CITY CHOSEN AS PILOT SITE FOR NEW KIDS AND DRUGS PROGRAM

A new program has been developed to help parents and guardians prevent
their children from abusing drugs and alcohol.

The new resource, called Kids and Drugs: A Parent's Guide to Prevention, is
a joint venture between the RCMP and Alberta Health Services (AHS) - Alberta
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC).The program, which has been in
development since 2005, will feature five workshops for parents, as well as
a parent handbook. The goal is to improve communication between parents and
their children through better support, decision-making and discipline.

"We believe it can be quite effective in assisting parents in having
conversive, productive, frank, supportive conversations with their
youth around substance abuse," said Barry Andres, vice-president of
AHS-AADAC.

"One thing that happens is that sometimes those conversations don't
happen around the kitchen table until there's a problem, and we need
to move that up."

The project started back in 1990 as an initiative called Two Way
Street. In April 2005, a review process began. Officials did research,
conducted focus groups, received public input and held pilot programs
in a handful of locations across Canada before Kids and Drugs was
launched in Edmonton Thursday.

"As with so many programs like this one, this one being included in
that process, in time all programs become dated," said Cpl. Wayne
Oakes, a media relations spokesman with the RCMP.

"This is the newest rendition, the newest version that's designed at
being capable of being delivered at the community level, and this is a
program that could be delivered by police or it could be delivered by
a host of community-based service providers, so it's not something
that's just reliant on one aspect of service delivery."

Grande Prairie was chosen as one of the pilot sites for the new
project, and with good reason said Staff Sergeant Ian Sanderson of the
RCMP Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service."Let's be quite frank
about it: One reason why they were picked as a pilot site is that they
go for success," he said. "I think Grande Prairie is the perfect type
of community for that type of a program."

Sanderson spent 10 years in Grande Prairie and said it's a great
community that can be strongly supported by a program like Kids and
Drugs. "You've got great resources there and you've got parents
everywhere that are looking for information and this is a great
vehicle to do it in a very respectful, secure environment that (youth)
can come forward and talk about these issues," he said. "And it can be
hard to come forward sometimes because you feel like you're going to
be judged."

Sanderson said a big part of growing up is the influences children
take from their parents. "Some kids unfortunately don't have those,"
he said. "Whether it's a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a coach, a
teacher - any significant adult in their life that shows them that
they have worth and that they're a good person, and sets a good
example for them, that's really important."

The program has four sections to it. The first section looks at the
influence parents have in protecting youth and dealing with some of
the risk factors; the second section promotes better communication
between parents and youth; the third section deals with helping
children make better choices; and the fourth section educates parents
on the drugs themselves.

The new program focuses strongly on the fact parents are the key role
models and have the strongest influence in a child's life."If you go
and you ask kids, 'who is a big influence in your life,' parents
definitely play a big role there," Oakes said. "The younger age at
which a parent recognizes the role of influence they have on a child,
the greater that influence will be."

In the coming months, the RCMP and AHS-AADAC will be training key
community groups and individuals to help deliver this program to parents.

For more information and program materials, contact a local AHS-AADAC
office or RCMP detachment.