Published in Summer 2008 issue of Act Now, the Association of Christian Teachers magazine

The British Medical Association has recently published a report describing alcohol use as a UK-wide epidemic. The Government has issued a new 10-year drug strategy and the Department for Children, Schools and Families has been reviewing the effectiveness of drug education. Drugs, and especially alcohol, are high on the public agenda and constantly in the news.

Hope UK is a Christian drug education charity which enables young people to make drug-free choices. The principal means of achieving this is to train Voluntary Drug Educators to provide drug awareness and training sessions throughout the UK. There are over 200 of them, all of whom are Christians who complete Hope UK’s 120-hour Open College Network accredited training course. Becoming a Drug Educator is not a soft option – it takes a high level of commitment, including a decision to adopt a lifestyle free from the social use of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.

Hope UK has been around since 1847 when it started life as the Band of Hope. One of the founders, Ann Jane Carlile, was reputed to have said that the children she met during a mission in Leeds were “a happy band” and represented the “hope for the future”. Perhaps she had put her finger on something that all of us are working towards today – to ensure that children enjoy life, living it to the full and becoming our ‘hope for the future’.

Nineteenth Century drug education consisted of Magic Lantern slideshows and, in the latter part of the Century, the Band of Hope employed 50 schools lecturers to travel the country.

The basis of their work applies just as much to drug education today. As Christians, they wanted to see children and young people living healthy lives, looking after themselves as part of God’s creation and being fit for God’s service. They wanted to see them positively influence others for good, taking action to avoid causing other people to stumble (Romans 14:21).

A visitor from the 19th Century would see disturbing parallels with the social situation today. Binge drinking is a serious problem and children and young people are increasingly being affected by alcohol use. Educators of the past might be bemused by the range of substances available today and the development of the drink trade but, in essence, there would still be the same paradox that substances taken for pleasure often result in pain.

Responding to the Need

Hope UK includes alcohol and tobacco use within its drug education. Indeed, drugs may be defined by one word but different substances provide different effects; some are stimulants, some depressants, some cause hallucinations and some, of course, are medicines. And people use them for many different reasons: as an escape from unhappiness; as a part of risk-taking behaviour, boredom and to ‘fit in’ with their social set.

There is a great deal of good advice available about how to carry out drug education which basically follows a lifeskills approach. It follows the same ‘rules’ as other approaches to educational topics. Quite simply, good drug education uses what we already know about good parenting, good youth work or good teaching. Yet the response to this good advice has been patchy at best and not only in schools. People everywhere are driven by crisis and it is sometimes difficult to give priority to preventing a problem which may not yet exist. 

Why does drug education get a bad press?

First, it’s very difficult to prove that drug education prevents drug-related harm. How can you measure the reasons why an individual decides not to use drugs? The research that has been undertaken has often been limited to one intervention for a short period of time and therefore cannot take into account the myriad of influences that play upon us all. The  Blueprint project, funded by central Government, was an attempt to offer a more intensive and long-term approach to drug education in schools (and with parents). And it will be interesting to see what the research has turned up when it reports later this year.

There is a lack of understanding that drug education, when done well, is a process that applies throughout a young person’s life. At Hope UK, we still receive invitations to carry out just one drug session, seemingly set in isolation. A decade or so ago this was common practice, and even now not everyone accepts that a holistic, lifeskills approach that is cross-curricular and applied consistently throughout a school career is most effective.

There has also been a lack of clear objectives with one pragmatic approach suggesting that, as many people are going to use drugs, we might as well show them how to use them safely. Hope UK doesn’t buy into this approach as is seen by our vision which is to enable young people to make drug-free choices. Of course, there will always be people who use substances for pleasure and find that this can turn to pain, either for themselves or those around them. Yet, at heart, prevention is a positive concept which seeks to enable people to live their lives to the full.

Part of the debate has revolved around civil liberty (the freedom to do what you want as long as you don’t hurt anybody) versus social responsibility (accepting that anything you do affects people, even if only by a process of peer influence or role modelling – and society has to pick up the pieces).

Finally, it might be that drug education has sometimes had a bad press because of the vested interests involved. For a start, our own habits and prejudices influence how we feel about something. If we do drink socially, then that may give us a different viewpoint, even though many more people die and are hurt by alcohol use than all the illegal drugs added together. Within church circles, the issue of alcohol can be a real ‘party pooper’ in the sense that conversation about it builds barriers rather than bridges. We need to understand what is going on in our society so that we can work together, whatever our personal attitude, to help those who are hurting.

School and community working together

Alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs are one area where it makes perfect sense for a school to work with the community. Working with local community groups could offer an innovative way forward. For example, a church might run a parental drug awareness session in school premises or vice versa. Hope UK’s Drug Educators are trained to do this and, in conjunction with Care for the Family’s ‘Drug Proof Your Kids’ programme, offer a range of drug awareness options to suit most situations. Visit www.hopeuk.org or www.dpyk.org.uk to find out more.

If you are in a school where the public come in on a frequent basis – either for school functions or a leisure centre – why not make sure that there are plenty of good alcohol-free drinks available? Focusing on the positive, and offering alternatives, is important.

 Working with Hope UK

It’s fascinating to be involved at the universal end of drug education where, as our strap-line says, Hope UK is enabling young people to make drug-free choices. Even with this description, people imagine that, if you are working with alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs, then you must be dealing with problems. Focusing on living life to the full (as God intended – John 10:10) offers a different perspective. Helping young people to realise how special they are is a gift that they can take with them throughout their lives.

Hope UK’s main focus is on working with churches and other voluntary groups, partly because its Voluntary Educators are available mainly during the evening and at weekends. They come from all walks of life and many of them use their training within their ‘day jobs’. Perhaps not surprisingly, teachers are an under-represented group at the moment and so applications to join would be very welcome. The training is provided free of charge!

At the moment, Hope UK is reaching 50,000 children and young people each year. Our aim is reach 500,000 a year by the end of 2011 which means that we need to have 800 active Drug Educators throughout the United Kingdom. We want to serve the entire community, including formal and informal education.

For ideas and information relating to drug education, see the Hope UK website.

Drug information can also be obtained from Hope UK, 25(f) Copperfield Street, London SE1 0EN; Tel: 020 7928 0848; E-mail: enquiries@hopeuk.org

George Ruston, Voluntary Drug Educator and former Director

Hope UK

Married with three children, George Ruston attends a Baptist Church in South East London where he is involved with youth work. He was Director of Hope UK, a Christian alcohol and drugs prevention/education NGO for twenty-four years. Before this, he spent twelve years as an administrator in the UK National Health Service.

He has a Master’s degree in Voluntary Sector Organisation from the London School of Economics and plays football for his church team.