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THS Substance Abuse Coalition

Aware to Care

Aware to Care is the idea of reducing substance abuse by building and creating an environment in the THS community of honesty, trust, acceptance, and communication.  When this happens, substance abuse will naturally decline.

Substance abuse is often related to feeling alone and unconnected to the people who matter most in our lives:  Aware to Care is that I am awake and aware of the individual people around me so that I can truly care and connect with them.  By sharing this connection I create open, honest, and trusting relationships that contribute to a life free of substance abuse.

The objectives of the Aware to Care message are:

1. Inform and educate people about the realities of drug use in our community—stats etc.
2. Empower connection between parents students and teachers.
3. Provide training, opportunity, and resources for people to practice connection.

The goal of Aware to Care is to not replace existing programs such as NOVA and DARE, but rather to build upon and add another dimension to existing programs.

• Existing substance abuse programs have been effective to some extent in and of themselves but the results suggest that something more is needed.  Aware to Care provides a different perspective and approach to substance abuse.
• Aware to Care looks at substance abuse from the perspective of why so many of our brightest and most capable young people are turning to drugs.  The perspective of Aware to Care suggests that young people are looking for connection.  They are looking for meaningful relationships with parents, friends, and teachers—and when they cannot make a connection they often turn to drugs and self medicate which seems to facilitate the ability to make a connection at least with those who participate in this activity with them.
• Aware to Care is the idea of promoting connection between parents, students, and teachers in way that eliminates judgment, fear, stereotypes, or retribution. It is the effort to create an open dialogue consisting of true, honest, and trusting communication.
• Many young people, regardless of how many friends they have and regardless of their many accomplishments and accolades, feel completely alone.  They feel like outcasts.  They feel like they have no one they can truly turn to to express their deepest feelings, hopes, fears, and thoughts.  Drugs then often become a way to free themselves and enable them to open up and share with the friends around them doing the same thing—hence these friends become more important than anything else.