Henry Lozano, director for the L.A. County Teen Challenge and Urban Ministries Initiative, former deputy assistant to the President, former director of USA Freedom Corps, and co-founder of the International Red Ribbon Movement, supported “positive prevention” through getting youths to influence youths.
“We now understand today that to do this effectively, we have to engage that threshold of young people, college students, high school students, junior high students, to become the vanguard again,” Lozano said.
Lozano praised the “community engagement” of groups like CV Alliance, saying that sort of involvement was necessary to make a palpable difference in the lives of kids, as opposed to more superficial anti-drug efforts.
“You talk to the kids for one week. You slap a ribbon on their body and call them drug-free. Everyone can understand that that is not the science. The science demands us to engage in community collaboration.”
Daniel Puder, former MMA fighter and WWE star, joined the event from Florida. Puder is the founder of the My Life, My Power curriculum, a five- day program for K-12 students that Puder said can be implemented by teachers or parents. “It is not about telling kids ‘don’t do drugs.’ It is not about telling kids ‘no.’ It is about inspiring them to become issue and purpose driven,” Puder said.
To read more, please visit: http://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/news/10/22/2015/red-ribbon-re-branded/
Recent Comments