Red Ribbon Week is next week

The North Dakota Department of Human Services’ Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services encourages communities and schools to come together and participate in Red Ribbon Week, which is an alcohol and drug prevention awareness campaign taking place Oct. 21-28.

“Red Ribbon Week is an excellent time for schools and community organizations to showcase their substance abuse prevention efforts,” said Pamela Sagness, prevention administrator with the department. “We can all assist the youth in our communities to make healthy choices.”

The department’s Prevention Resource and Media Center is featuring two new activity books geared towards kindergarten through eighth-grade students that focus on alcohol and drug prevention. There is also a Red Ribbon Week toolkit available to assist schools, community groups, businesses, and faith-based organizations in hosting substance abuse prevention activities. The toolkit provides a list of free resources, ideas, youth activities, planning tools, and media templates to kick off Red Ribbon Week. The toolkit was sent to all North Dakota schools and youth residential centers last year and is available at www.nd.gov/dhs/ser

vices/mentalhealth/preven

tion/education.html.

The prevention website listed above also has additional activities that can be used to weave alcohol and other drug prevention efforts into classrooms and other settings.

For more information or to request a copy of the Red Ribbon Week toolkit, contact the Prevention Resource and Media Center at 701-328-8919, toll-free 800-642-6744, ND Relay TTY 800-366-6888 or go online to the website listed above.

Tags: mental health, life