SCOTIA, N.Y. - Throughout 2011, more than 100 communities across
New York State welcomed Soldiers and Airmen of the New York National Guard,
not to hear about their overseas wartime experiences, but to share life
skills with students and keep them drug-free.
Part of the nation's war on drugs is fought in classrooms by Soldiers and
Airmen of the Guard's Counterdrug Task Force. The Guard supports drug
prevention coalitions, other state organizations and local agencies to reduce
the abuse and illegal use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
The force has 25 certified Drug Demand Reduction Soldiers and Airmen who
supervise the Guard's Stay on Track curriculum, a key part of the prevention
program. In 2011, the task force reached more than 8,000 middle school
students in grades 6-8 in 100 schools across the state.
"We do basically anything that would get the kids off the street," said Lt.
Col. Richard Sloma, commander of the Counterdrug Task Force, based here.
"Our Soldiers and Airmen are providing activities that help community
organizations engage kids," he said. "We provide a number of alternate
activities to drug use. We have several of those programs."
Students in the program participate in interactive activities with the
National Guard mentors and learn about the negative consequences of substance
abuse.
The Stay on Track program offers an innovative, fun, and comprehensive
approach to substance abuse prevention. The research-based curriculum is
designed for classroom implementation by teachers. Special emphasis is given
to tobacco, club drugs, hallucinogens, alcohol, prescription drugs, marijuana
and inhalants.
Each level of training also provides four modules to reinforce the benefits
of living a drug-free life, from health education, decision-making and
setting goals, peer communications and interpersonal skills, as well as the
media's influence.
"This unique program provides a mechanism under which National Guard military
experience can be employed to assist civilian law enforcement agencies to
fight the corrosive effect of illegal drugs in American society," said Air
Force Gen. Craig R. McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, during his
May 2010 Senate testimony for the 2011 National Guard Budget.
"Our National Guard Counterdrug program fills a very vital need," McKinley
said.
The National Guard Counterdrug Task Force partners with other state and
federal entities, including the New York State Office of Alcohol and
Substance Abuse Services, New York State Police, the federal Drug Enforcement
Agency and a variety of community-based organizations across the state.
"We are trying to work in coalitions," Sloma said.
working in partnership toward a common goal, the National Guard
Counterdrug Task Force sponsored drug-free activities and programs to expand
their reach to more than 23,000 children this past year.
"We try to go to events where there are multiple exposures to us," Sloma
said. "The kids show up once a week for a summer program, or we work with the
Police Athletic League, Boys and Girls Clubs, Four H, you name it."
Overall, the program covers 12 education sessions, normally spread over 12
weeks, Sloma said, depending on the schedule of the school partnering with
the Guard.
"We send in one Guardsman, one Soldier or Airmen and they'll go to the
school, show up in uniform and help run the program," Sloma said.
The Stay on Track program, which cost approx. $1.1 million in fiscal year
2011, is expected to visit more than 60 schools again in 2012.
"I believe in it," said Command Sgt. Maj. Roland Wells, the senior
noncommissioned officer with the program for 13 years. "I have seen
firsthand, students who have matured and I have seen them succeed outside of
the school environment."
The National Guard uses their unique resources as a community-based military
force to assist local and state law enforcement to reduce the supply of drugs
in America and help youth make a commitment to be drug-free.
Guardsmen support both the reduction in supply through their assistance to
interdiction efforts as well as implementing a Drug Demand Reduction program
through awareness and prevention tactics in communities throughout the state.