Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 Source: Sherwood Park News (CN AB) Copyright: 2002 Sherwood Park News Contact: http://www.bowesnet.com/spnews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1730 Author: Kevin Crush Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) DARE STILL ON BUBBLE, BUT STILL ON FOR YEAR Over 1,000 students in Strathcona County should be taking the DARE program this year despite threats that a lack of funding could have shut it down. Strathcona County RCMP have opted to continue administering the Grade 6 drug awareness program for at least one more year. "For this year, we have re-aligned our resources from within our staff here and I am dedicating a full-time DARE instructor/coordinator to over see the program within all the schools," said Inspector Brian McLeod, the officer in charge of the detachment. Along with the full-time instructor, the school liaison officers and several police volunteers will round out the instructors needed. But, unless a new source of funding is created this could just be a one-year reprieve. "We don't want to keep going back to the drawing board looking for money, so we're hoping that we can develop something that is more long-term with the schools," said the police chief. As it stands, the Strathcona County RCMP finance the DARE program with officers often volunteering to teach while off-duty. The school boards, with tight budgets of their own, were not contributing to the cost of the program and with tighter demands on police budgets, having a full-time instructor was becoming unfeasible. That led to the cops suggesting last year that they would pull out of the DARE program. That may change as the RCMP and both school boards are starting collaboration to come up with a funding formula. "It's important that we don't work at opposite ends, that there's not several different groups going out trying to raise money for this. It's going to be one concerted effort," said Brian Carbol, the public school board's associate superintendent of instructional services. What form the effort will take has not been defined, although Carbol suggested they may look at a DARE foundation with several revenue sources. It could also include corporate sponsorship, similar to the partnership in Fort Saskatchewan with Dow Chemical. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D