The most important needs in the drug education nowadays, is the necessity of new preventive programs and harm reduction actions, so as to make the youth work communication and messaging more attractive and more effective for young people. In the last few years, drug scene changed so much and young people started to use more dangerous new substances. Project partners experience shows that educators working with the youth, wanting to be effective and listened to by young people must use communication techniques that are currently in trend among youth. In most of the cases, youth workers speak with young people only about prevention and in a very formal way. Which is why the message not always reaches the addressee. Harm reduction and prevention should go along and currently popular forms of communication, such as short videos, vlogs, series should be used in the addressing drug education.
The aim of the project is to support youth workers, educators (peer educators), street workers, harm reduction specialists working directly with youth who can potentially using drugs or already use them with the innovative approaches and methods on drug education.
The objectives of the project are:
– to conduct an assessment on the situation on drug education in the project countries (both – at schools and in the NGOs) and based on it to prepare a report;
– to develop a “Manual on Drug Education” for youth workers and educators, which will provide the innovative, attractive and effective way to reach young people with knowledge about drugs and the risks of their use;
– to produce online videos on selected drug-related issues to educate young people, peers and the public about drug-related risks and harms and effective ways to reduce them;
– to provide 3 series of training courses for the participants of the project, based on the “Manual on Drug Education” and equip participants with new knowledge on drug education in youth work;
– to share and discuss project outputs and build partnerships among different stakeholders on national level, through organizing 5 multiplier events in the project countries;
– to disseminate project outputs on national, European and regional levels.
Countries covered by project: Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia
Project timeline: 1st February 2020 to 31st December, 2021
Overall budget: 195 074.00 EUR (54 259.00 EUR for EHRA)
Project donor: European Commission (ERASMUS+ programme)
Contact person: Eliza Kurcevic
Related materials (see project website)