I am pleased to announce funding of $79,500 for the Brisbane West Youth Partnership, a community drug prevention project working among young people in western Brisbane.
The project will be run by Drug-Arm in conjunction with local schools including Brigidine College, Indooroopilly High, Kenmore High and Brisbane Boys College. The project leaders will build a partnership with community groups and individuals within the local community to prevent illicit drug use.
The project will have three components:
ú A Youth Roundtable will be established to bring young people together to raise awareness and discuss issues in relation to combating illicit drugs.
ú Youth Action Teams will be formed in local areas for the purpose of fostering young leaders within the community who will develop practical strategies aimed at preventing drug use in their local area, and finding positive answers to local problems.
ú Community Youth Forums assisting young people will be held, with a focus on achieving a greater understanding of the issues and problems faced by young people.
The project will involve young people in the training of peer leaders and adult mentors who will drive the initiatives.
The project is funded under the Community Partnerships Initiative, which is an important component of the government's Tough on Drugs Strategy, and another example of the social coalition at work to address difficult issues in the community.
The Community Partnerships Initiative began in 1997 and has marked Australia as a world leader in encouraging responses that involve the whole community working together to solve drug problems. By working in partnership community organisations, schools, committed individuals and governments can be more effective in fighting drug abuse.
I commend Drug-Arm and each of the partners in this project for their work in this difficult area.
2 March 2001
BRIEFING ON COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM: DRUG-ARM, THE INDOOROOPILLY & KENMORE STATE HIGH SCHOOLS, BRIGIDINE COLLEGE & BRISBANE BOYS COLLEGE.
1: BACKGROUND:
This Community Partnership Program brings together two State High Schools, a Private Boys College and a Catholic Girls College together with DRUG-ARM a community alcohol and other drug agency. This community-focussed intervention draws together a broad mix of young people. The young people participating in this Community Partnership Program will be from the three school systems in Queensland, - State, Independent and Catholic education systems - as well as young people who are outside of or excluded from the school system.
The Community Partnership Program will empower a very broad mix of young people. This program will help young people develop an understanding of the issues from another young person's perspective and will encourage all participants in this program to work to develop prevention strategies to help reduce the uptake and harm associated with illicit drug use.
This project builds upon successful youth programs developed and implemented by DRUG-ARM at Bundamba State High School in Ipswich during 2000, as well as work with the youth committee from Indooroopilly State High School. This youth committee is focussing on crime prevention strategies for young people specifically during their leisure hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday.
1.1 Local Youth Survey.
DRUG-ARM interviewed 200 young people in the western suburbs of Brisbane and a number of issues were identified. : A brief overview of the results of this survey are:
ù Twenty-six percent of the young people reported being in a fight over the last month.
ù Fourteen percent indicated that they had shop lifted in the last month.
ù Twenty-four percent of the young people reported using drugs in the last month. .
ù Six percent reported that they had sold drugs in the last month.
ù Thirty percent reported 'wagging' school in the last week.
ù Thirty-three percent reported getting drunk in the last week.
ù Fourteen percent reported having engaged in unsafe sex.
2: THE PROJECT: The Brisbane West Youth Partnership Program
This Brisbane West Youth Partnership Program empowers young people involved in this program through planning, organising and implementing training for peer leaders and adult mentors as well as planning and implementing the Community Youth Forum in western Brisbane. This Brisbane West Youth Partnership Program, like all DRUG-ARM interventions is based on the latest research thus ensuring that the program fits within best practice guidelines and will deliver quality outcomes for the participants involved in this program.
2.1 Establish Project Committee
This project committee will be responsible for overseeing the project and with membership drawn from:
ú representative of the community partners in this project;
ú representative from community alcohol and other drug agencies in the district;
ú representative of Queensland Health (ATODS);
ú representative of the Queensland Drug Courts;
ú representative from Family Youth and Community Care Queensland;
ú representatives from the local ethnic communities;
ú representative of Brisbane City Council;
ú representative of Queensland Police;
ú representative from the local indigenous community;
ú representative from the business and commercial areas; and
ú representatives of the Youth Action Teams when formed.
BRIEFING ON COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
2.2 Youth Round Table
The Youth Round Table will empower this diverse mix of young people from the Western Suburbs of Brisbane to come together to discuss issues involving the use of illicit drugs in the area. This Youth Round Table will also identify youth risk factors within the community and develop strategies to prevent the uptake of illicit drug use as well as strategies to reduce the overall harm associated with illicit drug use. The strength of this Youth Round Table will be the broad cross section of young people who will participate in this Youth Round Table. The participants attending this Youth Round Table will represent:
ú young people attending schools in the area,
ú young people who are unemployed;
ú young people who are homeless;
ú young people experiencing problems with the police;
ú young people attending University or TAFE;
ú young people experiencing problems with the Juvenile Justice System;
ú young people from local ethnic populations; and
ú young indigenous people from the district.
This Youth Round Table will discuss issues associated with illicit drug use including the risk factors for individuals, for community, for schools and for families. The Youth Round Table will discuss:
ú what youth support currently exist in the western suburbs of Brisbane;
ú the needs of the various groups of young people:
ú prevention strategies that may reduce the uptake of illicit drug use in the area:
ú the need for Community Youth Forums:
ú how to implement these forums to ensure a broad cross section of young people participate in these Forums: and
ú the number and locations of these Community Youth Forums.
2.3 Youth Action Teams
These Youth Action Teams will be formed in the local areas where the Community Youth Forums will be developed within budget guidelines. The Youth Action Teams will empower this broad mix of young people through encouraging them to accept leadership roles associated with the Community Youth Forums, which are an integral part of this project. The empowering of the young people in these Youth Action Teams will consist of the following strategies:
ú To encourage the young people to accept, roles as peer leaders roles that include planning, organising and implementing the Community Youth Forum.
ú To encourage the young people to develop the training of both the peer leaders and the adult mentors that will support the program.
ú To provide peer leadership for the Community Youth Forum
ú To present information sessions on the harms of illicit drugs
ú To facilitate group discussion sessions on strategies to reduce or prevent the uptake of illicit use of drugs in the western suburbs.
ú To facilitate group process in developing action plans to address specific issues of concern in relation to the harm associated with illicit drug use
ú To assist and encourage their groups to present their group action plan in a public meeting to their local community
ú To assist and support their group to implement the interventions in their local community.
2.4 Community Youth Forums
These Community Youth Forums will not duplicate the School Drug Summits being funded by DETYA under the Tough on Drugs in School project. These Community Youth Forums have a much broader focus than the school based drug forum and will target a broad mix of young people residing in the western suburbs of Brisbane. These forums will develop greater understanding and empathy between young people living in western Brisbane.
3: ONGOING BENEFIT TO LOCAL COMMUNTIY
These Youth Action Teams will provide ongoing advice to both government and non-government agencies in the local community on all aspects of youth.
2 March 2001
See:
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10052/20021121-0000/www.pm.gov.au/news/me…