Police-Led Youth Drug Prevention Curriculum
An Evidence-Based Youth Prevention Model Embedding Drug, Violence, and Life Skills Curriculum
The Virginia Beach Police Department Youth Services Unit uses Virginia opioid settlement funds to deliver the Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence (LEAD) prevention curriculum to middle school students, alternative school students, summer campers, and youth at community events, taught by certified School Resource Officers and supported by a fully wrapped community engagement vehicle, trailer, and mascot that bring drug awareness, naloxone education, and free anti-drug merchandise directly to families across the city.
The Challenge They Were Addressing
Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia by population, with 85 public schools, roughly 65,000 students, 66 private schools, more than 3,000 homeschool students, 5 military bases, and approximately 14 million tourists each year. The Virginia Beach Police Department had carried out youth programs and School Resource Officer responsibilities across the city for years. Still, those efforts were spread across multiple supervisors and lacked a single unit with the time and authority to build a structured drug prevention curriculum at scale. At the same time, the city's previous school-based drug education program had been discontinued in the public schools, leaving a clear gap in classroom-based prevention.
Inside the schools, SROs were absorbing a steady volume of drug, vape, threat, and behavioral incidents (more than 480 school threats in a single school year alone), and many of those incidents traced back to issues the kids had never received structured, age-appropriate information about. The department had a strong School Resource Officer footprint in middle and high schools, a deep relationship with school leadership, and credibility with families, but no consistent prevention curriculum that those officers could carry into the classroom.
Two events created the inflection point. In January 2023, the Virginia Beach Police Department formed a dedicated Youth Services Unit, giving the city a single home for SRO liaison, juvenile programs, recruiting for Cadet and Patrol Aide programs, and youth engagement work. Shortly after, the city's opioid settlement manager in Human Services convened a cross-departmental meeting with the police department, public schools, parks and recreation, juvenile court services, and the city detention center to invite proposals for opioid settlement funds, with a clear focus on youth drug education in schools. The Youth Services Unit had already been researching the LEAD curriculum and had a file ready to go when the call came.
What They Built
The Virginia Beach Police Department built a prevention program with two connected tracks. The first track is the LEAD curriculum, delivered in public schools by certified School Resource Officers and the Youth Services unit officers, with the City of Virginia Beach Public Schools as a co-equal partner. The second track is a community outreach program built around a wrapped Ford Expedition, a concession-style trailer, a costumed mascot, and free anti-drug merchandise that the Youth Services Unit takes to up to 150 events each year including summer camps, Police Athletic League events, after-school sessions, and other community outreach activities.
LEAD (Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence) is a national, evidence-based curriculum operated by a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in New Jersey with a regional office in Florida. The K through 12 program can be delivered as a ten-week drug-focused curriculum, a ten-week violence-focused curriculum, or a combined fifteen-week curriculum. The newly revised curriculum is built around life skills and tested information on drugs, prescription medications, opioids, and naloxone. It is designed to teach students how to think for themselves rather than to read a script aloud. A new Transitions module for eleventh- and twelfth-graders focuses on adult life skills and the transition out of high school.
In the schools, the program is taught primarily during the middle school's 50-minute Thrive Time block (a study and tutoring period that cleanly fits the 10-week curriculum). Each participating school selects roughly thirty students identified by school staff as most likely to benefit. SROs and Youth Services Unit officers are LEAD-certified, along with counselors and school staff trained alongside them. The Youth Services Unit handles logistics, scheduling, and materials, while the school's Director of Support Services selects sites and coordinates with principals.
Outside the schools, the Youth Services Unit weaves LEAD content into existing youth programs. The unit runs a Lead and Board Games evening series for homeschool and community kids; teaches the high school LEAD curriculum inside the eighteen-week Youth Police Academy; delivers the middle school curriculum at two Police Athletic League summer camps each year; and uses the wrapped vehicle and trailer at community events to host naloxone training on a television in the trailer and to distribute Narcan, anti-drug merchandise, and the Scruff mascot for younger children. A signed MOU is in place with the city's detention center to bring LEAD to detained youth; scheduling is the final step.
In 2026, the Virginia Beach Police Department was recognized nationally with the LEAD National Partner of the Year Award, and Lt. Kevin Lokey received the LEAD Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award, recognizing the department's leadership and commitment to diversion and early intervention.
Key Program Components
Who You Need at the Table
What made a willing partner essential vs. optional?
The required partners are the ones the program cannot function without. The Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority is required because it funds 100% of the work. The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services is required because it administers the city's settlement dollars and convened the cross-department conversation that produced the proposal. The Virginia Beach Public Schools are required because the program is taught inside the schools, on the schools' schedule, with students the schools select. LEAD National is required because the curriculum, the certification, and the relationship with the regional director are the engine of the model. The SROs are required because they teach the class.
Helpful partners broaden the model's reach rather than enabling it. The Police Athletic League and the Youth Police Academy create out-of-school settings where the curriculum is delivered to campers and high school students who might not otherwise have access to it. The collaborative committees with juvenile court services, the Commonwealth's Attorney, and parks and recreation route referrals align the youth strategy. The Opioid Response Network connects the work to a national peer learning community. None of these is the reason a class is taught next week; together, they are why the program continues to grow.
Budget Breakdown
What is the minimum viable budget to replicate this?
