The expansion of the Juvenile Drug Enforcement and Prevention Program (JDEP) has been a collaborative effort with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and City Administrations in four regional centers of Russia: Petrozavodsk, Velikiy Novgorod, Volgograd and Irkutsk. The initiative began in the city of Petrozavodsk in the Autonomous Republic of Karelia. Since 1998, Project Harmony has established a coalition of partners in Petrozavodsk, led by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and including educational administrators, teachers, and city officials. As a result of their collaboration and partnership with US police officers, a juvenile drug intervention unit was created within the Petrozavodsk City Police Department in 1999 to address the community invasion of drugs and alcohol. Project Harmony has partnered with this unit to develop teams of police officers and life skills teachers to team-teach in secondary school classrooms about drug-free behavior and healthy lifestyle choices.

This coalition of key community stakeholders, in partnership with American school resource officers, produced a teacher's manual and classroom curriculum for 9th and 10th graders which includes thirteen lessons devoted to drug abuse prevention strategies. This curriculum is called DOM (Children, Education and Police) and was co-authored by Olga Baranova, Head of the Drug Intervention Unit, and Svetlana Goranskaya, Director of the Karelian Pedagogical Institute. INL funded the initial printing and national distribution of 3000 copies of the DOM curriculum in 2001.

Project Harmony worked with its Russian and US partners to introduce the DOM curriculum in Russia through JDEP in four phases:

After the initial Local Capacity Training (January 26 - February 9, 2001) the DOM curriculum was implemented in four pilot schools in Petrozavodsk.

Through the Regional Capacity Training (Summer and Winter 2001), PH expanded the JDEP program from the capital city of Petrozavodsk to five regional cities in the Republic of Karelia: Kem, Kostomuksha, Sortavala, Segezha and Pitkyaranta. In December 2001, PH facilitated a regional capacity training seminar for these provincial cities, which brought core trainers from Petrozavodsk together with US School Resource officers and life skills teachers to train more teams of police officers and life skills teachers on the content of DOM. The goal of this phase was also to build commitment in the command levels of the law enforcement agencies and school and city administrations within these regional cities for the Juvenile Drug Education and Prevention Program and the in-school implementation of the DOM curriculum.

Through the National Capacity Training (Spring 2002) PH expanded the JDEP program from the Republic of Karelia to Velikiy Novgorod in western Russia, Volgograd in southern Russia and Irkutsk in Siberia. Core trainers from Petrozavodsk visited each city to deliver the DOM curriculum along with other lecture materials on drug prevention and youth. The audiences in each city included law enforcement officers, educators, psychologists, social service providers and administrators.

For the Evaluation and Training Trip (September 2002) two US trainers traveled to Petrozavodsk and Velikiy Novgorod to help DOM implementers begin the critical process of evaluating the effectiveness of the DOM curriculum in their schools and communities.

The Russian community response to the JDEP initiative has been overwhelming. PH is besieged by requests for training seminars based on the DOM curriculum. PH has distributed 3,000 DOM books and the requests for additional copies and supplemental classroom and parent materials are extraordinary.

Drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse is a systemic problem in Russia. It is destructive and erodes the fabric of communities and family life. In Petrozavodsk, Velikiy Novgorod, Volgograd and Irkutsk the seeds of positive change are starting to germinate. Communities are building strong coalitions capable of positive response. Project Harmony has orchestrated this process of change by building organizational credibility, establishing long-term community presence and working collaboratively in partnerships with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education, City Administrations and local NGO's.

Project Harmony intends to remain engaged in these Russian cities and communities to institutionalize these programs of juvenile drug education and prevention and to solidify the community coalitions that are critical to implementing this positive change..

Thanks to the generous donation from Innocorp, ltd, Project Harmony's JDEP training will include the Fatal Vision Program. The goal of the Fatal Vision Program is to demonstrate the effects of alcohol or drugs to students. For the participant, and for those observing, the goggles simulate being intoxicated with a blood alcohol level of .08 or .20. In a safe setting, participants wearing the goggles will be asked to complete certain tasks while wearing the Fatal Vision Goggles. The student will be unable to complete the assigned tasks. Through this experience and a series of follow up questions, both participants and observers will learn the consequences of driving while intoxicated. In addition, students will hear relevant statistics regarding drunken driving accidents and deaths.

JDEP was the first program to bring the Fatal Vision Program to Russia. During the Local Capacity Training in January 2001, American trainers trained their Russian colleagues on how to use Fatal Vision Goggles as an educational tool. The goggles remain in Russia with Project Harmony partners and have been used at both the Regional and National Capacity Training Workshops.

Project Harmony again would like to thank Innocorp, ltd. for their donation of this valuable educational and training tool to our Juvenile Drug Enforcement and Prevention Program in Russia. For more information on Fatal Vision Goggles, please visit www.fatalvision.com.