Australian communities will work together with an international program aimed at combating the use of harmful substances such as alcohol and cigarettes among the younger members of society. «Planet Youth», as the program is known, started 20 years ago in Iceland, and now it has been adopted by a number of other countries.
Planet Youth originally began in Iceland in 1998, with the aim of reducing the number of young people in the country who consume drugs and alcohol.
Program Director Jon Sigfusson said that at the time, the circumstances were very different.
«There was a lot of tolerance towards youth drinking, parents were not really involved not engaged we didn’t have enough extracurricular activities for our kids to attend to».
Over the past 20 years, Planet Youth has been a success among Iceland’s younger population.
The number of students who’d been drunk in May dropped from 42% to 5%. In addition, smokers went from 23% to 2%, while cannabis users fell to 6% from 17%.
Planet Youth in Australia
Now, Planet Youth is taking its in Australia, in partnership with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
Representatives from a number of groups have been meeting in Melbourne to learn how to deliver the program to their own communities.
Chief Executive of the Foundation Dr Erin Lalor says that each community will get something different out of the program.
«The response will be different in every community - it will be driven very much by their own local information and many of these communities are doing those sorts of activities at the moment but they’re operating a little bit blind because they don’t have quality of information that the planet youth model will deliver», Dr Lalor said.
Planet Youth is now active in over 20 countries, including France, Spain and Italy.
The Australian trial will run over two and a half years.
