High School
Choose any five activities below to create a custom week-long Red Ribbon Week program that works for your organization!
Red Ribbon Week is October 23-31
Our list of suggested activities for high school students and families focuses on building protective factors, habits that protect against substance use and other negative outcomes, while including facts about substance use, alternative choices, and how to get help.
Tip: Parents have more influence on their kids than they think, and their attitudes do affect the likelihood of their underage child using drugs and alcohol. Encourage parents to have open conversations regularly and make clear both expectations and consequences.
2. Choose Activities
Below we have listed dozens of activities in six different categories. Choose any five activities to build your own custom Red Ribbon Week program featuring one activity each day. Try to pick from a few different categories to keep it fresh. Work with officials at your venue to plan activities that are both appropriate and feasible.
Drug Facts
Share facts about the negative impact of substance use, but don't embellish. "Scaring kids straight" just doesn't work.
Share facts about substance use and it's effects:
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Share the Drop Your POV campaign from OASAS, inviting creative young people ages 10 to 25 in New York State to submit a creative piece commenting on the choices that lead to underage alcohol, cannabis and drug use. "No lectures. No adults. We're giving you the mic. What do you want other young people to know about the real risks of alcohol, cannabis, and drugs?" Submissions may include visual art, music, creative writing or short-form videos (acting, dancing, singing, etc.). See full details.
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Engage students in the NIH Kahoot, Overdose: Know the Facts to test their knowledge on what causes drug overdoses and how to save a life using naloxone.
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Play National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge from NIH as a group.
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Use the Why are drugs so hard to quit? Kahoot from NIH with your group or introduce one trivia question per day (use your morning show, announcements, lunch, free time, or even email or social media) to post a trivia question and start discussions.
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Offer our Drug and Alcohol Facts crossword puzzle during lunches or free time and discuss which facts were most surprising. Crossword Puzzle | Answer Key
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Share resources on vaping, underage drinking, prescription medication, your Safe School Helpline and more.
Relationships
Positive relationships help to protect kids from negative outcomes. Help kids recognize healthy relationships and strengthen them.
Strengthen and identify positive relationships to support healthy choices and seeking help when needed:
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Specifically name trusted adults in your organization that kids can go to when they are not sure where else to turn, and communicate them on the morning show/announcements, posters around school, and social media.
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Share the Relationship Spectrum to overtly identify what a healthy relationship is and is not. Discuss how to get help if you are in an unhealthy relationship, and how to build healthier relationships.
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Grow student connections to the anti-drug movement: encourage kids to enter the 2027 Red Ribbon Week theme contest to win national recognition and $500 of Red Ribbon theme merchandise for their school.
Future Focus
Help students make connections between being drug-free and having a bright future. Encourage them to find and pursue their passion.
Plan activities to get kids thinking about and pursuing their healthy future:
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Promote after-school clubs and activities kids can get involved with (i.e. host an open house, link to an online listing, or encourage parents to discuss options with kids.)
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Promote discovering their anti-drug… are they an athlete, musician, artist or aspiring nurse, scientist, or law enforcement? Any aspiration or passion can be an anti-drug if it encourages them to be their very best self.
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Show a Natural High video and discuss what activities kids find naturally exhilarating.
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Discuss three areas of life that can be negatively impacted by misuse of drugs and alcohol: health, professional opportunities, and relationships.
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Celebrate the many wonderful things that are better to do than drugs with a talent show: Youth can perform skills related to a hobby (music, karate, etc.).
Gratitude
Help students appreciate what they have and focus on the power of positivity.
Help kids recognize all they have going for them and appreciate positive influences in their lives.
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Have kids write a thank you note to someone who has supported them.
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Encourage kids to consider who inspires them and to post a thank you message on social media with #RedRibbonWeek.
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Prompt students to identify a group or organization that they have benefited from and discuss how they might give back.
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Collect red canned food for a local food pantry, with a prize for the group that collects the most.
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Have students reflect on ways they have been supported by friends that really made a difference and how they can "pay it forward" and be a great friend to others.
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Collect "Change for Change" - coins to be donated to a local organization such as ROCovery Fitness, a Rochester-based organization supporting people in recovery, or WHEN, our Webster, NY-based prevention coalition.
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Discuss the importance of community (their class, school, neighborhood, town, faith, etc.) and how kids can participate in strengthening their communities.
Healthy Habits
Help students identify and practice healthy coping strategies, skills, and habits.
Develop tools that increase resilience:
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Use morning shows/announcements or a specific time each day throughout the week to watch a tutorial and practice a technique to lower stress:
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Share how to start difficult conversations with your parents.
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Arm kids with simple and effective refusal skills.
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Quiz your group with this Coping with Stress Kahoot from NIH.
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Name trusted adults that kids can go to if they have a problem and are not sure where else to turn. Use signs, announcements, posters, bulletin boards, videos, and other communications to reiterate this critical information.
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Share this stigma-busting video about How We Cope With Anxiety & Stress | MTV's Teen Code.
Family Engagement
Inform parents of the critical influence their attitudes play, how to start conversations with kids, and where to seek help.
Share information with parents and families in the principal's newsletter, in person, or on zoom presentations:
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Share school/organization resources and contacts
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Share "10 Strategies to Prevent Your Young Person from Using Drugs".
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Share a link to Underage Drinking information.
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Share a link to Tips for Talking to kids about substance use.
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Share our local mental health resources.
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Share some of our favorite parent hand-outs (scroll to bottom of the page).
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Host a family fun evening and have the choir and bands perform, food trucks, and share prevention information.
3. Publicize Your Program
Encourage
Participation
Use all methods available to tell families about your program:
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Customize, print and send home/email a Red Ribbon Week flyer (Goolge Doc). See how to customize a Google Doc. Or edit this Canva flyer template. Attach a PDF of the flyer to emails, newsletters, your website and social media.
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Share additional resources with families so they can reinforce lessons at home.
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Share these graphics on social media to get attention.
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Use hashtag #RedRibbonWeek on your social posts to increase exposure, and @WHENdfcc so we can share your posts.
Share your success!
We can't wait to see the program you design and the positive impact you have! Post photos and video on social media with #RedRibbonWeek so we can find & amplify your successes!