Carroll Institute: Project Awareness

Project Awareness and Prevention

What began as a drop in center for teens in the 1970s is now a community-based program that has reached more than 30,000 young people. In 1983, the South Dakota Department of Human Services recognized Project Awareness as the “Outstanding Prevention Program in South Dakota.” This success was thankfully possible in part due to the more than 20 year partnership with the Sioux Empire United Way. Today, Project Awareness is continuing to fortify the foundation of substance abuse prevention in Sioux Falls and surrounding communities.

For more than four decades, Project Awareness has focused on preventing the disease of chemical addiction. Working with schools and communities throughout the Sioux Empire, our Project Awareness Counselors are specially trained in reaching out to young people as expert resources in this most pervasive adolescent challenge. Whether in school assemblies, community programs, in classrooms or meeting with students individually, Project Awareness presents all their efforts with a shared dignity of hope.

In our school-based programs, we explore the pitfalls of early use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Many students are susceptible to peer-pressure, neglect, abuse and other negative influences and Project Awareness prevention programs help to equip student with accurate information and strategies to overcome. Through Life Skills training, we help students to make better choices. Other Project Awareness programs include Project Success, Second Step, Safe Dates, “Tell It To Me Straight” Dinners and Cyber Bullying. For students beginning to suffer from the effects of alcohol and drug use, Project Awareness can offer Treatment Needs Assessments, Screenings, and individual counseling support.

Project Awareness work goes beyond the classroom. In Sioux Falls and our surrounding communities, we offer a variety of presentations that will directly influence the lives of the young people and family members who are recipients of the most necessary instruction. Over the past decades, churches, community groups, parent and teachers’ organizations, and businesses have benefited from Project Awareness’s trainings.

Project Awareness is an active member of the Rural Sioux Empire Coalition 4 Youth and has facilitated “Parents Who Host Lose the Most” advertisement campaign.

Prevention is the best medicine. If an individual becomes addicted, thousands of dollars are required to offer appropriate treatment, but carrying the prevention message only costs pennies per student to share this potentially life changing message.

For further questions, please call Project Awareness directly at 605-336-2556 and ask to speak with one of our counselors.