Safety First Teach-in - Comprehensive Drug Education for Young Adults
Schedule
Tue, 13 Jan, 2026 at 06:00 pm
UTC-06:00Location
Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library | Evansville, IN
Evansville Recovery Alliance's RADD (Resilience Against Drug Deaths) Education and Prevention program enthusiastically invites you to register for Safety First: Comprehensive Drug Education and Intervention (Young Adults 18 - 25). "Safety First: Real Drug Education for Teens" is a comprehensive and evidence-based substance safety curriculum designed by the Drug Policy Alliance in collaboration with Stanford University's School of Medicine REACH Lab. This curriculum provides factual information for students and seeks to reduce substance use amongst teens and young adults. We emphasize abstinence first while acknowledging that young adults experiment with substances and need real information about risks and risk reduction strategies.
Students will walk away from Safety First having gained valuable prevention skills, a scientific understanding of what drugs are, an understanding of why teens and young adults are at risk for substance misuse and dependence, and a holistic foundation for making informed choices NOW and for the future!
Safety First's Key Objectives:
- Define ‘what is a drug’ and create initial dialogue with students on their perceptions about alcohol and other drugs.
- Lessons about how drugs affect the brain and body, especially the teenage brain, and factors that contribute to physical drug dependence
- Risk reduction concepts and strategies that can empower students to make healthy choices, using accurate, scientifically based information
- Substantive lessons about the major categories of drugs: stimulants, cannabis, e-cigarettes/vaping, alcohol and other depressants, psychedelics, prescription, and other opioids
- How to recognize problem use, signs of an overdose, and how to respond in an emergency
- Learn about other ways to help students cope with stress, anxiety, and depression without using drugs” (Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab, 2023).
Our wonderful UE and USI professor volunteers will be on-site co-hosting this teach-in so students and parents can connect with local educators and resources to help navigate these important topics. Young adult event-goers are invited to continue engagement through a young adult cohort, which will create space to have in depth discussions about the substance safety concerns of young adults aged 18 - 25.
FREE SNACKS, TAKE HOME EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, AND NARCAN!
Where is it happening?
Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, 200 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Evansville, IN 47713-1802, United States
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
