Find the right resources to spread awareness and empower
all students for Red Ribbon Week!
Observed annually from October 23–31, Red Ribbon Week honors the legacy of Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena and serves as a nationwide call to action for promoting wellness, safety, and prevention. It’s a time to recognize the impact of substance misuse and to encourage students to make healthy, informed choices that support their well-being and future success.
In celebration of the 2025 Red Ribbon Week theme, “Life Is a Puzzle, Solve It Drug Free,” we’re sharing proactive strategies and standards-aligned resources to help educators spark meaningful conversations and support students in building lives full of purpose, resilience, and connection.
Medication Safety
As part of the Pharmacists Teach program, Dose of Knowledge empowers educators, pharmacists, parents, and community members to guide students in making smart decisions about medication safety and mental health. These K–12 standards-aligned resources include everything educators need to teach students about responsible choices and wellness.
Think It Through, a choose-your-own-adventure animated experience that helps students practice decision-making and explore the consequences of their choices in a safe, engaging way.
Preparing for Positive Choices
The Ask, Listen, Learn classroom activities are designed with the whole child in mind.
These middle school resources help students:
- Understand the short- and long-term effects of underage use on the developing brain.
- Practice refusal and exit strategies to navigate peer pressure.
- Separate fact from fiction through scientific research and peer discussion.
- Explore real-world policy by creating mock legislation and debating societal impacts.
Ask, Listen, Learn helps students uncover the science behind how substances affect the brain and body, empowering them to say “YES” to a healthy lifestyle and “NO” to risky behaviors.
Look into Real Life
Created in partnership with the DEA, Operation Prevention offers tools for educators, families, and communities to support prevention efforts. These resources are aligned to national health and science standards and integrate seamlessly into classroom instruction.
Through hands-on investigations, students explore the science behind substance misuse and its impact on the brain and body. English and Spanish resources, self-paced modules, and culturally responsive content help kickstart life-saving conversations.
The latest Virtual Field Trip, An Ounce of Prevention, empowers high school students to make informed decisions and become advocates for prevention in their communities. Students meet real people working to combat the fentanyl crisis and raise awareness about counterfeit drugs.
Join us Oct 29 during Red Ribbon Week for Careers at Sea and Shore: A Virtual Field Trip to Maritime Manufacturing Centers — designed for Grades 6–12. This experience takes students behind the scenes to see how submarines are built and introduces them to the engineers, welders, and technicians who make it happen.
More than just a look at cool technology, this field trip highlights how living a healthy lifestyle can open doors to meaningful careers in industries like maritime manufacturing and national security.
