Internship Highlight - Reality Tour: An Inside Look at Our Unique Approach to Drug Prevention
- Hayley Meerdo
- Mar 30, 2025
- 3 min read
5 minute read
By: Hayley Meerdo
Throughout my internship with Reality Tour in Butler, PA, I learned a lot about the organization's values, important mission, and was able to write articles to highlight the non-profit's success.
Reality Tour, started by Norma Norris in 2003, is an impactful drug prevention program that dives into the educational and awareness aspects of common types of harmful drugs, as well as potential real-life situations or consequences of drug use. The tours also include a spotlight on guest speakers that have been affected by discussed topics to share with families. The speakers show how their own personal experiences have led them to where they are today and what lessons attendees can take with them. The program’s target audience consists of adolescents and teens along with their parent and caregiver that leave Reality Tour feeling inspired, more connected with their family and community, and more educated about drug harm than before.
Reality Tour aims to provide the most effective and memorable prevention tactics possible and those include face-to-face interactions with real recovery speakers, volunteer presenters and volunteer actors to give attendees a first hand look into set-up scenes related to drug prevention. Reality
Tour’s program is credible through research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and has received national awards, including maintaining a top-rating in the National Great Non-Profits Organization.
Reality Tour is a valuable tool for engaging youth and families in drug prevention because it offers many resources to remain consistently educated on drug trends and their causes, learn more about people and initiatives in your community, and form a stronger connection between parents and their children in the topics of avoiding drug use. The Reality Tour program highlights the idea that parents are the most powerful prevention tool and how being a star parent to your child is the first step toward their protection. The parent/child approach provides a unique synergy while few other drug prevention programs reach such a significant impact.
The tour leaves families feeling sentimental, educated and more realistic after making a promise to stay drug-free by drawing a hand print on a banner. The Reality Tour program is interactive and educates in a way that is memorable and eye-opening, especially for children.
Schools do a great job at implementing drug awareness assemblies, but Reality Tour touches on the topics and vital information that those other programs tend to “sugar coat.” Reality Tour takes attendees through a guided informational session on drug types, their severities based on community and even video representation of what negative and illegal drug use can look like.
The Reality Tour drug prevention program is unique for its multi-step experience provided through an interactive presentation, Q&A, real-time depiction of a drug related arrest, a storytelling walkway of scenes, and a parent-child promise activity. The tour ends with receiving a prevention kit to take home. Reality Tour was designed to hold the attention of families, relay the importance of stability and being educated. The program remains an ongoing effort to make a difference in our communities. In order to keep our youth safe, it is important that Reality Tour exists so families can continue to attend and stay educated on up-to-date drug trends and prevention methods.
The Reality Tour program start up guide is available for free on its website.
