See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/319807621

DARE to be You Children’s Program

Chapter · January 2002

DOI: 10.1007/0-306-47381-X_3

CITATIONS READS

0 5

3 authors, including:

David Macphee
Colorado State University
68 PUBLICATIONS   837 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (diversity) View project

School Readiness View project

All content following this page was uploaded by David Macphee on 18 October 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 3

DARE to be You Children’s

Program

The DTBY program for children consists of three mutually supporting aspects: a
broad spectrum of educational activities for the youth; strategies for the parent,
teacher, or other community member to use with youth; and environmental
structures to enable the participants to learn and practice the desired skills. The
curriculum includes a preschool activity book (for children 21⁄2 to 5 years old), a
curriculum volume for children in grades K–2, a volume for grades 3–5, and a
volume for grades 6–8. These include developmentally appropriate activities for
each age group. The materials can be used with just one age group or in consecu-
tive years because activities for older groups build upon those for younger
children. The curriculum may be used in the children’s component of a family
program (as described in this monograph) or in a school, after-school program,
community, or church-based youth group or camps.
High school age students have their own curriculum. Although the activity
manual for this age can be used with teens as the focus of intervention, the DTBY
philosophy is to involve teens as teachers or program aides in the community.
Therefore, the teen or peer curriculum is designed to train adolescents to work
with other youth in the community. For example, in the program for families of
preschool youth described in this monograph, teens are trained to work with the
younger children in the program.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILDREN’S

COMPONENT
The children’s component began in 1979 with a focus on 8- to 12-year-old
youth. The original project was developed and tested through the 4-H youth
41
42 CHAPTER 3

program of Colorado State University. The development team included health

education specialists, teens, parents, teachers, and 4-H club leaders and agents.
The Centers for Disease Control (Risk Reduction Initiative) funded research on
the impact of the program. Experimental and control groups were randomly
selected from schools and 4-H clubs in Weld County, Colorado. A two-year
follow-up showed significant differences between the two groups in the onset of
use of alcohol and tobacco, as well as in communication and decision-making
skills (Miller[-Heyl], 1981).
Then, the program was offered to numerous communities in Colorado and
other states through community team training. Participants in community team
training were contacted for annual follow-up surveys. Feedback from these sur-
veys consistently pointed to a need for an expanded version that could be used
with youth from kindergarten through high school. Funding from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education in 1982 allowed development of the K–12 Substance Abuse
Prevention Curriculum. This three-year research project included field testing the
new curriculum in control and experimental schools. The results included a
significant increase in teacher efficacy in the experimental group compared to the
control group (Fritz et al., 1995).
Follow-up surveys with community team members also identified the need
for programs for families, especially families with young children. Again, this was
congruent with the ecological theory underlying the DTBY program. Funding for
the development of the program for families was provided by the Centers for
Substance Abuse Prevention in a 1989 High Risk Youth Demonstration Grant.
This original demonstration grant was implemented at four diverse sites in Colo-
rado to determine its effectiveness with a variety of cultures: a Native American
site in southwest Colorado; an urban site in Colorado Springs; a rural, traditional
Hispanic and Anglo site in the San Luis Valley; and Montezuma County, a rural
and multiethnic site in Southwest Colorado.
As described in Chapter 6, the children’s developmental levels showed
statistically significant improvement. The program was subsequently replicated in
other sites and with other target populations: through the Asian Association of Salt
Lake City (Utah) with six Asian and Pacific Islander populations, a Hispanic and
an Anglo population; in California with African-American and Hispanic popula-
tions; and in Colorado in a small urban community (Pueblo), with several rural
Navajo communities in the southwest, and with Head Start populations in south-
west Colorado.

PROGRAM FOR 2- TO 5-YEAR-OLD

CHILDREN
Although the activities for preschool children can be used in any setting, they
were specifically designed for use in conjunction with a simultaneous parent

View publication stats