Reduction of Drug Use through Youth Involvement - Research Paper Example

Reduction of Drug Use through Youth Involvement To: From: Copy to: Dr Carmen Joham Date: 26th June 2013. Reduction of Drug Use through Youth Involvement Background Around the world, many communities face the problem of drug and substance abuse. Many children start using drugs at a tender age making them addicted at a very early age. As the world changes, many of our young people are getting more and more unsupervised free time. Most of them engage in drug and substance use during these free times as their minds are idle. At this age, they also risk being easily affected by peer pressure. The problem of drug abuse has had an extensive share of study among scholars. Wisconsin Epidemiological Profile on Alcohol and Other Drug Use indicated that in 2012, statistics on drug abuse were showing a worrying trend which needs to be checked, failure to which our future generation will lack energetic people to take our economy forward (Linda n.d., p. 7). According to statistics in the U.S., in 2008 only, 60.6% of people with substance dependence and abuse were youth aged between 12 to 17 years compared to 37% of young adults aged between the age of 18-25 years and 24.3% for those above the age of 26 years (Elizabeth, Lillian & Alan 2004, p 3). Statistics have also shown that marijuana, pain reliever, cocaine, Tranquilizers, hallucinogens are the commonly abused drugs with marijuana taking the top list with over 4,000 reported cases of teens dependent on it (James 2008). Alcohol has been the most widely abused substance around the world. According to Toronto Public Health Department and Lyn, Simone, Valerie, & Marina (2006), alcohol followed by marijuana tops the list of commonly abused substances with older youths engaging in a more frequent abuse leading to dangerous consequences. The trend is worrying and the year 2009 to the current situations have recorded increase in drug use among teenagers. The consequences of this development are equally worrying. Many teenagers who have been using drugs and other substances have been found to engage in criminal activities and most of them end up in prison (Severin, Stewart & Bai 2008). In addition, most of them end up dropping out of school. This has led to increase in crime rate among the youths. Unless this situation is checked, many people will continue engaging in drugs and substance abuse. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse (2011), Wesley (n.d.), and the Government of USA (2012), the statistics are showing that the government is using quite a good amount of money to try to contain the problem of drug abuse. The cost has been estimated to be 560 billion dollars per year. The impact of the substance abuse have exposed a lot of people to many health complications among them heart conditions, teenage pregnancy, cancers, domestic violence, STIs among others (Stephen 2012). Stephen observed that it is worrying to note that a quarter of all HIV cases in Nigeria are as a result to injection drug. Other health conditions are even worse and have a huge impact to the economy, society and individual at large. Everyone have a role to play in curbing the youth substance abuse if we want our young generation to have a bright future. It is not the government fight to loose only but also the community where this young people leave, the society, and more importantly, we are risking the future of our country. The main aim of this project will be to educate youth on the consequences of drug abuse, how to fight the problem at community level and coming up with groups that will help young people who have been in this problem and come out of it and successfully help others to do so. This is because researches have shown that young people tend to listen more to their peers than older generations. Due to this, we aim at creating an avenue for young people to motivate, encourage, and mentor their fellow age mates to stop drug and substance use for the better of their future, their community and country at large. This will help the young people, community, society and the country at large in trying to control drug menace. Aim and Purpose Young people who are energetic, smart and ambitious hold the key to the success and development of the economy of this country. Tina (n.d.) argues that we all have a role to play to make sure that they are guided, mentored, and protected from any harm that are be brought by use, misuse or failure to use any substance. There is need to equip them with better understanding of the problems affecting them, how to protect themselves from falling into the traps, and most importantly, to keep away from the activities that may threaten their wellbeing and future of the country. The aim of the project is to reduce drug and substance abuse among young people. The aim of reduction of drug use and dependency will in turn leads to reduction of crime rates in our target area. This is because statistic has shown that many crimes that are happening in our communities are drug related, done by people who use drugs, or are drug transaction gone wrong. We have lost a lot of young people through drugs and substance use. We have a role to play to make sure that our young people get protected and guided well. Our main purpose is to make sure that drug and substance use among young people have dropped dramatically. We are working very hard to equip young people with life skills, abilities and avenues where they can be able to resist use of drugs, have a chance to share their stories and are guided by professionals in the fight for their future. As an organization, we