Core Components

Dare to be You is a programme for families with pre-school children who have been assessed to be at an increased risk of developing later substance misuse. The aim is to increase resilience in these children and families as a way of reducing the risks of drug and alcohol misuse in adolescence. The key concepts of the programme are captured in the acronym DARE:

Decision-making, reasoning skills, and solving problems
Assertive communication and social skills
Responsibility (internal locus of control/attributions) and role models
Esteem, efficacy, and empathy

The preschool programme is intended for families of children 2 – 5 years old. Other family members and siblings are encouraged to attend the programme and there is also involvement in the programme from community groups and schools. Although the target population is the families who have the most risk factors related to later substance abuse, previous implementations have included families with a range of risk factors with 5% of families having no risk factors. This was done deliberately to reduce stigma.

The group sessions are delivered over 10-12 weekly sessions throughout a 3- or 4-month period. Sessions are 2-hour long workshops. Parents attend group sessions which aim to support parents and carers to:

• increase parental efficacy and self-esteem
• develop stress management, decision making and reasoning skills, as well as realistic attributions for their child, child development knowledge, home management skills and the ability to provide positive role models
• develop social support systems
• develop parent strategies to help increase their child’s sense of competency internal locus of control, communication and problem-solving skills

Children attend group sessions - each week a key topic is covered with developmentally appropriate activities for all ages. The child sessions aim to help the children develop:

• cognitive skills
• mastery, social competencies, self-esteem and self-responsibility
• emotional knowledge
• problem solving, decision making, self-management and communication skills

The parent and child sessions run concurrently, and each session includes a family component, this involves family meals, social time and joint parent-child activities.

The programme encourages the involvement of community teens as peer educators and support systems in the child programme. The programme theorises that this approach helps give an empowering role to the teens in the community and connects younger children with older peers.

The programme involves Early Years teachers and day care providers through running training workshops for the staff who work with the focus child in the Early Years establishment. Workshops cover teaching strategies and activities to enhance the characteristics covered in the child group session. Workshops are provided in ongoing 2-hour sessions or condensed into a 15-hour series. Community training is also part of the programme, this involves the offer of training for up to 6 other caregivers from services in the community working with the participating families. These caregivers participate in 15-18 hours of training.

A key part of the programme is the offer of incentives for attendance, these include:

- family meals
- a supportive and non-judgemental environment that builds family strengths
- financial incentive for completion of all workshops ($200 USD for each adult family member that completes the program).

Fidelity

Dare to be You is a manualised programme. Facilitators must attend a training by an approved Dare to be You trainer. They are provided with an implementation log for each session, in which they can assess their adherence to the protocol for each activity within the session on a 3-point Likert scale. The implementation log also asks facilitators to consider their preparation and participant engagement. Delivery of the programme is seen to have acceptable fidelity if facilitators have a score of 85% according to the fidelity tool and have:

• 20 hours of workshops
• A financial incentive
• An opportunity to make up missed workshops
• A meal incentive
• Key practitioners have completed the basic educational background of a bachelor’s degree.

Modifiable Components

Activities in the programme can be adapted for diverse leaning styles and cultures. The programme has been delivered successfully with families from a range of cultural backgrounds. Replication training focuses on assisting facilitators to adapt the programme to their local ethnic group.