The Youth Prevention Influncers (YPI) program is a project of the Rotary Action Group for Addiction Prevention (www.rag-ap.org) that was developed in collaboration with:
the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC www.unodc.org/unodc/prevention/)
the World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD wfad.se)
Why?
This provides an alternative to the rapid obsolescence factor of current prevention programs, which not only become out of date quickly, but also lose their evidence-based status, in the longer term, due to lack of re-evaluation. The project also closely aligns with mental health issues, as prevention of addiction is part of the field of Mental Health.
How does the PYI’s program Work?
The Youth Prevention Influencers project invests in young people.
They are:
selected by Rotary clubs in collaboration with professional prevention organizations.
trained in the principles of addiction and prevention by trained professional prevention workers. The training for the professional prevention workers was developed by the Carlton Hall Consulting (carltonhallconsulting.com/corporate-about.html)
Following their training, the candidate Youth Prevention Influencers are supported by the rotary club which selected them to develop and implement their own actions in their own (youth) environment and in their own way.
The programme provides for scientific follow-up by Hogent's research centre Substance use and Psychosocial Risk Behaviours (SUPRB (www.hogent.be/onderzoekscentra/substance-use-and-psychosocial-risk-behaviours/) research centre, enabling young people to learn quickly and adjust their project, even in full action.
Every year, they are invited to attend the United Nations meeting of the Youth Prevention Influencers in Vienna, where the young people brainstorm among themselves, learn from each other, evaluate and adjust in order to continue working on new ideas.
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