7th Grade: Amazing Alternatives
copyright Hazelden Foundation
Amazing Alternatives is an alcohol prevention program for students in the 7th grade. The curriculum is implemented in eight 45-minute long classroom sessions that address topics such as:
- Adolescents Growing Up and Changing
- Understanding Facts about Adolescent Alcohol Use
- Identifying Positive Alternatives to Alcohol Use
- Practicing Effective Ways to Deal with the Influence to Use Alcohol
- Practicing Effective Ways to Resist Pressures to Use Alcohol
- Understanding Methods the Alcohol Industry Uses to Attract Young Drinkers
- Developing Advertising Tactics Promoting Alternatives to Drinking Alcohol
- Establishing Goals of Non-Alcoholic Use
The program consists of peer-led experiential activities, including group discussions, class games, problem solving, and recordings by peers relating real-life alcohol situations and outcomes. Role-playing exercises explore:
- The reasons why young people use alcohol
- The societal perception that most people their age drink
- Intentions not to drink
These activities and role plays are designed to delay the onset of alcohol use among 7th graders by teaching students
- The skills to identify and resist influences to use alcohol
- To diminish the acceptability of alcohol use
- To encourage alcohol-free alternatives
Teachers and counselors: Download details about the sessions and curriculum (link to ProjectNorthlandCurriculum.pdf)
