Program aims to help teens avoid drug use

CARIBOU – It turns out that an encouraging word may be one of the best ways to help prevent teen drug abuse.

The Community Alcohol and Drug Education Team is promoting an educational approach that builds young people’s confidence, called Developmental Assets, as a way to arm local youth with the tools they need to face drug abuse, as well as teen issues ranging from truancy to sex abuse.

CADET was established in 1991 in central Aroostook County with the goal of preventing and reducing substance abuse. It has been involved since last year in a regional effort to increase community awareness of Aroostook County’s drug problem.

Susan White, CADET steering committee member and principal of Caribou Middle School, said the group’s work to involve the community is a preventive, proactive effort.

“What we’re hoping is that this becomes a way of interacting with people, a way of treating people on a daily basis,” White said Wednesday. “We’re trying to make it so that people see the value and significance of, when you meet someone, just giving a simple hello. That makes people feel like they have a connection.”

Of course, Developmental Assets goes far beyond just saying hello. The program created by the Search Institute, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis, includes 40 Developmental Assets divided into eight categories, according to the organization’s Web site. Twenty of the assets are internal, having to do with commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity characteristics such as self-esteem and a sense of purpose. The other 20 assets are external, focusing on support, empowerment, constructive use of time, and boundaries and expectations.

The list of assets, officials explained, are really “common sense ideas to keep in the back of your mind all the time” and to use in trying to build strengths in young people.

Caribou Middle School has been using the Developmental Assets framework for almost two years. White said the implementation has really been about teachers and staff making a more conscious effort to ensure they are connecting with pupils.

“We see teachers all the time now walking down the hall and having conversations with kids,” White said. “At first, kids were like, ‘Why is this adult asking me how my weekend was or how I did on my test?’ They didn’t know what to do. And now they’re looking for it. This is beyond whether they pass reading or language. We’ve made a commitment, and we’ve seen a big change.”

What CADET hopes to do is bring the method beyond the school setting. Officials have planned a full-day community presentation for Monday, April 2, at the Caribou Performing Arts Center. A Youth Asset Assembly titled “Remember Who You Are” will kick off the event. It will focus on how the strengths of every individual can be maximized in everyday situations faced by young people.

At 1:30 p.m., CADET invites local officials to attend a Community Leaders Asset Workshop. It will be an interactive opportunity to learn the power of the 40 Developmental Assets through lecture, handouts, case study and conversation.

Finally, a community meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. and include speakers Ruby Newell-Legner and Lori Hoftner, whose credentials include work after the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999.

White urged people to take the time to attend the sessions.

“We need to start making kids feel better about themselves, more confident, so that when they’re faced with these decisions, they know they have support at home and in the school and community that will help,” she said. “We hope to give them the confidence and the tools they need to make good decisions.”

To do that, she said, it’s going to take the whole community.

“This isn’t just the school’s responsibility, it’s not just the church’s responsibility. Here’s an opportunity for the entire community to hear a common message and right from day one be working from common ground,” White said. “We need to get lots of people there to hear this message and get the tools they need so we can all work from the same page.”

For more information about Developmental Assets, visit www.search-institute.org.