LEARN TO KEEP KIDS DRUG-FREE

The Lobstick Community Learning Society (LCLS) will be giving parents
the tools needed to help keep their kids off drugs.

The Drug Proof your Kids program will help parents influence their
children's choices, said LCLS coordinator Nancy Dinsdale.

"The program outlines what parents can do to keep (their kids) drug
free," Dinsdale said.

She said parents in the east end of Yellowhead County have been asking
for a program like this - especially those with children entering the
junior high ranks. Drug Proof your Kids is suited best for that age
group because the award-winning program focuses on prevention and
early intervention.

"Prevention tools are the biggest part of this program - like how to
help children deal with the peer pressure they feel at this age,"
Dinsdale said.

One unique part of this program is that it is held in six, two-hour
sessions - on Wednesday nights from Jan. 28 to March 3. The reason it
is done this way is so parents aren't inundated with information in an
intensive two-day course.

"This way, parents can go home and have an open discussion with their
kids about what they learned that night."

Drug Proof your Kids will be facilitated by Margo and Klaus Ewikowski,
of the Darwell-area, who were trained through Focus on the Family.

Klaus said the Drug Proof your Kids program is for any parent saying,
"Tell me how."

"I would rather meet parents now at the Drug Proof your Kids program
than later, during an intake interview, asking us to take their child
into our rehabilitation program," he added.

Through the program, parents will:

. develop home-based strategies to help their children make informed
choices about drug use;

. be better informed of current drug use in society and its related
harm;

. spend time examining their own beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
about drug use; and,

. gain available community information and access to local
support.

Dinsdale said many parents need this information, because what they
may have known about drugs when they were teens is different than what
goes on today. "Now they have different drugs that are more dangerous
than their parents might remember. Especially crystal meth - that's a
bad one," she said.

The program will be held Jan. 28, Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25 and March 3, from
7-9 p.m., at the LCLS office, which is located in the Grand Trunk High
School gym.

For more information or to register, call Dinsdale at 727-4077. There
is a $30 fee ($55 for couples), which includes a 100-page booklet,
full of notes, exercises, discussion points and reference materials.