In fall, 1991, La Frontera Center, the Tucson Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, and the Community Organization for Drug Abuse Control were funded to carry out an educational program to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse in the Tucson, Arizona area. The resulting project, Pasos Adelante (Steps Forward), is an early intervention demonstration project for 3- to 5-year-olds whose parents have a history of addiction to alcohol and other drugs. The program consists of 12 weeks of center-based activities for parents and children and home visits by a prevention specialist. Through combined skills development and cognitive and affective learning, the project aims to decrease developmental and chronological age gaps in the children; to improve their motor, language, social, and communication skills and coping strategies; and to increase parent effectiveness. To address the limitations found in the evaluations of other substance abuse prevention programs, the first-year evaluation of the Pasos Adelante project will include both statistical and ethnographic components. Child-related outcomes will be measured using the Denver Developmental Screening Test and a locally developed child rating scale. A questionnaire and the Family Environment Scale will be used to measure parenting skills and family environment. The ethnographic study will focus on the process of program implementation. Two ethnographic assistants, directed by the project anthropologist, will observe participants in order to document the implementation of the early childhood education and parent education components. (AC)