Rural Methamphetamine Education Project (RMEP)

The main goal of the project is to develop and deliver a public awareness and education campaign to children, schools, teachers, parents, and communities. The public awareness campaign is a multi-faceted approach involving the printing and dissemination of materials regarding methamphetamine to the direct delivery of schools, victims, former users, and treatment counselors.

Presentations are also available for community stakeholders (i.e. public officials, teachers, business leaders, and parents) and the general public to learn about how methamphetamine is affecting the state, their community, and how they can respond to it.

The RMEP team has developed a variety of presentations for specific audiences with different running times, and will deliver these presentations free-of-charge to any interested group or school. The presentation includes educational literature and brochures, a pseudo-methamphetamine laboratory and pseudo-methamphetamine. The topics covered include the effects of methamphetamine, who is using methamphetamine and why, methamphetamine’s impact on others, and what people can do to help prevent meth from destroying their community. Since October 28, 2003 the RMEP team has made over 700 presentations to over 65,000 people.

During 2004 five mentor communities were established. The communities selected were Minot, Devils Lake, Watford City, Hazen/Beulah, and Dickinson. Each community has an assigned RMEP team member that serves as a resource for methamphetamine issues. Team members attend meetings and provide presentations for various entities within the community. In 2005, two additional mentor communities were added - Fort Berthold and Valley City/Jamestown.

The RMEP has been approved by various agencies for certification. Those agencies include the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners, North Dakota EMS, and POST.

In the current contract, the RMEP will accomplish its goal of education, prevention and public awareness by engaging in the following activities/projects:

• Statewide methamphetamine awareness conferences
• Community/school educational presentations
• North Dakota Campus/University Meth Awareness Day
• Point of sale video training programs and web-casting educational and public awareness material
• Educational resource brochures and promotional items
• Public awareness television advertisements
• Research facets of meth usage and its impact on families, communities and the CJ system
• Creation of a documentary providing "first hand experience" by meth cooks, users and victims

To schedule a presentation please call (701) 858-3441 or toll free at 1-800-777-0750 ext. 3441.