By: Nathan Bloechl ([email protected])
Humboldt, Iowa – Community and Family Resources spoke to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Monday, giving updates on their drug awareness and prevention programs.
Community and Family Resources helps out with many area schools in addition to the curriculum based D.A.R.E Program.
They also reach out to local businesses as well.
In their most recent statistical survey, the group gathered that 1% of Humboldt School District 6th graders have tried marijuana before age eight. That percentage stayed the same for 8th graders and increased to 2% for 11th graders.
Humboldt School District Superintendent Greg Darling says in order to combat this, the District is targeting increasing students self-esteem.
“Most of the time, when kids have good self-esteem, they are less likely to do drugs. Not only is the district looking at building prevention, but we also want to build self-esteem” Darling explained.
While 1% may seem innocuous, Darling believes that number is still very high.
“1% is still not good enough. We have concerns with our youth and we want to continue to improve as a school district we working to keep those numbers down.”
Similarly, there is also an onus on parents to help keep numbers down, as the school district is only with students for specified number of hours per day.
“We need help from the people at home” Darling pleaded, “to ask those tough questions, where you going, who are you going with?”
Community and Family Resources is dedicated to proactively assisting individuals, families, and communities achieve healthy behavior and lifestyle through advocacy, prevention, and treatment of substance abuse, problem gambling, and mental illness.