Current Update

 

Parent Leaders attend a 5-day Basic Training where they learn that:

• alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs change the brain, change behavior, and produce addiction,
• because of the way their brains develop, all adolescents are at risk,
• toxic elements in the adolescent culture of which parents are generally unaware encourage children to initiate alcohol, tobacco, and drug use, and
• by banding together and forming drug-prevention groups, parents have more power than anyone else to prevent their children from engaging in drug use and the other destructive behaviors drug use often induces.

Congress funded the Parent Corps pilot program and located it at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). NFIA won the $4.2 million grant from CNCS to implement the pilot in 9 states over the next 2 1/2 years. CNCS issued a separate contract to RTI International to evaluate the effectiveness of the Parent Corps. NFIA developed the Parent Corps Basic Training with a grant from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration prior to Congressional funding.

NFIA will implement the Parent Corps in 2 school communities in each of 9 states with the help of nonprofit state partners selected through a nationwide competition. Fifty organizations from 30 states submitted letters of intent to apply. NFIA’s new state partners are:

• California -- National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse (NAPAFASA)
• Colorado -- Partnership for a Drug-Free Colorado
• Connecticut -- Connecticut Communities for Drug-Free Youth, Inc.
• Georgia -- Georgia Council on Substance Abuse
• Illinois -- Illinois Drug Education Alliance (IDEA)
• Kansas -- Kansas Family Partnership, Inc.
• North Carolina -- Wilson Families in Action, Inc.
• South Carolina -- Greenville Family Partnership
• Wisconsin -- Wisconsin Families in Action

Prior to Congressional funding, NFIA asked state officials to fund a Parent Corps pilot program in North Carolina. After 18 months of operation, 19 counties have a Parent Corps presence; 21 Parent Leaders have been trained; 150 children and 175 parents have been referred for support/counseling; 500 parent volunteers have been enlisted; 1,100 parents have participated in parenting classes; and 125,000 parents have received drug-prevention information. The national pilot will now provide financial and managerial support for part of North Carolina’s program.

RTI International will conduct an implementation evaluation in Connecticut, Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin starting May 1, 2004. The Parent Corps will begin December 1, 2004 in California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas and South Carolina, where an impact evaluation will be conducted as well.

Interested parents in other states who wish to start as volunteer Parent Leaders should call National Families in Action at 404-248-9676 to learn how to become certified. Information about training for volunteer Parent Leaders is also available at http://www.parentcorps.org/training.html.

National Families in Action is a nonprofit drug-prevention organization founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. It helped lead the first all-volunteer parent movement, which is credited with helping cut regular drug use in half among all ages and by two-thirds among adolescents (ages 12 to 17) and young adults (ages 18-25) between 1979 and 1992.