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Departments > Police > Community Programs > D.A.R.E.
This year 36 million school children around the world--26 million in the U.S.--will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.
The Oak Lawn Police Department instituted the D.A.R.E. Program in 1989 and is taught to fifth graders in twelve elementary schools. Over 12,000 students have graduated from our D.A.R.E. program. D.A.R.E. is not just a drug education program; it is crime and violence prevention program in our schools. D.A.R.E. goes beyond traditional drug abuse and violence prevention programs. It gives children the skills needed to recognize and resist the subtle and overt pressures that cause them to experiment with drugs or become involved in gangs or violent activities. D.A.R.E. is designed to meet the needs of our children who today are subjected to more pressures than we were at their age. With the use of the D.A.R.E. Decision-Making Model, our children learn to: Define the problem they are facing; Assess what their choices are; Respond appropriately based on the facts and information they have gathered; and Evaluate their response.
D.A.R.E. is universally viewed as an internationally recognized model of community policing. The United States Department of Justice has identified how D.A.R.E. benefits local communities:
• D.A.R.E. "humanizes" the police: that is, young people can begin to relate to officers as people.
• D.A.R.E. permits students to see officers in a helping role, not just an enforcement role.
• D.A.R.E. opens lines of communication between law enforcement and youth.
• D.A.R.E. officers can serve as conduits to provide information beyond drug-related topics.
• D.A.R.E. opens dialogue between the school, police, and parents to deal with other issues.
Programs such as D.A.R.E. & EDGE promote the education necessary to keep our kids safe and our Village prosperous.
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