Project Alert to expand to high schools

 West Side Community Services', Project Alert, on alcohol, drug, and cigarette smoking prevention program, will be expanding this fall beyond the elementary level to high schools.
   “We focus on those three aspects because they are considered gateway drugs,” said Prevention Specialist Jorge Navaro.   It is an 11-week program that provides a pre-test to assess the students’ knowledge of alcohol and drug awareness and ends with a post-test to evaluate how much information the students retained.
   Project Alert offers free meals, recreational activities, arts and crafts, and boxing as well as dance shows.
   The program began in January after the West Side Community Services’ Second Step Program was cut due to a lack of federal funding.   In addition to hosting fundraisers, Navaro contributes his own money and asks family and friends for donations to help keep the program afloat.
   He teaches three classes at PS 76, working with 5th and 6th graders, and eight classes at School 3, the D’Youville Porter Campus School.
   “I don’t lecture the kids. I try to get them interactive by doing fun games that can get them interested,” Navaro said.  “Project Alert presented themselves to us and we felt like this was a good opportunity for students,” said Donna J. Jackson, principal of PS 76.
   The program reaches out to the community by setting up interviews with parents and children in distress. By Cortney Drakeford and Alana Ransom