Drug Prevention Resources

For Communities, Parents and Schools

Excuse me. Your expiration date is showing.

By Norma Norris | May 13, 2017

Ready, set, evaluate!  If only it was that simple to follow the science.  It’s not like you can go to Angie’s List and hire a researcher for prevention programs.  You have to partner with a university and it would be ever so much better if you had a boatload of money before you made an … Read more

Assuming Too Much in Drug Epidemic

By Norma Norris | January 14, 2017

We assume that youth are confident they will remain drug-free after making a promise to do so… Whether the promise was personal or made in a public setting via an activity, youth in middle school are ready to make this commitment. But, just ask them if they think keeping that promise  could be difficult. See how many … Read more

Helping Communities Take Care Of Their Own

By Norma Norris | November 29, 2016

A Taste of Pittsburgh Magazine Online Source. In 2000 when heroin made headlines in Butler, PA there weren’t any prevention programs to help parents. Since 2003 a grassroots parent/child interactive program called Reality Tour has filled that gap. You may have never heard of it because the small non-profit CANDLE, Inc. (Community Action for Drug-free … Read more

PA Needs Prevention for All Families

By Norma Norris | August 11, 2016

Recent points were  raised with PA’s DDAP on the lack of prevention for families in the general public.  CANDLE is suggesting the state must broaden their scope. Presently only 12 PA communities receive the state’s  preferred family prevention 7 week program.  Only 15 families attend at a time and the program does not talk about drugs. The sessions … Read more

Reality Tour Best Practice Awards!

By Norma Norris | February 23, 2016

Congratulations go out to two of our Reality Tour sites in Pennsylvania! Jefferson County, PA Reality Tour – Brockway School District Superintendent, Mr. Dan Hawkins and Reality Tour volunteer Fran Morelli Jr. made an effort to increase attendance for their Reality Tour’s this month by personally calling parents who haven’t turned in their registration forms. They … Read more

Encouraging Words from a Parent

By Norma Norris | February 19, 2016

CANDLE, Inc. Board Member & Seneca Valley School District Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Matthew McKinley received this email from a parent who attended the Mars Reality Tour (Thursday, February 11, 2016). Thank you for sharing this with us Dr. McKinley! These words have inspired us all to keep doing Reality Tour, despite the state’s criticism levied … Read more

Reality Tour supporters weigh in…

By Norma Norris | January 11, 2016

Reality Tour will continue in Westmoreland County – Tribune Review Article Reality Tour has always embraced the opportunity to fill the gap that exists in prevention.  The gap between programs offered and what the public actually wants and will attend. It is easily recognized that parents and the general public are under-served populations in prevention. The Tribune … Read more

Innovation In Prevention

By Norma Norris | December 29, 2015

Click here to review DDAP history with Reality Tour Innovation in prevention is getting to be the hot topic as communities struggle to push back against an epidemic that demands that we do things differently. Someone said to me not long ago, “Reality Tour was ahead of its time.” I am thinking, “No way. We … Read more

Prevention in the Midst of a Drug Abuse Epidemic?

By Norma Norris | December 17, 2015

Chronology of PA DDAP Reality Tour issues We are more than a decade of descent into the current epidemic of drug abuse and those that we counted on to give us, yet nothing has changed in drug prevention in what ‘science’ is handing down. I had two misconceptions when I entered the realm of prevention: … Read more

Together we can make a difference

By Norma Norris | December 16, 2015

Review of DDAP’s Scare Tactics & 15 Families at a time approach to heroin epidemic. Pike County, PA – volunteers have been educating families in Pike County through Reality Tour since 2012. Their most recent Reality Tour was held on on November 19, 2015. Tour Director, Jill Gamboni, later received an email from a parent … Read more