School Drug Education and Road Aware

Resilience and Drug Education

Drug Education Forum Funding

The Drug Education Forum funding has been provided by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to fund schools to develop student-focused drug education forums over the period 2005-2008. These forums may take many forms within the school community.

The Department of Education and Training (DET), Catholic Education Office (CEO) and Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia (AISWA) request that all WA schools take part in conducting a drug education forum before July 2008.

School Drug Education and Road Aware (SDERA), on behalf of the Department of Education and Training, Catholic Education Office and Association of Independent Schools of WA, will be responsible for the support and implementation of this initiative in WA.

Purpose

The aim of forums is to actively involve students (as participants, facilitators and organisers) in drug education activities that:

raise drug awareness in school communities
build resilience in young people
provide information on the impacts and effects of drugs
identify risk and protective factors
identify current drug related issues facing young people
educate participants in accessing help and creating safe environments.

The forums are an opportunity to involve parents and the community in School Drug Education programs, thus creating a partnership approach towards creating safer and healthier environments.

Effective school drug education relies on a comprehensive whole-school approach rather than one-off initiatives. Schools are encouraged to view these forums as a kick-start to drug education or as a way of complementing existing school programs.

Application form and further information

Further information on Drug Education Forum funding, including an application form, can be downloaded below.

Application pack:

Drug Education Forum Funding Guidelines [pdf 78kb]
Drug Education Forum Application Form [pdf 51kb]
Drug Education Forum Evaluation Form[pdf 79kb]

Supporting Information:

Drug Education Forum Newsletter May 08 [pdf 832kb]
Drug Education Forum Newsletter September 07 [pdf 801kb]
Drug Education Forum Newsletter July 06 [pdf 569kb]
Drug Education Forum Newsletter February 07 [pdf 615kb]
Organising a Drug Education Forum [pdf 31kb]

LEAD resource

Leading Education About Drugs (LEAD) is an Australian Government resource that supports teachers in utilising the active participation of students in health promotion activities which focus on preventing or minimising drug related harm. LEAD provides guidance to schools to assist them in preparing students for peer leadership roles to conduct drug education forums.

LEAD was sent to every school in WA in Week 1 Term 3, 2006 (one copy for schools with fewer than 200 students, 2 copies for schools with more than 200 students).

LEAD

Clustering

Schools are encouraged to conduct a Drug Education Forum with other schools and combine funding to organise and conduct a joint forum. For example, a high school may cluster with a number of feeder primary schools and the focus of the forum may be on transition issues for students moving from primary to high school. Government, Catholic and Independent schools may also work collaboratively on a cross-sectoral project.

An organising committee is the most effective way to coordinate the production of a forum. The group may include teachers, students and parents from each school within the cluster. Schools may also invite community stakeholders from the drug and alcohol field to be involved in the organisation and facilitation of the forum.

In the event of clustering

Please submit one application form on behalf of all schools in the cluster. Provide the name of a nominated lead school for communication purposes and the contact details of other participating schools.
In the application, please include one overall budget for the forum.
Each school will be allocated their share of the total grant to administer. Therefore, please ensure details of financial institutions are listed for each AISWA and CEO school involved.

Acknowledgement and logo

Schools must acknowledge funding from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by including the Australian Government Coat of Arms in all promotional material. This logo can be downloaded by right clicking on the logo below and choosing 'Save Target As'.

Contact details

To register for professional development please click here.

For more information contact Shani Prendergast on 9264 5820 or shani.prendergast@det.wa.edu.au

We look forward to continuing working with schools to build partnerships between teachers, families and the wider community to protect our young people and create healthy, safer communities.

Keeping In Touch

Working with Alcohol and Other Drug Use

Keeping In Touch is an early intervention program offered by SDERA to all school based staff. It serves to increase knowledge and understanding around drug use issues and to introduce practical strategies and support pathways to aid in the management of drug use issues in schools. This program has been developed around the resource entitled Keeping In Touch (The KIT) Working with Alcohol and Other Drug Use: A Resource for Primary and Secondary Schools. This is NOT a curriculum resource and has been developed for use by school staff to work within their role to provide appropriate support to students.

The resource was published in 2006 by the Australian Government (Department of Education, Science and Training). Its content has been based on the Western Australian resource In Touch - Managing drug use issues in schools (2000) which was a collaborative project involving the School Drug Education Project, Next Step Specialist Drug and Alcohol Services, the WA Drug Abuse Strategy Office (WADASO), Community Drug Service Teams and school staff. (Next Step Specialist Drug and Alcohol Service and WADASO have since merged along with other State government agencies to form the WA Drug and Alcohol Office (DAO)).
Primary and Secondary Keeping In Touch professional development workshops are available for all school-based staff. Back to top