News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Students at Alpena High School eat lunch on Wednesday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program is coming back to local schools under the new name “Together for Youth”.

For some time now, the DARE Program Board has been working with the Alpena Public Schools to get the much needed program back into schools, a press release from the board and local police agencies states.

To keep up with current events and our changing times, the Alpena DARE Program is transitioning to the Teaching, Educating, and Mentoring (TEAM) concept. The training focuses primarily on a proactive effort to make schools and communities safer and promote responsible citizenship and positive character traits among students in grades K-12.

Michigan State Police Community Service Trooper Jason Kunath is a trained TEAM instructor and has already been a vital resource in bringing this program to Thunder Bay Junior High School and Alpena High School.

Kunath said that many of the officers he has trained in the TEAM concept are school resource officers, including Alpena Police Officer Jason Collegnon, Alpena Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sarah Schafer, and Alpena Police Officer Terri Curtis.

TEAM was developed in 1998, Kunath said. It covers safety topics for grades K-12 with age appropriate lessons.

Lesson topics include stranger safety for younger learners, and internet safety and dating violence for older students. TEAM provides eight or more different lessons in each of the four grade brackets: lower elementary, upper elementary, junior high, and high school.

The officers providing the lessons have guidelines to follow, but can supplement lessons with activities or quizzes to keep kids engaged.

“The hope is we have contact with kids throughout their entire school career,” Kunath said.

The TEAM program is associated with the Michigan State Police (MSP), Kunath said, although it does not have MSP branding.

The main point of TEAM lessons is to prevent crime before it happens. Kunath said it is easier to go out and teach lessons about crime prevention rather than investigate a stolen vehicle situation or something worse when the situation could have been avoided altogether.

If kids learn basic safety lessons from a young age it will grow their awareness so they do not become a victim of crime themselves.

Educators can reach out to Kunath if they would like to schedule a lesson with their class.

With the assistance of Kunath, Alpena Police Chief Eric Hamp and Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith have trained officers to once again go into the schools and teach valuable lessons using the TEAM framework to all ages.

For many years, Wolverine Productions has been a positive force in fundraising for the Alpena DARE Program by hosting the Detroit Lions Basketball Game each spring. Local law enforcement and DARE Program Board President Terry King are asking the citizens and organizations of Alpena County to continue supporting DARE under their new name to benefit local youth. Those who have and continue to support this program may also do so by sending their donations to the Alpena Police Department, attention Together For Youth.

Reagan Voetberg. News Staff Writer. rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.