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Young Person Alcohol Project
The Alcohol Project, an initiative funded by LDAAT, carries out a range of education and awareness raising initiatives throughout the year and is based at Trading Standards within Lancashire County Council.
Concerns grow over young people under 18 obtaining alcohol either from the parental home or through older adults, parents, family members, and even strangers purchasing on their behalf. Working in partnership with Trading Standards, the objective is to combine education about the dangers of alcohol with strategies to restrict its supply.
The Alcohol Project uses a marketing framework to develop campaigns, information and educational material targeted at young people and the community. During December 2008 a series of radio advertisements across Lancashire talked to young people and adults about the harm, risks and consequences of unsupervised and underage drinking. In the build up to Christmas 2008, 30,000 information booklets entitled “CLEAR – Alcohol, You and your children” were distributed to the parents of Year 6 primary and Year 7 secondary schools across Lancashire.
Major national Mentor Champ Award for alcohol awareness campaign
A new website www.lookoutalcohol.co.uk has received national recognition and a major cash prize. Sponsored by the Lancashire Alcohol Project, an initiative funded by LDAAT, and designed by the young people of the county it recently won the Young Peoples Involvement category in the national Mentor CHAMP Awards.
Mentor is a leading charity whose mission is to promote the health and well being of children and young people and prevent drug misuse. CHAMP stands for the promotion of children’s health through alcohol misuse prevention. This major national awards scheme is held every two years and recognises the achievements of those who work with children and young people to prevent alcohol misuse.
From the initial idea of a website with a games concept, to the design of the characters, to the topics covered, primary school children from across Lancashire were involved in all aspects of its production.
The user friendly interactive site, incorporating age appropriate alcohol education, offers downloadable lesson plans for teachers, homework based activities and an information section for parents and teachers around alcohol issues.
Panels of young children and young people from across Great Britain selected the three winners of the awards.
Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere presented a cheque for £10,000 at the ceremony and each winner also received £10,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy support in 2009.
The website has been identified by the Schools Effectiveness Service as being of great benefit to pupils in Years 5 and 6, (Key Stage 2) and because young people were involved in the site design, incorporating a strong fun element, pupils make significant use of the site in their leisure time.
A parallel “Lookout Tobacco” site is now in development and in March 2009 a series of regional conferences has been scheduled called “Legal drugs: alcohol and tobacco” for primary school teachers and pupils. Young people will be involved in discussions as how best to spend the prize money.
For more information about Alcohol Project campaigns, forthcoming events and educational materials contact Samantha Beetham on 01772 530586. Email samantha.beetham@lancashire.gov.uk or visit www.lookoutalcohol.co.uk.
