Roksana Karczewska, Poland
The event promoting and summarising the project Let’s talk about drugs – New Methods on communication with youth- LET ME, took place in Warsaw on 21 May, 2022. It was held at the Targowa Creativity Centre – a modern training and exhibition facility in Warsaw. About 30 people aged 24-35 attended the event. The invitation was directed to people interested in the area of social, education and mental health care. People who were invited to the event were psychiatry students associated with the Student Scientific Club of Psychiatry, sociology students wishing to develop educational initiatives in their department, or even paramedics involved in volunteer outreach activities.
The event started with a speech by the head of Youth Organisations for Drug Action, who introduced the participants to the topic of the project and talked about its activities. The participants learned in detail about the content of the trainings carried out during the project, about the content of the manual developed by the people involved in the project, and also about the exact results of the research conducted by the project implementers.
The project representative from YODA showed the participants all the materials developed during the project – a report from the research, presentations with the results, a manual for working with young people and a film about the activity of the Social Education Foundation – about the currently implemented youth education projects.
The participants also learned about the project website, so that they can draw on the developed materials in the future and promote them further. The results of the research carried out within the framework of the project were not surprising for young people – they are perfectly aware of the very poor condition of preventive measures implemented in Poland. They agree with the postulates stemming from the research, such as the lack of adequate drug education at universities.
The handbook also attracted a lot of interest. The participants appreciated the fact that the whole clue of working with young people was described in a short and accessible way, comprehensively touching on different areas of action, presenting both theoretical background and its practical use. According to the participants, its graphic form is also pleasant to look at.
After the presentation, a discussion took place in which aspects of introducing peer education in the academic environment were discussed. The participants mainly discussed the arguments in favour of open and non-stigmatising education. The biggest problem they see is convincing university authorities to give permission for young people to teach young people. The topic of drug education, based on scientific methods, still seems to be controversial. Authorities, at public universities, fear the reaction of the Ministry of Education to educational initiatives that are not in the official curriculum. Nevertheless, universities are open to grassroots activities and participants see hope in the support of student governments.
