Hayley

Newfoundland

Issue: Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Why? Youth are starting to abuse drugs and alcohol at a young age and they aren’t aware of their affects and consequences.

Updated: 2011-10-15

I had a meeting with the school I want to get my action plan on track with, I couldn’t do this over the summer because I didn’t have contact with persons from the school, so now I am currently creating the survey I wanted to create and they said I can hand it out when I am finished.

The barriers I have experienced with my plan are that I didn’t have contact with the people from the school I wanted to get my action plan on track with because it was summer. Therefore I wasn’t able to contact them.

To overcome this barrier I waited it out, meaning I had to wait until the school year started again. It was a while, but now that the school year has started again I am able to get my action plan on track.

The people who have helped me with my action plan are Sgt. Wayne Newell, the officer who went to Saskatchewan with me and Cst Hemmens. Sgt. Newell has helped me make contact with the RNC (Royal Newfoundland Constabulary) and Cst Hemmens has helped me in making contact and getting a meeting at the school. The both of them have also helped me dearly by giving me advice through all of this.

Updated: 2011-06-29

I haven’t made much progress since my last report I’ve been waiting for the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer to reply to me about my idea but she hasn’t got back to me yet.

Updated : 2011-05-01

What issue did you choose to address in your Action Plan? I chose to address the issue of Drug and Alcohol abuse.

Why did you choose that issue? I chose this issue because in my community kids start out doing drugs and abusing alcohol at a young age (at the junior high age) and they don’t really know what the affects of the drugs are, so I would like to make all the kids aware of the affects these drugs and alcohol has.

How are you going to address the selected issue? I would like to make sure junior high students have the knowledge they need to know the affects of drugs and substance abuse.

What do you hope to achieve in the next year? I have 4 major components to my action plan that I would like to achieve:

• I would like to put in place a program that would teach kids the affects of drugs and alcohol abuse; I really want them to know why they shouldn’t do these things instead of just telling them not to do them. Thus the program would be put in place a program where it would fit into their health program.
• I would like to bring in a personal experience speaker in to speak to the children and explain what happened to them when they did drugs or abused alcohol and how they recovered. Its much more powerful when the person went through the experience than if a random police officer says it.
• I would like to get a group of students who are going through the program and get their input on it; I want to hear their suggestions.
• Lastly, I would like to give out a survey asking the kids in the program what they know about drugs and alcohol abuse, I would like to do this before and after the program so I can see if they learned anything.

What progress have you made so far? So far I have coordinated with the RNC (the police designated for this area) and passed my ideas on to the officer who said she will pass my ideas on to her supervisors. Also I have chosen the junior high school I would like to put my program in place at  I’m having a meeting with the principal and vice principal of the junior high school.