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The Active Communities Network

Project: Side-stepping Alcohol Misuse

Region: National - 12 regions

Amount approved: £99,600

The Active Communities Network (formerly London Active Communities) specialises in delivering youth inclusion programmes to hard to reach and disaffected communities. The Network will develop and deliver alcohol-specific education programme to disadvantaged young people through Premiership Rugby clubs - each club will work with five youth clubs in their local area.

The first scheme, Side-Stepping Alcohol Misuse, is set to launch in early 2010, and will be run jointly by The Active Communities Network and Premier Rugby.

The scheme will target young people aged 13-19. Twelve regions will be targeted, seeing the development of a key alcohol-specific education programme reaching out to young disadvantaged people through Premiership Rugby Clubs.

With funding provided by the Drinkaware grants programme, the scheme will enable Active Communities Network and Premier Rugby to work with five youth clubs in each of the 12 areas. The aim of the funding is to develop resources and offer training to community staff and other local youth providers.

Training will consist of two parts. The first session will be to develop general alcohol awareness as well as learning about the effects of alcohol on mental and physical health. This will be offered to the clubs’ under 20’s and youth players to enable them to understand the effects of alcohol but also to understand their responsibilities as role models and ambassadors.

In the second part of training, community staff will be educated about their role in delivering six key alcohol messages including addressing alcohol and safety, harm minimisation, alcohol units and sensible drinking.

What sets this programme apart is the combination of alcohol awareness messages with fun and active rugby sessions.

Helen Clayton, Project Leader of the Active Communities Network, explains: "Addressing alcohol issues with young people can sometimes be difficult, particularly when working in hotspots noted for high levels of disengaged young people. However, we are confident that incorporating sport-based techniques into our education plans will prove a successful way of engaging these young boys and girls".

Techniques set to be employed by community staff and local youth workers will mix traditional rugby training with quiz-style questions on alcohol, warm-up relays and the use of specially designed beer goggles, which when worn impair vision in the same way alcohol does.

A DVD and additional programme material will also be available. This includes rugby-specific resources, as well as materials focusing on the health effects of alcohol, how to count units, keeping a drink diary and highlighting the dangers of alcohol misuse.

Helen alongside the 12 Premiership clubs is looking forward to seeing the results of the scheme: "If this project is a success, the training of the clubs’ community staff and their involvement will lay the foundations for the delivery of alcohol messages to a large number of young people. In the long term our goal is to create a replicable model of alcohol education and awareness through sports-based youth inclusion work which can be rolled-out to an even greater audience."

Visit the Active Communities Network website

Page last updated by: Matthew Bateman, 26 Jul 2011.

Page checked on: 19 Jun 2009