The program developed under a collaboration between the Cranford Police Department and the Cranford Board of Education. The intervention begins with classes for students in the sixth grade. Project A.L.E.R.T. sessions occur twice a week for 5 weeks, covering topics related to the use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, with attention to ways to resist internal and external pressures from peers and the media that encourage the use of drugs and alcohol. Students receive additional instruction in the eighth grade. The police department and the Cranford High School Students Assistance Counselor developed an original course called High School 101 for incoming freshmen. SROs and high school counselors team up to reinforce the lessons learned in the lower grades. The entire community of approximately 24,000 residents has become involved through community-wide projects that counter drug abuse.
Cranford Community Embraces Anti-Drug and Alcohol Abuse Message
NCJ Number
250575
Journal
Techbeat Dated: January 2017 Pages: 10-14
Editor(s)
Michele Coppola
Date Published
January 2017
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes an anti-drug and anti- alcohol abuse program in Cranford, NJ, that relies on the leadership of school resource officers (SROs) and a revised version of Project A.L.E.R.T. ( Adolescent Learning Experience Resistance Training).
Abstract