Dr. Jane Elphingstone and Dr. Jacquie Rainey, College of Health and Applied Sciences, recently received a $51,000 grant to help prepare elementary education teachers and counselors for drug education.
Teachers in Arkansas public schools will be trained to integrate a comprehensive health education curriculum within their other class subjects emphasizing drug nad violence prevention objectives. The teachers will be provided with the resources for implementing the curriculum in their classrooms.
The grant provides funding to pay all tuition costs and admission fees to graduate school for each of the teachers and counselors in the program for three hours of graduate credit in the course ?Health Education Techniques in the Elementary School.?
Teachers are provided up-to-date training in curriculum for violence and drug education and resources for prevention. They receive all the materials that are necessary to teach the curriculum in their classrooms and graduate credit for their participation in the program.
The community and state benefit by having teachers trained in prevention skills. Teachers will be able to utilize state resources in prevention and be able to identify at-risk behaviors in the children in the classroom. Ultimately, the students in the classrooms will learn health-enhancing skills that will reduce their chances of becoming involved in at-risk behaviors such as drug use and abuse.
The grant is funded by the Department of Health & Human Services through the Arkansas Department of Human Services/Division of Behavioral Health.