are prepared to work with any other institutions, organizations, community groups and government agencies to curb the menace. This is because drug and substance use are deep rooted and there is need for every able entity to join hands and come up with better strategies to help our young people to turn away from the drugs. The project will target youth and teenage from the age of 14 to 20. This is because the age group is so vulnerable to peer pressure and can easily be forced to engage in drug and substance use. We are going to target both the school going and also those out of school. We are going to work hand in hand with schools, community groups and established youth groups so that we bring in the community participation to the fight against drug and substance menace. The project will also involve setting up centers where young people can seek help that may help them from keeping away from drugs. We are also going to include rehabilitation centers and other established centers in the community that are ready to work with use in the fight against drug and substance use. Although we are targeting young people at the age of 14 to 20, we are not going to cover the overall country with our project. We are going to select certain areas that are highly affected by the problem, set centers there, work with the community members and establish an avenue for the young people to engage themselves in the fight for their future. This will act as the pilot project with the aim of expansion to other areas of interest. Our overall aim of a drug free society will not be achieved if we do not involve policy makers. We are therefore going to work hand in hand with government agencies, local governments and non-governmental organizations. We are going to incorporate their views, efforts and strategies which are working in our strategies so that we better our chances of success. Objectives 1. To set up a youth center where youths can get help in drug related matters by the next six months in the community where drug use and abuse is rampant; 2. To reduce the cases of drug use and abuse by half in the next 1 year in the area of our operation; 3. To empower and sensitize at least 4000 youths with knowledge and information about dangers, consequences and future implications of drug and substance use and abuse. Outcome Due to the above facts about the extent of drug use and abuse and their implications on our youth and the future of our generation, the organization will benefit not only the youths but also the government and the future of our country by undertaking this project. We will be able to help young people who lack places to go to seek information and help about drugs by setting up centers and equipping them with expertise who will be able to work with young people and help them to become better persons in future. To make sure that these objectives have been achieved, we will be recording all the activities and holding it as a project on its own with its own project team. We will not at first construct our center but we will lease a building whereby we will set our operations. To empower and sensitize youths on drug and substance use and abuse, we are going to design brochures, set up website, form groups and use any other necessary strategies that will make our work easier and penetrate to as many young people as possible. To show that these outcomes will have been achieved, we are going to have records of all the brochures designed, the number of people who have accessed them, and the impact they have. We are also going to keep records of how many people have accessed and visited our websites, their age and gender, the topics of their interest, and their feedback on the materials they have received. We are also going to set up groups whereby we will keep records of all their members, their activities, the people they have reached, their budget, success and failures and lessons learnt. After a certain period to be determined by the organization and other stakeholders, we are going to perform a survey, case study and an extensive impact assessment on the project. These will be to assess whether the project have had impacts on the youth and the extent of the impact. It will also help us learn about failures and success and lessons learnt. To monitor the progress of the project we are going to use the following deliverables. Reports on the progress, activities and people involved will be recorded, and filed. All presentations will filed well, and manuals and brochures recorded for referencing. All contracts signed between the organization and the stakeholders will be well recorded and filled. List of all people involved in the project will be recorded and filled for the process of monitoring and evaluation. Approach and Methodology Our main approach and strategies will be to come up with programs that will give youth alternatives to get involved in instead of drug and substance use. This is because research have shown that for us to reduce drug and substance use among teenagers and youths we should come up with programs that occupy the free time youth have rather than advertisement. Our first approach will be to encourage youth to take part in the fight of the problem. Research has indicated that young people listen more to their peers than older generation. By involving youth in the project, we will increase the chances of our projects success. To do this, we are going to come up with a center, equip it with computers and offer free internet. The center will be free to youths whereby they can use their free time there to access internet, read materials and engage each other in constructive