Drugs & Alcohol
Drugs Prevention Advisory Service papers
Amongst material published by the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service (DPAS) in 2001 are three papers to aid drug prevention work and add to the understanding of what works in community involvement and school-based drug prevention projects.
Making It Work: How to develop media resources for drugs prevention
This guide is aimed at all those concerned with drug prevention who will need to communicate a message using media resources and who would like to know more about the formal planning, implementation and evaluation of effective media-based interventions.
In the context of this guide “media-based resources” concentrates on the development of local interventions in which media resources such as videos and leaflets have been the main means of delivering a message. The interventions may also be integrated with other components such as community initiatives.
The guide reports on the findings from nine projects which were set up by the Drugs Prevention Initiative (now DPAS) and summarises what works in drugs prevention. It is primarily designed as a training tool.
Download the full guide Making
It Work: How to develop media resources for drugs prevention 
PDF (397 KB).
Practitioners interested in Making It Work might also want to take a look at the DPAS Drugs Communication Pack, which has been developed to help members of Drug Action Teams (DATs) plan and implement communications, especially through the media (newspapers, radio, television, websites etc). Click here to find out more about the Drugs Communication Pack.
Stimulating drugs prevention in local communities - Briefing Paper 9
This report examines models of community involvement operating within housing estates in England.
Between 1996 and 1998 project monitoring took place in six drug prevention team areas covering London, the South East, Midlands and the North of England. The report focuses on five sites from those areas where, following community consultation, a number of projects were set up aiming to integrate drugs prevention within the agenda of other local initiatives.
Activities undertaken included youth projects, community skills workshops, schools’ work, training parents, supporting and developing tenant associations and peer group work.
The study identified a number of good practice points.
A need to ensure that the type of intervention offered is appropriate and acceptable to local people, who believe that they have a contribution to make.
Working at a local level requires sensitivity to the divisions that may exist within the community. It may be necessary to rebuild relationships between different groups to create the conditions for developing a holistic approach to tackling the estate’s problems as a whole.
A core group of volunteers, supported by a skilled community development worker, is invaluable in developing work and sustaining activity.
Download Briefing Paper 9 Stimulating
drugs prevention in local communities
PDF (440 KB).
An evaluation of four projects supporting the development of school drug policies - Briefing Paper 11
The Home Office Drugs Prevention Initiative (now DPAS) funded four projects that aimed to help schools develop drugs policies and deliver drugs education. The projects ran from 1995-1997.
Since then a number of pieces of guidance have been issued to schools on drug policies and education. While schools now have a clear direction on the content and implementation of drug policies, less is known about the practicalities of incorporating such guidance into their organisation, ethos and curriculum.
This paper provides insights into the processes, pitfalls and benefits of implementing drugs policies in schools by charting the progress of the four projects. The authors conclude that, until classroom drug education and policies are seen as core activities, on a par with delivering the national curriculum and academic targets, they will struggle to find space in busy school agenda.
The four case studies provide an important steer for those working in and with schools to develop drug policies and education.
Download Briefing Paper 11 An
evaluation of four projects supporting the development of school drug
policies
PDF (423 KB)
Closely related to this evaluation is the DPAS Briefing Paper 12: Drugs Prevention Through Youth Work. Click here for more details.
Last update: 25 May 2005