D.A.R.E. Program LogoThe Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office is proud to participate in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Program, which teaches children about the dangers of drug and alcohol use and the violence which often accompanies it. The Sheriff’s Office is determined to educate the students of Brunswick County to make good, wise, and healthy decisions that not just affect them now, but into the distant future.

About The Program

Facing unparalleled drug abuse among our youth in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, visionary Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1983 launched an unprecedented and innovative substance abuse prevention education program – Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

With each passing year, D.A.R.E.’s success was seen in classrooms and homes leading to rapid growth and expansion. As each decade passed and success increased, the challenges facing children and families also grew. Today, through the leadership of D.A.R.E.’s dedicated Board of Directors, and the tireless commitment and hard work of tens of thousands of officers and educators throughout America and around the globe, D.A.R.E strives each day to achieve its vital mission…to fulfill a vision.

Since 2003, D.A.R.E. America has engaged in a total organizational renewal which includes:

  • New leadership
  • An expanded organizational mission
  • A five year strategic plan developed with the UCLA Anderson School of Business
  • Increased research activities to maintain program efficacy
  • New science‐based curricular components
  • New training model and instructional methodology
  • Comprehensive programming with greater flexibility at the local level
  • Reinvigorated advisory groups, such as the prestigious and active Law Enforcement Executive Board
  • Funding opportunities for local D.A.R.E. programs

New Curriculum

The new D.A.R.E. K-12 curricula focus upon the abuse of gateway drugs (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and inhalants). The program offers a preventive strategy to enhance protective factors ‐ especially bonding to family, school and community ‐ which research has shown to foster development of resiliency in students who may be at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviors. The program employs the use of the D.A.R.E. decision making model in which students are provided skills to use in developing and assessing choices they make in life. Students build skills to:

D Define problems and challenges
A Assess available choices
R Respond by making a choice
E Evaluate their decisions

D.A.R.E. Union ElementaryThe D.A.R.E. Instructor, using techniques of facilitation – gone are the days of the didactic lecture – guides students as they work in small cooperative learning groups using the D.A.R.E. decision making model to apply to real life situations.

The new D.A.R.E. elementary curriculum has been reduced to 10 lessons and a menu of enhancement lessons implemented. The enhancement lessons provide local jurisdictions the ability to customize their D.A.R.E. program to meet identified needs. Many enhancement lessons will be developed, among those currently offered are: gangs, methamphetamine’s, internet safety, bullying and cyber bullying. The most recent addition is the D.A.R.E. Rx/OTC (prescription/ over‐the‐counter) Drug abuse materials. The D.A.R.E. Rx/OTC Drug Abuse materials include lessons for elementary and middle school, high school and community presentations.

Schools Served

The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office has successfully implemented the D.A.R.E. Program into the following 10 elementary schools:

  • Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary
  • Virginia Williamson Elementary
  • Town Creek Elementary
  • Bolivia Elementary
  • Union Elementary
  • Supply Elementary
  • Belville Elementary
  • Lincoln Elementary
  • Southport Elementary
  • Waccamaw School

Additional Information

For additional information about the D.A.R.E. Program, please visit the following official D.A.R.E. websites:

Comments are closed