EU Drug Policy Training & Strategy Series for Young People

Drug policies are often sighted with the goal of protecting young people, but young people are rarely involved in policy development or implementation processes. This project aimed to bridge the gap between drug policy-making and young people, particularly those who use drugs. Both SSDP International and YouthRISE work on addressing this gap from the local to international levels. Both participating organisations have a track record in supporting young people to advocate for better drug policies at national and United Nations levels but have not engaged significantly with European Union Drug Policy development or implementation. Furthermore, both organisations saw a need to engage with European Union Drug Policies, both from requests from our respective memberships and in our strategic plans to increase the capacity of young people directly affected by drugs to engage with drug policy development and implementation on all levels. Therefore, we devised a project that would develop the capacity of the participating organisations and the individual participants to engage with EU Drug Policy through the four key components of the project: 1. Knowledge Building, 2. Skills Building, 3. Network Building, and 4. Strategy Building.

To achieve the key goal of building the capacity of the participating organisations and young people to engage with EU Drug Policy Development and Implementation, we identified 4 key objectives that we designed the project on: 1. Knowledge Building, 2. Skills Building, 3. Network Building and 4. Strategy Building. We identified these objectives as both the participating organisations identified a lack of knowledge of EU policy development, relevant advocacy skills for the EU context, relevant connections with EU stakeholders and a clear pathway for engagement with the EU as the most imposing barriers to engaging with EU Drug Policy development and implementation. The 4 key objectives are defined below: 1. Knowledge Building: To build a base of knowledge regarding how the EU makes decisions regarding drugs and the historical context of drugs in EU Policy. 2. Skills Building: To build a base of advocacy skills tailored to the EU context. 3. Network Building: To build connections between young people and key stakeholders in EU drug policy. 4. Strategy Building: To develop a strategy to further the youth voice in EU Drug Policy.

Preparation Phase This activity had the following outcomes: 1. Welcome Pack, 2. Icebreaker, 3. Understanding & Addressing Stigma Workshop, and 4. Co-development of a code of conduct. Knowledge Building This activity consisted of 3 webinars: 1. The EU Decision Making Process and The EU Drug Policy Creation Process, 2. The history of EU Drug Policy & current Drugs Strategy and 3. Panel with EU Representatives. Skills Building This activity was an in-person event that focused on building the skills of participants using the following workshops: 1. Advocacy, 2. Public Speaking & Debate, and 3. Model EU. Network Building This activity was virtual and consisted of three thematic networking sessions were: 1. Civil Society, 2. Youth, and 3. Decision Makers. Strategy Building This activity was an in-person strategy event that focused on two areas: 1. Strategy Development and 2. Establishing a Pan-Euro Youth Consortium on Drugs. Review & Validation This involved the collection and assessment of the pre & post feedback forms and the formalization of the strategy document and the project report and corresponding social media assets, alongside a launch webinar for the consortium and project results.

The primary results of the project were twofold: 1. The establishment of a Pan-Euro Youth Consortium on Drugs which includes a series of thematic working groups, membership structure and decision-making process, and 2. A Strategy Document with clear goals, milestones and timelines for achievements. The project also resulted in some additional outcomes, such as the development of a project which aims to address the sustainability issues faced by Youth-led drug-related organisations which SSDP International is leading in partnership with YouthRISE and Young Wave. This partnership and project were born through discussions on the sidelines of this project. Alongside this, SSDP International, YouthRISE and the consortium have developed a stronger relationship with the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs, and have plans to work more closely with it in the future.