In the past few years, we have been privileged to be part of an incredible opportunity to reach high stress children and families throughout Russia.  Of all of our projects, none has the potential to reach as many children and families as this one.  Dave and I feel honored to be part of this extensive project!  Read on for details...

     Of course you would! And so would we! That’s why we enthusiastically said “yes” when asked to head the American writing team for this project. There is no other way we could possibly gain an entrance into the lives of so many children and families, in Moscow and throughout the Russian Federation. Here are the goals of this project:

     Russian government statistics show that 40% of men and 17% of women are active alcoholics and that 1-out-of-2 Russian families is dysfunctional because of substance abuse. At the same time, prevention and intervention efforts have been few and largely without scientific basis. A publication recently published by the Russian government entitled Health Promotion and Healthy Education in Secondary Schools of the Russian Federation, clearly states that alcohol, drug use and related problems (sexually transmitted diseases and suicide among them) are rampant among Russian students.  A recent newspaper article in Moscow reported that the average age Russian children begin getting involved with alcohol and drugs is 11 years old!

     On our latest trip, we also learned that:

  The overwhelming problem of alcohol and drug use is being addressed by OPORA (Russian for "support"), a Christian training program in Moscow, conceived and supported by the mission agency, World Witness. OPORA began in 1997 with an international conference on substance abuse in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Health in response to the acute problem of substance abuse in Russia. A staff of Russian Christian professionals operates the program out of a Moscow center.  While initially the goal was to equip church leadership for recovery ministries, the secular community soon began to attend their training seminars. A large number of professionals are now involved in spiritual recovery programs where atheism was once the norm.

     In 1999, after learning of the success of OPORA, the chairman of the Methodical Council of Education Committee, the Director of Life Sciences of the Russian Ministry of Education, and a Deputy of the Moscow Duma met with the OPORA staff. With a sense of urgent need, they asked OPORA to put together a Prevention Program for the schools. OPORA accepted the challenge.

     In 1999, staff members from OPORA chose Linda’s book series, Growing a Healthy Family, as an alcohol & drug prevention tool. The purpose was to bring God’s hope and healing into the average Russian home, with the hope of breaking the cycle of dependency. The first book All My Feelings Are Okay was translated in 1999 and in November of that year we traveled to Moscow to conduct a 4 day training seminar on how to use it. More than 90 Russian professionals attended, coming from six Russian speaking countries! According to reports from OPORA, the book has become very popular, too - now in its third printing! The second book, Let's Talk, Let's Listen, Too, was released in the spring of 2004 and the third book, I Always Always Have Choices, in the spring of 2006.

The Sibleys with the OPORA staff at the 1999 Seminar

     While we were in Moscow, we were told about the prevention project, and asked to participate. Linda, never one to turn down a curriculum writing project, accepted the challenge of recruiting and leading the American team, and serving as final editor of all the lessons!  And a few months later ...

The Prevention Project Partnership is Born

     Within two months of returning, God led us to the people who became our team members for this important project.  This group represents the most experienced and up-to-date prevention specialists in the country — and they are all Christians!  We have been working together for four years now, and have become great friends as well as colleagues!

Our American Writing Team
(From left: Julie Scales, Dave, Betsy Rockett, Rosemary Tisch, Linda)

Linda Sibley: Team Leader & Primary Editor

Linda is the author and founder of Confident Kids, an organization which has been enabling churches and other Christian ministries to provide support groups to high stress children and their parents since 1990.  She and her husband, David, travel extensively to train church leaders how to begin and run Confident Kids support groups.  She is also a contributing editor to STEPS Magazine (the publication of the National Association of Christian Recovery),  and has written Sunday School curriculum for Standard Publishing and David C. Cook Publishers, and been a contributing editor to Christian Parenting Today magazine. 

David L. Sibley

David is the Executive Director of Family Resources International, the parent organization of Confident Kids and our newly formed Prevention Partnership International.  Dave brings his experience in sales and marketing gained from thirteen years with the Coca-Cola Company and Vice-president of Southern California Safe Company.  He is also a co-trainer with Linda in their seminars and training events in the US and Russia.

Rosemary Tisch: Prevention and Research Specialist

Rosemary’s expertise provided the foundation of our curriculum development.  Her past experiences include the founding of Kids Are Special and Family Education Foundation, which focused on the prevention of substance abuse in high-risk populations (children of alcoholics/addicts, sexually active teens, and individuals with learning differences and those exposed in utero to alcohol and other drugs).  She was also the primary developer of the group models created by KAS and FEF to address substance abuse problems.  She was the chair of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Clinic Development Committee and the Co-Chair of the Santa Clara County Community Learning Assessment Task Force.  Previously, Rosemary was the Director of Education and Training for EMQ.  She has provided training in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico as well as in the United States.

Rosemary is also a recovering alcoholic with twenty years sobriety.  Her knowledge of children of alcoholics is enriched by her own experience of raising two daughters.

Julie Scales

Julie is the past Executive Director of Legacy Foundation located in San Mateo County, CA, a non-profit organization focusing on changing the perception and approach to chemical dependency in the community.  While there, she was the Director of The Children’s Place Program, the oldest alcohol/drug prevention education program in the country for children ages 5-13 years.  Julie has over twenty years of experience working as a prevention specialist in the field of child abuse and addiction.  She is also a former program director and trainer for The Child Advocacy Council and The Kids are Special program and has conducted prevention and education training seminars extensively throughout Northern California and in Moscow, Russia.

