SDERA celebrates 20 years of supporting WA schools
18 Jun 2018
Since it was first established as the School Drug Education Project (SDEP) in 1997, SDERA has been supporting schools in WA to help keep young people safer.
SDERA offers support for schools and community groups to deliver best practice road safety and alcohol and drugs education to young people up to 18 years of age.
Acting Manager, Anne Miller, said fewer young people are now smoking and more young people are choosing to delay their first encounter with alcohol.
“There have been many good news stories from the last 20 years about positive changes in young people’s health behaviours and I’m proud that SDERA has contributed to that success,” she said.
During its 20 year history, SDERA has engaged with over 1,200 WA schools and 700 community groups.
Over 165,000 resources and support materials have been developed to assist educators in their delivery of drug and road safety education.
SDERA’s education programs have won numerous state and national awards including best Community Program in Australia (for road safety education) and Outstanding Achievement in Injury Prevention, Early Intervention, Treatment and/or Recovery.
This year also marks the 15 year anniversary of SDERA’s award winning Keys for Life pre-driver education program.
Since it was first established, over 140,000 students have sat the Learner’s Permit Theory Test with a solid understanding of road safety principles taught through the Keys for Life program.
SDERA aims to empower educators so that they can deliver effective and sustainable road safety and alcohol and drugs education programs.
“Based on research and evaluations, we know what works best and we translate this into a range of strategies for educators,” said Mrs Miller.
These strategies include free professional development, resources mapped to the WA Curriculum and Early Years Learning Framework, whole-school plans to manage drug use incidents, intervention support for students experiencing drug use issues, and models and frameworks for a whole-school approach.
“I am constantly impressed by the quality programs, resources and initiatives created and delivered by our team of dedicated and experienced professionals who are all determined to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the state,” said Mrs Miller.
SDERA is proud to continue offering support for schools in WA.