Officer Kevin Petrocelli leads the Miami Township Police Department D.A.R.E. program in our local schools. The purpose of the D.A.R.E.  program is to provide an educational approach to helping children resist drugs and alcohol.

This year hundreds of children in Miami Township and millions of school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E., the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence.

D.A.R.E. is a collaborative effort by D.A.R.E. officers, educators, students, parents, and the community to offer an educational program in the classroom to increase youth resistance to peer pressure to experiment with tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. D.A.R.E. gives special attention to fifth grades to prepare students for entry into junior high and high school, where they are most likely to encounter pressures to use drugs.  The program content for D.A.R.E. is organized into 9 week sessions taught by a law enforcement officer. The D.A.R.E. program offers preventive strategies to enhance those protective factors-especially bonding to the family, school, and community-which appear to foster the development of resiliency in young people who may be at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviors.

Researchers have identified certain protective and social bonding factors in the family, school, and community which may foster resiliency in young people, in other words, the capacity of young people for healthy, independent growth in spite of adverse conditions. These strategies focus on the development of social competence, communication skills, self-esteem, empathy, decision making, conflict resolution, sense of purpose and independence, and positive alternatives to drug abuse and other destructive behaviors.

D.A.R.E. LESSONS FOCUS ON FOUR MAJOR AREAS:
Providing accurate information about tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.
Teaching students decision-making skills
Showing students how to resist peer pressure
Giving students ideas for alternatives to drug use