About P.E.D.A.
P.E.D.A. came as quite a surprise to Impact DWI. We are strictly a nonprofit volunteer organization with emphasis on ending substance abuse in New Mexico.
Our volunteers usually participate as speakers at our Victim Impact Panels, but there are a few who went beyond preventing DWI.
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Margaret Oster often speaks at our panels and volunteers to speak at schools in Santa Fe, Albuquerque,
and Rio Rancho.
For over five years she has been involved in communicating to youth the dangers of driving while intoxicated,
mainly because she is a victim of DWI.
She lost her 15-year-old daughter to a driver who decided to get behind the wheel while high on drugs.
Margaret felt that, when dealing with youth, alcohol was not their only problem. Drugs in general are affecting our youth in a much larger scope.
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Margaret proceeded to educate herself on substance abuse among youth and gather information from teens by distributing an anonymous survey
which questioned the age of their first experimentation with drugs and alcohol.
The general age of first experimentation was 11 - 12 years old and the rate of addiction by age 17 was alarming.
Margaret also became a volunteer speaker at Metro Juvenile Detention Center for over three years and it was there that she learned
communication skills when addressing teens who were already in the system for substance abuse.
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She was bound and determined to learn to face a crowd of teens and somehow reach them.
She was not satisfied with the numbers.
Teens just rolled their eyes when she explained the effects and consequences of substance abuse on their brain.
She had enough!
She changed her language to slang, dressed as a biker with leather and chains, and began her crusade to figure out the proper
way to send the message across to a crowd who viewed adult prohibition as a big joke.
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Standard education was not doing the trick and she did not want to give up on the kids, whom she came to love as her own.
Margaret designed an outrageous program and handed her ideas and script to Impact DWI.
At first we thought Margaret went "nuts" by suggesting a pilot program which would be written and presented at schools by teens.
The slang and language was perhaps not completely desirable, but she swore she would "beep" a few "blurbs" and showed us her anonymous
surveys suggesting that her program would give exactly what teens are asking for:
Realism! Their world, their issues and not something standard education designed for them!
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Margaret's proposal to acquire a grant from the NM Traffic Safety Bureau surprised us all! She got it!
P.E.D.A. is a substance abuse program that does not follow the normal standards of prohibition. "Prohibition,"
says Margaret, "has the opposite effect on a teen's brain!"
Experimentation is a dangerous phase in an adolescent's life
and can develop through subsequent stages that end in addiction.
Choices regarding risky behavior are what P.E.D.A. is about because it clearly illustrates how peer pressure
plays a major role in experimentation.
P.E.D.A will begin its tour at schools in this coming 2007 fall semester and
its presentation will be conducted by teens who will fully interact with their audience.
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Margaret's idea for screenwriting this program was to recruit teens from Warehouse 21, a teen's art center in Santa Fe, NM.
The program is fully written by teens and acted by teens who are not your usual "role model."
They have used substances and learned the hard way that substance abuse destroys lives.
They illustrate their experiences and
their friends' tragedies with superb acting skills.
They give knowledgeable comments and alternatives to resist peer pressure.
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We will be collecting anonymous surveys to study the program's effectiveness.
Hopefully all comments will be positive and Margaret will be ready to create sequences that will boggle your mind but not her teens'.
Her purpose is to end substance abuse among teens. Teens deserve to have programs that are innovative, effective, and presented by their peers.
Scenes from P.E.D.A. Production
Courtesy of Martin Burch
After being thrown out of his home by an alcoholic stepfather, Chris sits on sidewalk, hurt and badly beaten. Gangbangers persuade him to join gang.
Chris had other choices, but he chose to give in to "pressure" as an easy way out from his ordeal with his parents... |
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