Kenowa Hills High School has been chosen by the ALERT Labs of Grand Valley State University to participate in a project aimed at reducing underage alcohol and other drug use. The one-year, $100,000 grant will focus on collecting data to correct student, parent and teacher misperceptions.
"It's the science of the positive," said Shannon Welsh, grant project coordinator. "We will be using data to capture the assets and goodness of the Kenowa Hills youth populations and build upon existing programs."
ALERT stands for Alcohol, Education, Research and Training. ALERT Labs has been designated as a "Model Program" by the U.S. Department of Education.
The Kenowa Hills "Making Sobriety Attractive" project will begin in fall 2007.
"We are pretty excited to have this program at Kenowa Hills High School," said Principal Peg Mathis. "What is unique is that the request for this program was driven from a great group of concerned parents."
Research shows that teens generally overestimate the extent of alcohol used by their classmates. Parents also underestimate the extent to which their opinion matters to their children. Parents' disapproval of underage alcohol use is one of the key reasons young people choose not to drink.
"We hope it will help everyone in our community, especially parents and students, to examine the issues of drinking and drug use more openly," said Mathis. "While we have had other programs in the past, I think this program works with our existing structure without trying to re-invent the wheel."
This project is sponsored by The Alcohol and Other Drugs Partnership for Healthy Communities. Funding for the Making Sobriety Attractive project is provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information about ALERT Labs visit www.gvsu.edu/alert.
