Alcohol Awareness Project
Background
The Dublin Lions decided to undertake a Peer Education “Alcohol Awareness Project” to mark the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Dublin Lions Club. In the first year of the programme 6 schools and 10 teachers were directly involved. A total of 60 Peer Educators and 400 First year pupils benefited from this unique approach to education about alcohol and its impact on the individual and society
The pilot project has proved exceptionally successful with all the schools wishing to remain involved in the project. This conclusion is based on the feedback we received in the schools from teachers and pupils and also in the formal evaluation we carried out.
We are now in the third year of the programme and have seen the programme extended to other Lions Clubs both in Dublin and outside Dublin and currently are working with 20 schools.
What is the Alcohol Awareness Programme?
The Alcohol Awareness Programme is a school based initiative, which is focused of training Transition Year students to act as Peer Educators for 1st Year students. This Peer Teaching takes place in a structured environment with specially trained teachers taking the group of 15/16 year olds through a programme designed to equip them to work with groups of 12/13-year-old children. The Peer Leaders are typically selected from Transition Year, though in schools where Transition year was not offered, 5th Year students participated.
The Peer Leaders will then work as a team with a class of 12/13 year olds, using the supplied materials and other material developed by the Peer Educators to address the issue of Alcohol Abuse.
The Peer Education approach to Alcohol Awareness was developed and piloted by TACADE, which is a non-profit body that specialises in developing training materials in areas such as life skills, drug awareness, alcohol and more recently gambling. TACADE, as a recognised Lions Clubs Charity, has and continues to work with Lions on a number of innovative projects.
For many Irish Lions Clubs the first contact with TACADE was through the Drug Awareness Programme.
Formal Evaluation of the Alcohol Awareness Programme
We have evaluated the programme with schools. Peer educators and 1st Year pupils. The results are consistently excellent. The strongest endorsement of the Programme has been the fact that all the schools involved in the early years remain committed to the programme. The trend is increasingly been for the Programme to be timetabled for Transition Year students.
The following are some quotes regarding the programme by teachers, peer educators and first year pupils.
How do you think the project has been an effective method to educate about alcohol?
“The idea of learning from peers was the main benefit. It is very effective for students to be taught by their peers. The peer educators also learned a lot from the training and teaching.”
“Very effective and created a good relationship with the 5th and 1st years.”
What were some of the key learning outcomes of the project for you and the students involved?
‘Students learned to respect alcohol; the consequences of lack of respect towards alcohol and that they have choices around alcohol.’
‘Many teachers also learned that peer education is very effective’.
Can you provide some quotes/feedback from the peer educators?
“I loved it. I think I may become a teacher if this is what its like!”
“I learned a lot during my training and enjoyed working with the 1st years. They would now think twice about drinking.”
“I loved being involved in it. It is great to give something back to the school and was very rewarding to see how much the 1st years got out of it. There was great motivation and spirit in the group.”
Can you provide some quotes/feedback from the first year students?
“I have learned that it’s not cool to drink and it’s dangerous.”
“It means way more when older students tell us. They know what its like. I think we should have more classes like this, it’s easier to learn stuff.”
Students felt that all 1st year classes should be given this module.
Would you recommend this to other schools?
All schools would recommend the programme.
“This is an experience that I would strongly recommend to other schools, immensely enjoyable and thoroughly rewarding.”
The Benefits of the Programme
We see 3 major benefits attaching to the programme:
Alcohol is a major issue in society. Through this initiative Lions will not change society but will put the spotlight on alcohol for young people and ensure that they are informed in their decisions
Peer Education helps build a spirit of leadership and social responsibility among the Peer Educators. These are qualities that Lions wish to develop and support in young people.
This initiative has the potential to become a Lions of Ireland project with the Lions working in a practical and effective way to help change how we as a society use alcohol.
Implementing the Programme
The first step for a Lions Club in deciding to implement this programme is to approach local schools to explain the concept of the programme and the experience of the schools which have implemented the programme to date. A major challenge in schools is the issue of finding gaps in the timetable for new initiatives. One solution is to focus on Transition Year when there is greater flexibility in the timetable.
While the support of the Principal is essential, it is also necessary to have a teacher who is willing to act as champion for the programme.
The formal Programme has 4 key steps:
1/ Training the Teachers- This consists of a 1-day workshop to familiarise teachers with the material, followed by 2 evening workshops. The training is delivered by Tacade and the materials have been developed by Tacade.
2/ Training the Peer Educators - Transition Year pupils are invited to become Peer Leaders and are trained by the teachers over 8/10 sessions. Some of these are formal classes using the material and some are classes devoted to the students sourcing their own information.
3/ Training younger pupils about Alcohol- The Peer Leaders train 1st year using the materials they have prepared. A teacher will always be present.
4/ Celebration-The final part is recognition of the Peer Educators.
The Lions Club have an important role in promoting the programme to schools, in recognising the achievement of the Peer Educators and arranging the Celebration. Lions also have a role through out the Programme by acting as an external promoter of the Programme, which is essential to ensure that the originality of the initiative does not get lost and become another part of the general curriculum
Alcohol Awareness- a 105 I Initiative
At the invitation of PDG Gerald Langford a presentation on the programme was made at the District Convention in Mullingar, March 2007 and Frank O’Donoghue was invited on to District Cabinet by DG Pat Connolly to promote the programme with Lions Clubs through out the country.
Momentum is building with interest expressed by clubs through out the country and the programme is firmly established as a Zone Project in Dublin with some 20 schools involved and Thurles Lions also implementing the programme in 4 schools.
The target for 2008/9 is to involve 20 Lions Clubs nationally and 60 schools involving some 1,000 Peer Educators.
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