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Drugs Awareness Week – 5th to the 9th of October 2009
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Drugs Awareness Week, which runs from the 5th to the 9th of October, will see the Youghal Community Drugs Initiative, in conjunction with Foróige, host two evenings to help public awareness with all aspects of drug and alcohol mis-use. Report: Michael Twomey
Development Worker for the Southern Regional Drugs Task Force (SRDTF), Gordon Kingsley explained. “There will be different activities within 8 towns in the region. These activities will involve information evenings, workshops, launching of projects, and will involve family members highlighting work they have done,” he said.
Part of the awareness week will also see the local agency try to raise its profile in a town that has a growing drug problem, while highlighting the role the SRDTF can play in affecting positive change.
The Youghal project will hold information evenings on the specific work of the project in various locations throughout the town. This will include information around substance misuse and the developments within the project. There will be two evenings; Monday 5th at the Holy Family church hall and Wednesday 7th Oct. at Nagle House, South Abbey, Youghal. Both events start at 8pm. and are open to the general public.
A piece of work developed by the family support group will be on display. This work highlights how the person, family and wider community are affected by drugs and alcohol. The piece will be on display at the Southern Regional Drugs taskforce conference in conjunction with Kerry-life education on the 8th of Oct in Killarney called the ‘Getting A Grip Conference’.
Meanwhile, in Colbh, the Cobh community drugs Initiative and the local management group will present the findings of an internal evaluation of the project to the wider community on Tuesday 6th 0ct 2009 at 7.30pm. The YMCA building on main street Cobh will host the event and it is open to the general public. A formal launch of the project will happen on the evening with various speakers having an input with information on other developments that are currently in the pipeline.
For further information in Youghal contact Eric Trihy Youghal community Drugs worker on 086-3842183 and for Cobh contact Cobh Drugs worker Gemma Turner on 086-8283760
2 comments |
Fair play to all involved.
I would like to mention that at the last council meeting the mayor of youghal mentioned the “Getting a grip” conference and advocated for local reps to go.
Why do they need to go all the way to killarney to hear about drug issues when we have a project on our door step . Has any of them every consulted with the drugs worker?,
At the last local elections you had canditates going to sort out the whole issue in the town, where are they now???
I feel it is about time that it is mandated at town council meetings and brought to the table!!!
Mary
You’ve raised a very important point – the participation of local councillors in local drugs initiatives.
As Coordinator of SRDTF, I would encourage local reps to find out about he projects in their own areas and to get involved…. more than that I would like to see Drugs being on the agenda at Town Council meetings…
We’ve all got a role to play in tackling the issues and we all need to play our part. Those involved in local policy need to be well informed about not only the issues facing the town, but also in helping to develop local solutions (but not on their own – in partnership as part of the bigger picture).
To be fair, I understand the Council in Youghal were very supportive of the recent Drugs Awareness Week, and reps did attend the Getting a Grip Conference in Killarney, which hopefully inspired them to get more involved in their own community.
The Getting a Grip brought Councillors and those involved in Drugs work from across the country together to share ideas and in the case of the Southern Region, raise awareness on the range of projects and supports already in place.
In the case of Youghal, Eric (drugs worker) is providing a very valuable service to the community there, supporting those who use drugs, with the aim of moving them on into treatment and also in providing much needed support to families who feel they have nowehrere to turn when they discover another family membner of relative is caught up in the cycle of addiction.