By this time, youths who finish high school training in our community are ecstatic about their achievements and successes. Parents are motivated by the prospect of their children joining college. However, sometimes the youths begin indulging in other unwelcome behaviors. Students begin to consume alcohol and abuse other drugs. Researchers attribute the trend to excessive excitement among high school graduates.
The excitement makes most students consume alcohol for the first time before they join college. The worrying trend calls for an intervention to reduce the incidences of teenage drug use. It is considered that a community education forum will help create awareness on the issue.
The proposed intervention entails organizing a community education forum. Holding the community forum helps to raise awareness on drug use among teenagers in the community. In addition, the forum gets various stakeholders to provide synergy in informing youths on the significance of healthy lifestyles (Homan, 2011). The youths get insights on the dangers of drug use.
They also get facts on previous incidents that negatively affected the lives of other youths. The forum brings together community members including leaders, partners, targeted youths, and their parents among others (Homan, 2011).
Furthermore, a panel of specialists on teen drug use, recovering drug addicts, parents’ representative, and a college student will also take part. The forum targets the participation of eighty participants.
Tentatively, the forum can take place over the weekend when most people are around. The forum can have a panel discussion and individual speaker presentations. Students can also give testaments regarding their indulgence in alcohol and drugs to make the forum interactive.
The forum can be hosted in a local church house. The participants can be provided with snacks, tea, water, and buffet lunch. A local hotelier can provide these services at the venue. The rates for the buffet lunch and snacks are $12 per person thus totaling to $960. Stationery including flip charts, marker pens, masking tapes, highlighters, pens, writing pads, and document files can cost $400 in total.
A public address system can cost $200. Printing and photocopying services may cost $10. The total expenditure to be incurred in organizing the proposed forum is $1,570. The money available is only $1,000. However, the organizer can collaborate with the church and other stakeholders in order to obtain the additional cash to top the balance.
The organizer can enlist the participation of volunteers to support the noble initiative. The volunteers can be assigned responsibilities based on how they are willing to support the event (Homan, 2011). Leadership is required in communication with participants, logistics, supplies, and decoration of the venue. The organizer can provide leadership in communication and delegates other roles to volunteers.
Invitation of the community members can be done through placing posters at strategic locations. Volunteers can also visit every household to deliver invitations cards to the community members (Homan, 2011). Furthermore, phone calls to the invited participants can be made in order to get the assurance of participation. The organizer can identify and invite resource persons.
Consequently, the team can develop a program for the forum. The supply for stationeries can arrive at the venue a day before the event. The decoration of the venue and setting up registration desk can take place a day earlier. On the day for holding the event, the planning team can arrive at the venue early enough and provide directions to participants. The rest of the day can run based on the program.
Reference
Homan, M. S. (2011). Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real world. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole–Cengage Learning.