rotecting You/Protecting Me gives students essential knowledge and skills that . . .

• Increase their non-use attitudes and decisions
• Increase their intentions not to ride with an impaired driver
• Improve their ability to protect themselves when they have no option but to ride with a driver who is not alcohol-free

Protecting You/Protecting Me® (PY/PM) is an alcohol use prevention curriculum for children in grades 1-5.  It is designated as a Model Program by SAMHSA, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

PY/PM helps reach children before they have fully shaped their attitudes and opinions about alcohol use by youth and their role in preventing it. The curriculum focuses on the effects of alcohol on the developing brain during the first 21 years of life.

The lessons reinforce the fact that the brains of children and adolescents are still maturing and respond to alcohol dramatically differently than adults’ brains, putting children at a much higher risk. The curriculum provides a series of 40 science and health based lessons, eight lessons for each grade one through five. Each grade level has its own materials.

Protecting You/Protecting Me is the only curriculum that teaches children how to protect themselves and make informed decisions on this topic. The curriculum covers specific ways to handle difficult situations such as reducing the risks if riding with a driver who is not alcohol-free.  In addition, the lessons cover a variety of life skills including media awareness, stress management,   resistance strategies, decision making and communication. Students learn these skills and information through group activities, structured discussion, role-play, exploring real life topics and issues, and parent involvement. Lessons are designed to be infused into a school’s core curriculum and meet required educational standards.

Research shows that the risk for alcohol and other drug use skyrockets when children enter the 6th grade, between the ages of 12 and 13. To be effective in preventing alcohol use by teenagers, we must reach out to and educate children in grades one through five.

• Donovan, J. E., S. L. Leech, R. A. Zucker, et al.  “Really underage drinkers: Alcohol use among elementary students.”  Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 28 (2) (Feb. 2004): 341-349.