DISC News Spot - Updated 05/05/08

A team of Teesside substance misuse workers from the northern regional social inclusion charity Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities (DISC) have launched a pioneering new project to find out from 11-15 year olds in Billingham how best to tackle teenage binge drinking.

During May and June staff from Stockton young people’s drugs and alcohol service STASH are going out and about to community centres, schools, parks and street corners in Billingham to find out exactly what young people drink and how they buy it, where and why they drink, who they drink with, how much they are drinking, and what leisure activities they would like to do.

The STASH team are also working with a young people’s focus group to develop an alcohol awareness training toolkit, which will be piloted in a Billingham school in June. The group will also be trained in peer education, which involves talking to other young people about alcohol in order to reduce harm and keep them safe.

All the information gathered will be used to map Billingham’s binge drinking hot spots, and to lay the foundations for future projects to reduce alcohol abuse in partnership with youth and community workers, and health and education professionals across Billingham.

The STASH team also hopes to repeat the project in other parts of the borough of Stockton in order to build up an accurate picture of the issues around alcohol and young people.

STASH project leader Andrea Soumare said: “Some people feel that binge drinking is spiralling out of control and nothing can be done about it. We at DISC think at there are lots of ways of tackling issues around alcohol - but young people must be involved right from the start. So by involving them in the development of the toolkit we will produce a teaching aid which young people will respond to. We’re also finding out from them what’s actually happening on the ground as there is currently very little information out there about young people’s drinking habits.”

The project is funded by North Tees Primary Care Trust and ties in with the government’s new alcohol strategy and its focus on awareness raising and prevention of alcohol abuse amongst teenagers.

For further information ring STASH on 01642 607028

Updated 05/05/08