Drugs Awareness Training & Education

Background As countries increasingly move toward more relaxed drug laws, the role of education is the main focus of public services who wish to prevent drug abuse. Data from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addictions’ (EMCDDA) 2019 Country Drug Reports showed the increase in drug use in young people in most countries. Today’s youth are inundated with information every day and opportunities for distraction are increasing. There are unfathomable amounts of data and sources online, much of it biased. The role of parents, educators and youth workers is no longer one of the escorts of information. Instead, they are now tasked with providing the necessary skills to enable young people to apply critical thought, reason and structure to the information they gather from a vast multitude of sources especially around drugs and drug use. The DATE Project brought together partner countries with a diverse collection of attitudes and empathy to drug abuse to share and discuss best practices as well as develop an innovative toolkit of purpose designed Interactive Infographics which provided a holistic approach to drug awareness and prevention. Objectives A EMCDDA report on mass media campaigns for the prevention of drug use in young people found there was no effect on reduction of use and a weak effect on intention to use illicit substances. It also identified reports of possible unwanted effects in terms of young people declaring that they would like to try drugs. The DATE project wanted to bring drugs awareness education to young digital natives in their online environments and to provide the necessary training to front-line youth workers so they could harness these ubiquitous channels in their daily activities. The DATE project developed the first interactive infographic based drugs awareness campaign and educational resources; a bespoke in-service training programme for front-line youth workers and a peer leadership programme for young people. Implementation The following activities were implemented as part of the DATE project: 1. Established local stakeholder forums in partner countries of 4-6 youth workers and youth leaders. 2. Established youth peer leadership groups of 4-6 young people in partner countries. 3. Developed the DATE website: https://www.dateproject.eu/en/. 4. Established a DATE facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DATEProject 5. Resources developed: IO 1 Compendium of Interactive Infographics IO 2 In-Service Training Programme IO 3 Peer Leadership Programme for Young People 6. C1 Joint Staff Short-Term Training Event which took place online in March 2022 7. C2 Blended Mobility of Learners Training Event took place in Lisbon in May 2022 8. The following training activities took place with local target groups in each partner country: - 6 front-line youth workers completed the pilot of the in-service training programme - 6 young people will complete the peer leadership programme 9. A Local Drugs Awareness Workshop was held in each partner country. 8. A Final Conference was held in Belfast on the 18th October 2022 Achievements Outputs and Results A toolkit of purpose designed Interactive Infographics that provided a holistic approach to drug awareness and prevention. The toolkit provided a complete suite of 12 interactive infographic resources comprised of 3 core areas: 1. Problem definition: The role of drug type and patterns of use in drug related harms, Who it impacts and where it impacts to gain understanding of the social costs of drug problems, Early warning systems and key indicators. 2. Appropriate response actions: Contextualizing factors and influences such as public attitudes and legal framework. Promoting harm reduction: how to help an individual and establishing the importance of individual and community wellbeing. 3. Prevalent problems today: Information on new psychoactive and synthetic drugs, addressing the misuse of medicines and the dangers of the dark web. 12 interactive infographics addressing drugs awareness issues were developed in 5 partner languages 56 front-line youth workers completed the pilot of the in-service training programme 36 young people completed the peer leadership programme