THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509200155
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTINE POINTS CURRENTS, STAFF
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
The shouts echoed through the narrow corridors of the Community Services Board offices as kids led their blindfolded partners through the hallway maze, ``Keep straight, keep straight, stop!''
The purpose of the exercise, an ``icebreaker'' for the organizational PRIDE meeting the youth were attending, was to learn to trust and to hone listening skills.
And the people listening were the program's director, training specialists and youth aides, as they prepared to launch their new and improved PRIDE program.
In 1988, P.R.I.D.E., Prevention Through Recreation, Individualized Instruction and Drug Education, was created to provide drug prevention education in at-risk communities, namely public housing projects, and was a collaborative effort between Community Services Board and Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The emphasis in the original P.R.I.D.E. program was on drug prevention and recreational activities.
This year, PRIDE was revamped. It became a two-year program, the definition of an at-risk youth was expanded, the curriculum was broadened, and the focus was changed to emphasize education.
``The changes we've made in PRIDE have come about through the youth in the program,'' said Anthony Armistead, a training specialist with the Community Services Board. ``The youth in the program would talk about PRIDE with their friends, and their friends would become interested in it.''
But a problem arose in that a lot of kids who were interested in the program were not eligible because they did not live in public housing.
``Our definition of at-risk youth has expanded to include any youngster, age 12 to 18, in the city,'' Armistead said. ``We've found that it no longer matters how much money the parents make or whether there are one or two parents in the home.''
In essence, the problems that had once been considered endemic to low-income families - teen drug use, pregnancy and truancy - have crossed the social class ``dividers.''
``The purpose of this program is to give the good kids, and we've found that the large percentage of kids in this city are good kids, some positive reinforcement,'' said Armistead. ``We want to reinforce what they are getting in their schools, their churches, their homes.''
The basic premise of the prevention activities curriculum is that old adage ``an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.''
Teens in the program are asked to remain drug, alcohol and cigarette free, to delay parenthood, and to do well in school. The curriculum provides them with refusal skills, life skills and leadership training.
As part of the two-year program, each child entering PRIDE will complete the prevention activities curriculum and then each can choose to pursue a subject of interest to them. The program, which will begin in January, will offer different curriculums based on theatre and art, education, small business, science and medicine.
``What is going to make us successful is the fact that we are going to involve the whole community,'' said Armistead. ``We want to incorporate all of the resources we can - private businesses, schools, universities - and have them provide the information in small group settings.''
PRIDE will no longer be a place where people will come and hear about things, according to Patty Hite, prevention supervisor at CSB. PRIDE will become a place where youth will come and do a lot of things.
``We will provide hands-on experience with computers, we will be going to college campuses,'' Hite told the group.
All of which was good news to the students attending, most of whom have intentions of going on to college.
``I'm definitely going to college,'' said Tyesha McLurkin, a seventh-grader at Churchland Middle School. McLurkin has hopes of attending college in Georgia, where her father lives.
Brock Cherry, an eleventh-grader at I.C. Norcom High School who was attending Pride for the first time, said that was his motivation for coming.
``Mr. Armistead told me about the theater and arts program, and about helping me plan for college,'' Cherry said.
Other students, while enthusiastic about the college preparation courses, emphasized the skills they had gained from the old P.R.I.D.E.
``When we have PRIDE group, we have fun,'' said Regina Walls, a student at Hunt-Mapp Middle School. ``We talk about peer pressure, what we did, how to keep our tempers calm.'' by CNB