DID YOU KNOW?
A report by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health says that there were about 6,000 new marijuana users per day in 2007.
Proactive Network Against Substance Abuse (PRONASA) is a non-profit organization started in 2002 dedicated to educating children and adults in the areas of substance abuse prevention and narcotic identification in order to promote safe and drug-free schools, communities and workplace environments. We also help steer affected families to treatment by networking with proven rehabilitation programs.
All seminars are directed by experienced law enforcement personnel with experience in the narcotics field and are constantly being updated to reflect new laws, developments and trends.
Illegal drug use has been and continues to be a scourge on society. Attempts to address the problem range from stricter laws to drug education. Since we never will be able to rid society of illegal substances and the criminal distribution of them, our best bet in this fight remains attacking it from the ground floor by steering our youth from the temptation. It has been shown that awareness is a powerful tool that can diminish the use of illegal drugs.
This is where the Proactive Network Against Substance Abuse comes in. In six short years, our education program has won several awards, grown substantially through word-of-mouth endorsements, and earned the praise and accolades of parents, teachers, community leaders and social service groups.
Introduced 25 years ago, the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program has offered a service similar to PRONASA’s. D.A.R.E was designed to educate students at the elementary school level to the dangers of illegal drug use. D.A.R.E workshops were taught by police officers because they possessed credibility regarding the dangers of illegal drug use.
Due to a number of factors, including budget cuts, D.A.R.E has been virtually eliminated, creating a drug education void within San Diego County. PRONASA has been established to fill this very need.
As has been the case with the D.A.R.E program, each PRONASA instructor is or was employed by a law enforcement agency, possesses teaching credentials, and is an expert in the area of illegal drug use. For these reasons, PRONASA has been viewed by local communities as a welcomed addition. But PRONASA programs offer much more than D.A.R.E. With its unique approach towards education, PRONASA literally brings the service of educating children and adults in the areas of substance abuse prevention and narcotic identification to a whole new and more powerful level. Whereas the D.A.R.E program focused exclusively on education, PRONASA also targets the parents and other adult leaders and brings together families who are in need of drug prevention or rehabilitation services with organizations who can provide such services. As a result, the effects of a PRONASA workshop do not end when the educational presentation finishes; instead, the ripple effects of a PRONASA workshop continue as families-in-need are introduced to organizations that can provide the appropriate services. In school settings, the ripple effects of students who have attended a PRONASA workshop manifests itself in still another fashion, for school nurses and counselors have been reporting that the students have demonstrated a better awareness about substance abuse and improved their social skills.
The staff of PRONASA is aware that parents and teachers are generally the first to see the effects of drug use, namely poor grades, dramatic mood changes, and health problems. But without training, these adult leaders often are not able to identify when these problems are being caused by chronic alcohol or substance abuse. We at PROSNASA realize, however, how important it is that these problems be detected as early as possible. For this reason, after providing our educational workshops for children and adolescents, we follow up with a program that teaches parents and teachers how to identify a child who is using illegal drugs.
PRONASA also offers lectures and/or workshops to local businesses, churches and community groups. In 1988, Congress enacted the Drug-free Workplace Act. This statute requires contractors and grantees of federal agencies to certify that they will provide drug-free workplace in order to be eligible for federal funding. In response to this legislation, as well as concerns within the community, PRONASA has developed
programs to teach substance abuse awareness for the employees of various businesses and organizations.
Thus far, the staff of PRONASA has focused its energies towards providing a high quality lecture for children, parents, educators and organizations. PRONASA has tracked its performance by recording the number of seminars it has offered each year and the attendance at these events. The increasing number of seminars offered each year reflects the growing demand for the program and in this sense can be used to measure its “success.” Additionally, PRONASA routinely has attendees provide PRONASA with feedback. Through attendee feedback and recommendations, PRONASA has been able to enhance its lecture, to make them even more informative. To date we have provided our training to more than 20,000 people.
PRONASA will develop strategies for collecting data that will demonstrate the extent to which it provides families-in-need with the kinds of resources they require. Towards this end, PRONASA plans to ask the rehabilitation agencies that attend a PRONASA lecture to provide PRONASA with data concerning the number of referrals they receive and also information regarding the outcome of these referrals.
We are a 501(c)3 educational organization. We have been providing this training for the past six years as volunteer off-duty police officers. Our group is organized as a non-profit community service. In November 2003 we received our IRS Advanced Ruling and currently do not have any paid employees.
The founder and executive director is Phillip D. Hubbs, a 30-year veteran in law enforcement. He conducted extensive research for two years on the substance abuse education programs available and developed his own response when he found the efforts insufficient amidst a growing problem. Hubbs is an active police officer, and volunteers 12-18 hours a week. Because of his efforts and achievements, he has been nominated for several community awards and been recognized at the state and federal levels.
School administrators and parent/teacher/nurse groups strongly encourage us to continue our mission because of the overwhelming success and high demand for our programs. The request for our training is not only by the schools, but also by businesses to assist in their drug-free workplace policies. In addition, we have provided our programs to other substance abuse treatment, education and prevention organizations.
It is our plan to be able to provide substantially more presentations per year, including at least one for every high school in San Diego County. With the necessary funding we could accomplish the following:
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