.

And that’s the objective here – to help you make decisions.  Not to make them for you, not to direct your behaviors in that way.  If you listen to the season premiere episode of Choices Unfiltered, you’ll hear our Executive Director Kiersten Simon speak about the commitment we all share to promote your health.  The best way for us to do that is to let you make your own choices – and to inform those choices with the data that empowers you to choose wisely.

If you meet a Prevention Academy Prevention Specialist this term, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to learn what you want to know about alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, or another drug you’ve heard of.  Something we like to discuss is your developing brain – if you’ve heard that, “your brain’s still developing,” but that statement doesn’t have any specific meaning for you, let your Prevention Specialist know!  We can help you make some meaning of it for yourself.

By the way, that’s a great question to ask any adult in your world: when they say something you’ve heard a dozen times, that has no apparent significant meaning or implication for you, yet they sit there looking like they’ve dispensed great wisdom, ask them: “What does this mean for me?  How can I use this information?”

The great thing about the Prevention Academy classroom is that it’s a non-judgmental space.  We really emphasize that, because we want you to feel comfortable and safe asking the questions that tug at your mind when this topic comes around.  If a thing you’ve heard about your brain, or about a drug, needs confirmation or myth-busting, let’s make it happen in the Prevention Academy classroom.

The classroom is the perfect place for these discussions because it takes the pressure out of the topic.  If you do ever find yourself in an environment where peers are using substances, you may think it’s a difficult environment in which to learn about the substances in question.  You’ll have the knowledge and beliefs of the people present, whether they’re using the drug or not, but that’s what we call a biased sample – it doesn’t contain a full spectrum of perspectives.  In the prevention classroom, you have a more diverse gathering of your peers present to share opinions and ideas, and a knowledgeable educator on hand to make sure the information being traded is valid.  And that educator will not judge you for not knowing something, for having incorrect information swimming around your head, or for any opinion you have that may have been misinformed.  I think, if you’ll also agree not to judge each other – or yourselves – as we have our discussions, you’ll find them productive.  And ideally, interesting!

If you don’t get the opportunity to meet a Prevention Specialist this term, perhaps you will in the spring; in the meantime, you can always reach us at the EmpowerED Resource Library with your questions.  Depending on your need, I can just provide you with the information you need, or we can find a solid source of reliable information together.