Betsy Rockett

Betsy is an addiction specialist with advanced training in alcohol and drug studies. She previously was the coordinator of the Family Program of Sequoia Center at El Camino Hospital, an alcohol and drug treatment program.  Betsy is also a recovering alcoholic, a mother of four and grandmother of eight.

   By 2001, we realized there would be many applications of the new, state-of-the-art curriculum we were writing, and formed a formal alliance, The Prevention Project Partnership.  In the fall of 1993, the Partnership was renamed Prevention Partnership International and became a division of Confident Kid's parent organization, Family Resources International. 

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An Amazing Twist

    As stated earlier, our original invitation was to write a prevention curriculum for use in Russian schools.  But from the beginning, there were huge obstacles to making this happen.  Russian schools were not willing to send their school psychologists for training, and we found the governmental red tape involved with introducing a new curriculum to be overwhelming.  Plus, every partnership we created seemed to end in disappointment.  We were becoming discouraged, when...

    During the course of 2003, God opened a door into the highest levels of Moscow's Social Services, resulting in a delegation of 16 Social Services District Directors and two members of the OPORA staff coming to visit us here is America.  They were hosted by us, several Rotary Clubs in the San Jose (CA) area, and the Santa Clara County Sister County Commission (working with the city of Moscow).  They came to observe Social Services practices in Santa Clara County AND to learn about the KEYS TO HEALTHY LIVING curriculum project. 

     The alliance with Moscow Social Services is a perfect fit for several reasons:

     With the alliance with Social Services, the KEYS project moved forward very quickly.  The training of the first Prevention Specialists began in January of 2004 and the Materials were put into use in the Children's Shelters during the spring and summer of that year.
 

    How  extensive is this project?  VERY!  What started out as a  simple classroom curriculum has turned into a comprehensive, state-of-the-art prevention program!  The components include:

1. The KEYS TO A HEALTHY LIFE Curriculum. Our American writing team developed a nearly 1000 page comprehensive curriculum with lessons plans for children ages 6  - 17 years.  It is based on the latest research in alcohol/drug abuse, needs of children of alcoholics, and prevention principles.  It is also Biblically based, teaches important life skills, and uses highly interactive and experiential teaching methodology.  Linda served as the editor-in-chief of this extensive writing project!

2. Translation and “Russianizing.” Once written, all materials were sent to OPORA in Moscow where a Russian writing team translated and contextualized them for use with Russian children and families.

3. Prevention Specialists Training. A key element is the 3 year training program for prevention specialists who will teach the curriculum, conduct  parent classes, and institute peer programs.  Leaders from children's centers and shelters throughout Moscow attend training classes one day a week at the OPORA offices.

4. Training for Professionals Outside of Moscow.  Each summer, a myriad of professionals come from all over the Russian Federation to spend one full month at the OPORA Center for addiction and prevention training.  In this way, the KEYS curriculum is spreading all through Russia!  During August of 2005, we were privileged to be part of this month long training.  See our report on our 2005 trip for more details.

5. Expansion to Orphanages.  OPORA is constantly receiving requests from orphanages (both inside Moscow and in other parts of Russia) for training and materials.  Currently, they are working on a plan to provide education and mentoring materials to these leaders.  They are also making necessary changes to the KEYS curriculum to fit this important population of children.

These kids in Moscow, and 1,000's more, are the reason
we are doing this project!

Report on Our 2004 Trip to Russia

May, 2004

    This trip focused on our relationship with the Moscow Social Services.  Highlights include:

The delegation in San Francisco                The delegation in Moscow Office

Dave and Shelter Girls                     Young children are in shelters, too.

Most older girls in shelters were street prostitutes.

The class.  Our teammate, Rosemary, is behind Dave (center front).

Report on Our 2005 Trip to Russia

August, 2005

    We were invited to return to Moscow in the summer of 2005 as part of the month long training for professionals who live outside of Moscow.  This was actually a second year class, meaning they had spent the previous summer at OPORA learning the basics of addiction recovery and prevention principles.  They had also been trained on the use of KEYS and each one had actually used the curriculum in various settings throughout the year.  Our training task for that summer was to teach them about families in the recovery process and how to adapt KEYS for use with parents and whole family groups. 

Dave teaching August class
with our translator, Marina

     By far, the he highlight of this trip was the time we took to sit and listen to the seminar participants tell us about themselves, and particularly how they had used the KEYS curriculum in the past year.  During this time, we learned that KEYS was used in the following ways:

     As exciting as it was to listen to these reports, the most touching for us to hear the students make their personal reports of how studying and teaching KEYS changed their own lives!  With tears (theirs and ours), many of them told us of how their marriages were enriched or even saved, and how their relationships with their own children improved.  We also heard stories how the children, parents and other leaders they taught literally absorbed the content and applied it to their lives.  And most important of all, we heard how children were introduced to the love of God and what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

How You Can Be Involved

     In Confident Kids, our mission has always been to develop resources to help bring God’s love and healing to hurting children and families. Nowhere have we seen a greater potential to do so than through this  project! We accepted this challenge, believing that God would provide what is needed to make it happen.  The financial reality:

The KEYS project is a gift to the Russian people, funded exclusively through gifts and grants. We have NOT received any money from Russia to pay for our time or expenses.  The entire project is funded through individual donors and grants.

  From the beginning, this project has been about team work.  If you would like to join our team as a prayer and financial partner, we would welcome your help. Just think of what YOU can accomplish through your prayers and/or gifts.  Click here to contact us about being added to our list of prayer partners and/or for more information on making a donation.