A smaller jurisdiction does not need anywhere close to a six-figure budget to replicate this. With roughly $15,000, a small department can certify about twenty officers (at roughly $300 per person) and still have enough left for around 1,800 student books and starter materials. The community engagement vehicle, trailer, and mascot are powerful additions for a large city like Virginia Beach, but they are optional. The non-negotiables are the certified instructors, the curriculum materials, and a co-equal school partner who can place the curriculum into a real instructional block. Lt. Kevin Lokey advises that the first call a smaller jurisdiction should make is to LEAD National's regional director, who will scope a starter plan based on the local department's size and budget.
What Worked and Why
Specific decisions or design features that drove success
Standing up the Youth Services Unit in January 2023, before the settlement funding call ever came, gave the program a permanent home. The unit consolidated the SRO liaison function, juvenile programs, and youth engagement under a single command. When the opioid settlement opportunity surfaced, the LEAD proposal already had a structural owner with the capacity to deliver, rather than being grafted onto a unit with other primary duties.
The cross-department settlement convening at the front end produced a stronger proposal than any single agency could have written on its own. Virginia Beach Human Services emailed the police department, the school division, parks and recreation, juvenile court, and the city detention center. They asked each to bring ideas for the settlement allocation. The meeting identified the police-and-schools combination as the highest-impact pairing and produced a joint proposal rather than two competing ones.
Combining the police department's $15,000 allocation with the school division's $15,000 allocation into a single $30,000 pool made the budget viable. The Director of Support Services at Virginia Beach City Public Schools proposed merging the two awards so the city could pay LEAD National upfront for a shared cohort of certified instructors and a unified materials order. Two separate $15,000 line items would have resulted in two smaller training cohorts and duplicate procurement. One $30,000 pool produced certified SROs, books for every student, and a single shared curriculum across police and schools.
Choosing LEAD over the prevention program built on memorization and scripted refusal was a deliberate curricular call. The newly released LEAD curriculum is life-skills focused and teaches students to think through situations rather than recite a refusal line. Instructors can tailor sessions to local issues (vaping, social media pressure, fentanyl in counterfeit pills) without leaving the framework. For a department that wanted the work to outlive any single class of students, a thinking curriculum was the right fit.
Riding existing instructional and outreach infrastructure kept the design realistic. The 50-minute middle school Thrive Time block fit cleanly into the 10-week LEAD sequence without displacing core academics. The Police Athletic League summer camps, the Youth Police Academy, and the evening Lead and Board Games sessions provided ready-made venues for the curriculum to reach students outside the school day. The vehicle, trailer, and mascot purchased in year one are durable assets that pay forward across community events for years to come.
Early outcomes and data
27 of 28 School Resource Officers are LEAD-certified, with the final officer scheduled to complete training in the next training cycle.
Curriculum delivered in three middle schools plus Renaissance Academy in the first full school year, with the fourth originally planned school deferred because its International Baccalaureate program does not include a Thrive Time block.
Nine total cohorts delivered to date: three middle schools, Renaissance Academy, the evening Lead and Board Games series, two PAL summer camps, and the Youth Police Academy delivered twice at the high school level.
Approximately 30 students per school cohort, approximately 12 students per evening cohort, and 33 to 37 students per PAL summer camp cohort.
Signed a memorandum of understanding with the Virginia Beach city detention center, with scheduling underway for the first detention-based cohort.
LEAD Fest community carnival held in year one, generating several thousand dollars in additional support for instructional materials and merchandise.
Naloxone training and distribution are provided directly from the LEAD trailer at community events alongside the curriculum.
Up to 150 community events per year receive LEAD-branded anti-drug merchandise from the trailer inventory.
Lt. Kevin Lokey was selected for LEAD National's Community Prevention Officer Program, representing one of only 10 participating agencies nationwide. He presented on gun violence prevention at the June 2026 LEAD National Conference and was honored as the 2026 LEAD Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
Virginia Beach Police Department is the nation's largest LEAD-implementing agency, serving 85 schools with more than 800 sworn officers. In 2026, the department received the LEAD National Partner of the Year Award.
Lessons Learned
Build the unit before you build the program. The Youth Services Unit was stood up in January 2023, months before the settlement opportunity surfaced. Having a permanent home for youth-facing work meant the LEAD proposal had a structural owner ready to deliver on day one. Programs without that foundation tend to drift between units.
Combine money where you can. Merging the police department's $15,000 allocation with the school division's $15,000 into a single $30,000 pool doubled the buying power and produced a unified training cohort and materials order. Two separate awards would have produced two smaller, duplicative programs.
Pick curricula that teach thinking, not recitation. The newly released LEAD curriculum is life-skills focused and teaches students to think through situations rather than memorize refusal scripts. A thinking curriculum can be tailored to whatever the local issue is (vaping today, fentanyl tomorrow) without leaving the framework. A scripted curriculum has a shorter shelf life.
Let the program scale to you. LEAD National works with three school districts and Virginia Beach's 85 schools at the same level of engagement. Departments that assume they are too small (or too large) for the model are usually mistaken. Ask the regional director what is possible at the local scale.
Capital purchases are force multipliers. The wrapped vehicle, the trailer, and the mascot reach families at community events; the curriculum alone never would. Up to 150 community events per year carry LEAD-branded prevention messaging and naloxone distribution, thanks to the year-one capital investment.
Start with the schools that want it. Principal buy-in is the single biggest predictor of cohort success. The three middle schools that committed Thrive Time blocks early ran cleanly. The fourth school originally planned, with an International Baccalaureate program and no equivalent block, was correctly deferred. Picking willing partners is faster than persuading reluctant ones.