SHA’ABAN 3, 1429 A.H.
TUESDAY AUGUST 5 2008
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Peer to peer strategies and drug abuse prevention
By CHARLES EJIOFOR drejiofor@yahoo.com
PEERS are described as a group of people who share similar characteristics such as age, sex, sexuality, social class and cultural identities, etc.
Youth are easily influenced by the activities of their mates, whether positive or negative. In our world today, negative acts are learnt faster and manifested in an individual, which is contrast with positive attitudes. Therefore, in our gradual degeneration of the world, we need to raise up peer educators that would educate the youth on drug abuse and its consequences, as well as substance.
One should attach importance to the type of peer educators selected to educate peer groups on drug abuse. A useful methods of identifying salient peer educators for any drug abuse prevention programme is to identify what connects them to the target group with the drug problem. The factors could vary from sex, age to social status. Once these factors are determined, one will be able to recruit and train effective people for any peer programme. Peer to peer work basically involves people of the same social status educating people similar to them.
Peer to peer strategies are effective methods used in working with young people on a number of social issues such as drug prevention crime, violence. Peer to peer drug prevention education has shown to be effective in three important ways:
*An effective way of sharing knowledge: Young people tend to listen more to people in their age bracket. It is a basic characteristic for human beings, being gregarious in nature. Peer educators are able to reach youths that seem unreachable, as well as convert information that seems senseless to other age groups into useful knowledge which assist them in educating youths on drug abuse prevention. Youths are also inclined to discussing with their peers on their life experiences, as this could also be a contributing factor to peer education.
*Efficient because it is based on true-life experiences. Youths are able to share their experiences with someone that they can easily relate with, thereby forming a strong bond between them and the peer educators. People are more likely to listen and act on information if presented to them by someone they can identify and model their behaviour from.
*Positive way of exchanging ideas: Peer educators are able to communicate with the youths effectively as the relationship could be more informal than formal, thereby making the youths open up more to educators they feel more relaxed with and hence making solutions to drug abuse easier.
Characteristics of a good (an effective) peer to peer programme
They are various characteristics one has to take into consideration in order to have a good peer to peer programme in drug abuse prevention.
1. The programme is culturally appropriate: Peer educators have to consider the cultural norms of a community when addressing the issue of drugs or alcohol. For instance, youths in Jamaica-Rastafarian youths to be precise – take marijuana as part of their religious expression, while for Islam as a religion, drugs as well as alcohol are outrightly condemned. But in a society where there are mixed cultures there is much difficulty identifying the cultural attitudes of the youths in that community, hence more in-depth research is needed.
2. Developmentally appropriate programme: The approach a peer educator would use to address youths in secondary school level would be different from what he would use to address youths in the primary school. This is because the latter’s stage of development is not yet complex and so, the primary school youths are not fully conscious of their environs, compared with the former.
3. Accuracy in information required: It is advisable to produce a factual and balanced view of a drug and its consequences so that the young people would respect the programme and decide whether to use it or not. Adding false facts to a drug can exaggerate, thereby weakening the whole essence of the programme, making it have no effect on the targeted youth.
4. Recruiting professional and dedicated peer educators: Most times the issue is not always about the success of the programme but that those going to deliver the programme are neglected. The peer educators should be taken through a series of activities such as training, supervision, debriefing and regular planning so as to build up their professional capacities, thus ensuring a successful programme.
5. Peer-led peer educators: Young people should be involved in designing the programme, have leadership roles in running it, be involved in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the programme and ever redesigning it as needed.
6. Peer to peer educational programme should be fun and creative, as interactive programmes that use a lot of methods such as theatre, sport, internet, dance/drama are effective ways of involving and attracting youths in the programme.
7. Youth friendly and supervised environment: A youth friendly environment enables young people feel a greater sense of ownership in the programme, therefore improving their participation in the programme. Also, a supervised environment is imperative, showing that the youth agency running the peer to peer programme is concerned about the physical and emotional safety of the participants.
Selecting peer educators
An individual to be selected as a peer educator should have some characteristics, which would bring about a good peer to peer programme. A peer worker should
·Be a peer of the young people in the target group.
·Be willing to learn and be open to new ideas and ways of doing things.
·Be a good listener.
·Having a good factual knowledge about drugs.
·Be a good communicator and capable of expressing themselves in a clear and non-confrontational manner.
Another important characteristic for a peer educator to have is the ability to empathise with their fellow peers. In a peer to peer programme, a peer to peer programme educator would be seen as a role model and so the ability to understand how another young person would be feeling and the ability to communicate positive drug prevention messages to that youth can be a significant opportunity to bring about changes in that individual’s life.
Peer workers should also receive regular training and supervision. Training should be a core part of a culture of continuous improvement of many organisations that work closely with young people. Topics to be covered in peer educator training should involves skills training in communication, understanding and respecting boundaries between professional practice and private life, client confidentiality and other issues specific to the peer group.
Making sure that one has the capacity to deliver the peer to peer programmes
·Psychological support for workers i.e. Regular supervision offered. Peer workers need support can be offered through regular supervision, training, timeout and rewards for good works.
·Medical support: A good youth agency should not only focus on the drug prevention issues in target youth, but also be involved in the health of the youths, so that there would be no health reasons why the youths in their own environment would be able to make them learn more and develop strategies that can address a particular youth’s situation.
·Family support; Support gotten from family members directly or indirectly would go a long way in assisting peer education programmes, such as transporting the youth to and fro the venue of the programme, helping out with materials for games or drama etc. The support of a family demonstrates to the young person that they are valued and encouraged to be a part of a peer to peer programme.
Funding of a peer to peer programme
Youth agencies that seek funding from bodies should be clear about programme outcomes and the objectives that will deliver those outcomes. Providing funding bodies with the evidence that the programme approach being funded is good produce and will meet the funding bodies criteria.
When applying for funds, one should be aware of the following issues:
Different sources of funds: One should know about the different sources of funds from within the government and the private sector. Youth issues tend to be quite prominent in the media, so a well-written grant proposal might be able to attract funds from a variety of sources.
Suitability of various sources: Different funding bodies have different conditions. Some funding bodies are substance specific, e.g. in to inhalants; and so bringing in other substances such as alcohol and other drugs might not get funding and it would address many issues.
Fundraising techniques
Some youth agencies can decide to raise funds without going through the government or private sector. A method is through a fund raising campaign, though it involves a lot of time and effort. Also, the organisation can contact a local college or university activity as a practical assignment, but only motivated individuals would achieve desired results.
Thirdly, one can employ the service of a professional fundraiser, as their people get paid a percentage of the funds raised for the organisation.
Ejiofor, is the lead coordinator, Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA
