Preventative Strategies
The D.A.R.E. program offers preventive strategies to enhance those protective factors, especially bonding to the family, school, and community, which appears to foster the development of resiliency in young people who may be at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviors. Research has identified certain protective and social bonding factors in the family, school, and community, which may foster resiliency in young people, in other words, the capacity of young people for healthy, independent growth in spite of adverse conditions.
These strategies focus on the development of:
- Social competences
- Communication skills
- Self-esteem
- Empathy
- Decision-making
- Conflict resolution
- Sense of purpose and independence
- Positive alternative activities to drug abuse and other destructive behaviors.