From January 29 to February 9, 2001 in the City of Petrozavodsk, a group of American trainers conducted informational sessions and trainings on juvenile drug prevention and intervention strategies as part of the Local Capacity Training of the Juvenile Drug Enforcement and Prevention Initiative (JDEP).

The trainers were:

Linda Barker

As leader of the delegation, Linda Barker is a police detective and a school resource officer.

She has been to Petrozavodsk twice and has hosted two delegations from Russia in her hometown of South Portland (State of Maine).

Detective Barker has experience in the field of crime prevention, juvenile drug enforcement, and, in addition to that, she has worked on several at-risk youth programs.

Norman Boucher

A specialist of drug and alcohol addiction programs.

Norman Boucher is, at the present time, working as a consultant at a drug prevention and rehabilitation clinic in the State of Maine.

Norman has been to Murmansk and Yekaterinburg on a number of occasions, where he conducted training seminars for doctors, education specialists, and NGO representatives; in addition, he has conducted thematic kids camps with the theme of juvenile drug prevention.

David Perron

David served as a coordinator for "Project Reach," which is a program that works with at-risk youth.

He is a prevention specialist, and, in addition, he works on programs that develop children's self-esteem, teach kids the skills to say "no" to drugs, and promote healthy life styles.

Over the course of seven workdays, Linda Barker, David Perron, and Norman Boucher conducted seminars for law enforcement officers, teachers, social workers, psychologists, and doctors. More than 70 people attended the seminars.

At the opening of the seminar series, the US trainers showed and explained how and in which forms it is possible to work with groups of youths, taking into account their age, attention span, and their mental and physical preparation.

They also showed how to foster critical communication with at-risk youth. Within the framework of the seminar series, the trainers provided up-to-date information about the different kinds of drugs used by youth in the US today, signs of juvenile drug use, slang expressions and jargon used by drug users, and other important information, which was critical during these seminars.

During the seminars, scenario-based problem-solving activities were conducted with the participants as a way to demonstrate solutions to key thematic issues. During the lessons, the US specialists played the role of teacher while the seminar participants played the role of pupils.

This relationship allowed the participants to see how real-life situations can be developed and solutions to problems can be addressed. At the end of each lesson, the seminar participants (back in the role of adults) discussed the difficulties and challenges of conducting these lessons, and ways to deal with them with a classroom full of pupils.

Linda Barker and David Perron are the authors of "The Drug Prevention Curriculum for 5-6 Graders" and the majority of their seminars were devoted to the methodology of how this program is taught in schools. The curriculum is divided into 10 lessons, each of which contains an Adventure-Based game activity.

In addition, a collection of materials developed by Norman Boucher, was used during the seminar that focused on juvenile drug prevention. A documentary film was created during the seminar series, which illustrates all ten lessons and could be used as an academic tool to help prepare officers and life-skills teachers to give these very same lessons.

In the Summer of 2001, 3000 copies of the academic-methodological textbook "I Choose Life" for law enforcement officers and life-skills teachers were produced.

The course has been developed for 8th -10th graders and is entitled D.O.M. (Dieti, Obrazovaniye, Militisiya - Children, Education, Police), which in our opinion, responds very soundly to a field that needs to be heard, remembered and not forgotten.

Both textbooks - "The Drug Prevention Curriculum for 5-6 Graders" (authors: Linda Barker and David Perron) and "I Choose Life" (authors: Goranskaya S.V. and Baranova O.S.) - will be used for lessons to the Petrozavodsk Police Department's Crime Prevention Division (crimes related to illegal drug distribution) - and to Petrozavodsk school teachers.