ideas. They will be guided by experts. They will be offered all the needed help in the center. In addition, there will be counseling sessions whereby, those who need it will get it for free. It will help them in developing decision making skills among other benefits. The other strategy that we will apply involve making sure that the youth have access to information about drug and substance abuse. We are going to provide materials, brochures and other relevant materials that can improve access to information. We will use the power of internet to increase access. Our website will involve chat rooms, blogs and publications, online help and online groups that are guided by the resources and goals of the organization. Gant Chart Figure 1: Project proposal Gant chart Resources For our project to come to its completion, we are going to require the following resources. Project offices and center. This will host both the offices and the center to train youth about drug and substance abuse. The center is looking forward to lease building which will house the offices and the center. This is because the cost of building a center is higher than that of leasing one. Under this sub-project, we are going to require tables, computers, chairs, stationaries, and other office stationaries and equipment such as cabinet for filling. We are also going to require designers to design brochures, presentations and other materials that we will require in the project. Volunteers: They will be involved in training, mentoring and sensitizing youths on issues relating to drug and substance abuse, life skills and decision-making. This is aimed at empowering them in making decision and encouraging them to go away from temptation of drug use. Risks The risks that we face in this project involve the perception of young people on the drugs. Many young people involve themselves in drug use due to influence from their friends, role models and people they look up to. With the current development in technology and access to internet, children have access to a wide range of information including advertisement, songs and videos. In this videos musicians portray the use of some drugs as cool. This may pose as a risk to our project as many young people may go back to drugs even after undergoing some processes of change. Another risk involves complexity of the project. Our sub-projects will run concurrently. This may pose a coordination problem. To counter this, we are going to set up a sub-projects coordination team which will be responsible to oversee the management and implementation of all the sub-projects. Recommendation/Conclusion Drug and substance abuse have become a focus as one of the major problems affecting young people around the world. In the U.S., the problem is widespread making the government to spend millions in programs to check the problem. The project will aim at bringing together young people and empowering them to solve and help others in solving the problems. By equipping them with information, skills and ability to stay away from drugs and substance, they will be in a position to get involved in more constructive activities. The centers that we aim to set will act as resource centers for young people as a place to run to when they need guidance and direction as they fight this problem. The center will also have a computer center where young people can be taught different courses online including life skills and decision making. There will also be mentorship program. The project will benefit not only the young people but community and the government at large. As the research and study have shown, many crimes happenings in our communities are highly connected to drug and substance use. By reducing the menace, the community will experience fewer crimes. References Elizabeth, H. H., Lillian, H. C. & Alan, M 2004, Preventing substance abuse in American Indian and Alaska native youth: Promising strategies for healthier communities, Psychological Bulletin 2004, 130(2), 304–323. Government of USA 2011, The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug use on American Society. Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center. Government of USA 2012, Health, USA, 2012 with special features on emergency care, Department of Health and Human Services. James, C. H 2008, Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Linda, D n.d., Implementing a Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention Strategy, Tangle Wood Research. Lyn, B., Simone, C., Valerie, O. & Marina, B 2006, The Impact of Alcohol & other Drugs in the Workplace, Final Project Report. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Summary of National Findings, NSDUH Series H-44, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 12-4713, Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Severin, V. G., Stewart A. L. & Bai, L 2008, “Risks and controls in the implementation of ERP systems,” The International Journal of Digital Accounting Research, 1(1), pp. 47-68. Stephen, N. E 2012, “Drug abuse in Nigerian schools: A study of selected secondary institutions in Bayelsa State, South-South, Nigeria,” International Journal of Scientific Research in Education, 5(3), 260-268. Tina, L. D n.d., Drugs and Crime Facts, U.S. Department of Justice. USA 2010, Alcohol and other Drug Use: A Toronto Research Summary, Issue no 1. Lindsay, B 2012, Wisconsin Epidemiological Profile on Alcohol and Other Drug Use. Wesley, P n.d., College Student Misperceptions of alcohol and other Drug Norms among Peers: Exploring Causes, Consequences, and implications for Prevention Programs, Hobart and William Smith Colleges Read More