The Peer Education on Drugs and Alcohol (P.E.D.A.) came as quite a surprise to Impact DWI, Inc., who is a community action and advocacy organization, which puts an emphasis on ending alcohol abuse in New Mexico, and is run strictly by volunteers.

Margaret Oster, president of Impact DWI, often speaks at our panels and volunteers to speak at schools in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Rio Rancho.

For over 10 years she has been involved in communicating to youth the dangers of driving while intoxicated and often felt that, when dealing with youth, alcohol was not their only problem. Drugs in general are affecting our youth in a much larger scope.

Standard education was not doing the trick and she did not want to give up on the kids, whom she came to love as her own.
Margaret's anonymous surveys suggested that what she had in mind, would give exactly what teens are asking for.

Realism! Their world, their issues and not something standard education designed for them! In 2005, Margaret designed an outrageous program that incorporated youth's abilities to act and film, and handed her ideas and script to Impact DWI in order to acquire a grant from the NM Traffic Safety Bureau.

Margaret recruited teens from Warehouse 21, who wrote the program and acted all scenes related to substance abuse.

These teens have used substances and learned the hard way that substance abuse destroys lives and how peer pressure plays a major role in experimentation.
They illustrated their experiences and their friends' tragedies with superb acting skills.

P.E.D.A.'s 1 hour video performance was shown in several public, charter schools and juvenile detention facilities throughout New Mexico.

Margaret is still a strong advocate against substance abuse, and being an artist herself, she firmly believes that different art-related activities such as theater, dance, painting, music, is an intricate part of human development, and that income-generating activities, greatly prevents drug use.

The "Do Art Not Drugs" program, is an investment in all those young creative minds, who currently are not recognized for their talents due to drastic cuts in our public education system.

Impact DWI has put aside the sum of $1,000.00 per year, to empower our youth through art and we hope that you support our efforts by donating to our cause.

We want to conduct art and film competitions, not only once, but twice a year in order for our youth to take advantage of possible professional exposure and its rewards.

Why does Margaret persists in empowering youth through art? CLICK HERE and read her powerful message.

Here is another example of how Independence High School in Rio Rancho New Mexico combines DWI prevention through art and film.