Innovative Service to inform young people about alcohol

The Peer Education “Alcohol Awareness Programme”, now in its 5^th year, was initiated by Dublin Lions club to celebrate its 50^th Anniversary. The purpose of the programme is to ensure that our children are informed about alcohol. Its intention is to change behaviour by creating awareness and providing information.

The programme is school based. The approach is innovative as it adopts a peer education approach to communicating information. The Peer Educators are typically 16 years old and the target audience of the Peer Education are 13 years of age on average. The role of the teacher is to train and support the Peer Educators.

The programme is targeted at two age groups:

·        The Peer Educators are typically in Transition Year[Year 4].  This is a year with some flexibility in the curriculum and fits between the Junior Certificate in Year 3 and Senior Certificate: Year 6

[The Junior Certificate and Senior Certificate broadly match ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels] 

·        The target audience of 13 year olds are in Year 1 of Secondary School

Good progress has been made in extending the programme in the Dublin Region and also to other clubs in District 105I. Interest in the programme has also been expressed at Multiple District following a presentation to the Youth Symposium in Birmingham in 2009.

A Lions Service:

The purpose of this note is to provide information to all the Clubs in District 105I in relation to the Programme and to encourage individual Clubs or Zones to consider undertaking this programme in their area.

There are three major benefits based on the feedback from teachers and pupils:

• Alcohol is a major issue in society and through this initiative Lions put the spotlight on alcohol and ensure that young people are informed regarding the risks of alcohol.
• Lions Clubs are working in a practical and effective way to help change how our society approached its use of alcohol.
•  Peer Education builds a spirit of leadership and social responsibility. These are qualities that Lions wish to support.

Lions have an on-going role in the programme. They target the school and teachers, organise the teacher training, celebrate the achievement each year and support the continuation of the programme. Lions are actively engaging throughout the programme. 

For further information on this project please contact: Frank O’Donoghue 087 231 2637