The most effective way to further the cause of drug prevention is through close partnerships that reach out in a single, unified voice to the whole community.

That was the most important conclusion reached by CADA's associate director Cathy Belvedere and Pc Grant Tomkins, of the Police Service's R.E.A.C.H.

programme, when they recently attended a week-long training session in Hartford, Connecticut.

Entitled `Over the Edge: Adolescents and Young People at Risk', the programme included 25 different sessions covering various topics in the field of alcohol and drug prevention as well as related issues such as teen violence, gangs, and HIV.

Thanks to an educational grant from CADA (Council on Alchol and Drug Abuse) the participants, who are both board members of the Bermuda Life Skills Group (operating under the umbrella of the Council Partners Trust), they were able to attend the workshops at a time when both the Life Skills and Reach programmes are expanding into Bermuda's schools.

Aimed at professionals, the programme provided hands-on training which will help them and their colleagues in establishing educational programmes that provide accurate and consistent information.

"Drugs and alcohol prevention has to involve the whole community, and the message has to be the same, and consistent, so the important thing is that people in the field train together,'' says Pc Tomkins.

"It also became very apparent to both of us that the social climate has to change in Bermuda -- alcohol is not looked upon as a drug here. What are we telling kids if we drink or smoke in front of them? We need to look at alcohol and cigarettes as gateway drugs.'' Changes in attitudes is not the job of Government, says Mrs. Belvedere, "We have to have the will to do it ourselves -- we have to want to change things.'' The REACH and Life Skills programmes have just expanded to cover middle and senior schools. One of the most important aims for both, says Mrs. Belvedere, is to teach alternative lifestyles, emphasising the value of `natural' rather than chemically induced `highs', encouraging activities such as sport, athletics, dancing, or Outward Bound.

"Now that we are in the schools, Life Skills' next job is to expand training for churches, youth groups, Sunday and school teachers.'' "We would like to put a policy in place such as `sports against drugs'. As it is, we feel there is a lot of denial throughout the community, by way of advertising cigarettes and alcohol through newspapers, TV and radio,'' says Mrs. Belvedere. "The first thing you hear when you turn the radio on in the mornings is an ad for Beck's beer!'' Pc Tomkins says a recent US survey revealed that, by the time teenagers reached 18, they had seen approximately 180,000 beer commercials. "Now that we have cable and satellite links, it's probably the same here,'' he observes.

"I think there's been more success in getting the drink and driving message across in England -- there is now a real social stigma against anyone who drinks at all and then drives.'' It is vital, they agree, that the public in general is educated about safe lifestyles so that when children seek information, parents can give the same, consistent information.

"At school, we do this through the PTA. The schools are doing a great job in this field,'' says Pc Tomkins.

Commenting on the REACH programme Pc Tomkins says that, beginning at pre-school level, the Police stress, all the way through, that their primary role is to ensure a child's safety and well-being: "We can't have officers standing on the kerb, stopping children from stepping in the road! What we can do is to teach the child to look before he crosses -- and that analogy applies to everything else, whether it's drugs or violence.

None of us,'' he adds, "were born knowing the rules. We have to learn them and it's a huge commitment by the Police Service to join with the Education Department in ensuring that children are able to learn those basic rules for living their lives safely.'' Mrs. Belvedere, whose Life Skills group assisted at the recent Police Gymkana staged for children at Prospect, says it was "an education'' to see how REACH and Parish officers have already established such close rapport. "It was lovely to see the respect -- and affection -- they had for the Police, greeting them like long-lost brothers and wrapping their arms round them.

"The conference we attended reinforced the fact that our primary role is not to lock people up,'' says Pc Tomkins. "We try to prevent bad things from happening in the first place, and to help young people to help themselves.'' UNIFIED VOICE -- Cathy Belvedere, associate director at CADA, and Pc Grant Tompkins of the Bermuda Police Service's REACH programme, recently joined forces to attend a Hartford Connecticut, workshop aimed at helping young people considered most at risk for drugs