How often do you hear children say, “Well, I just wanted to be part of the crowd”, to excuse their antisocial behaviour? Little surprise considering the immense pressure youngsters are under to fit in and be accepted by their peers.
That’s where the drugs education charity Hope UK comes into it own. By highlighting the realities of drug use—whether it’s tobacco or alcohol, illegal drugs or solvents—it aims to equip children and young people with the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions rather than simply following the crowd.
“Everyone must be able to make their own choice, and it’s not our job to tell kids that they should not drink, smoke or take drugs,” says Su Finch, one of the small team of full-time staff based at Hope UK’s office near London Waterloo. “It’s about providing them with the information they need to make their own decisions about these things, and hopefully to choose a drug-free lifestyle.”
The driving force of Hope UK’s work is its team of 120-plus voluntary drug educators, who lead drug-awareness sessions in schools, clubs, children’s groups and churches across the UK. Each volunteer must complete a Drug Educator Training Programme, accredited by the London Open College Network. Sessions are highly interactive, with role playing designed to help individuals think through the issues for themselves. “We teach them that using drugs is not a right of passage and that it’s okay to say ‘no’,” says Su. And it is not just children who benefit from Hope UK’s work. Sessions for parents encourage them to put themselves in their children’s shoes and imagine the social pressures they are under to experiment with drugs and alcohol.
As well as educating Hope UK’s volunteers and others—the charity has also trained more than 30 educators for other organisations during the past year— Su also works as a drugs educator in her hometown of Woking, where she has close ties with The Winston Churchill School.
Di Fellowes-Freeman, the school’s head of science, has seen the benefits of Su’s drug-awareness sessions first-hand. “Students learn the harsh realities of drugs in an interactive and interesting way, while teachers gain an insight into the sorts of pressures students face outside school, which helps us understand their behaviour.”
In recognition of the invaluable work done by Hope UK, South West Trains recently donated £1,600 to the charity. The money will go towards the cost of training and supporting two voluntary drugs educators, one from Southampton and the other from Weymouth. “The support from South West Trains will help us towards our target of having trained 225 drugs educators by the end of 2006,” adds Su.
