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Ealing Drug Education
Project (EDEP) provides drug education
to all the communities in the London Borough of Ealing.
The project works in a focussed way with the African,
Caribbean, Somali and South Asian communities in Southall
and other parts of Ealing. This is to ensure that the
range of cultural and language needs are met appropriately
and that we use relevant drug education resources.
We work with individuals, families and organisations
to increase their knowledge about drug issues as they
affect the local communities. We also enable people
to access relevant services. We believe that community
cohesion is essential in empowering the communities
to tackle the issue of increasing drug use and to tackle
the notion of ‘it can’t happen to us’.
View the EDEP programme of activities.
Ealing Drug Education Project
provides the following:
1. Drug education in appropriate languages to
parents, young people and organisations.
Both officers and volunteers can provide drug sessions
in Gurmukhi Punjabi, Mirpuri Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali,
Gujrati, Somali, English and Farsi.
2. Training local volunteers to disseminate
drug education
The project has twenty volunteers who are trained in
drug and equality and diversity issues. The volunteers
can work with different language and cultural groups.
3. Enabling drug users and their families to
access appropriate services
We work with a number of local and national drug agencies
and refer people to appropriate provision.
4. Working with young people from all communities
to enhance community cohesion
The project has set up a Young People’s Council
to help young people to present their own issues around
their lives. We also have targeted sessions for young
Asian and Somali women and young men who are drug users.
5. Work with schools
One aspect of our work with young people is in schools.
We provide professional input and support for school
based culturally appropriate drug education to meet
the diverse needs of the communities in Ealing. We provide
education in primary and secondary prevention and refer
young people to appropriate organisations.
We offer a number of options to schools:
- Facilitating drug awareness sessions for young
people at different key stages
- Working with groups of young people as identified
by the school to meet a specific need (for example
working with young people from the Somali community
to raise awareness about Khat and illegal drugs)
- Facilitating self development sessions with young
people deemed to have a problem around drugs (for
example those young people who have been in trouble
for possessing, using or selling drugs and may have
been subject to the school’s disciplinary procedures).
This we do by providing specially designed sessions
to meet the appropriate need for each group. We also
enable young people to continue to access appropriate
information and services as well as to continue their
self-development by engaging in community and training
opportunities available through the EDEP. These opportunities
include becoming involved in the Young People’s
Council and in training as peer educators.
- Facilitating drug education sessions for parents
by tailoring the sessions according to their cultural
and language needs.
6. Training young people as peer educators.
7. Working with local drug services to develop
culturally sensitive services.
8. Undertaking appropriate research to highlight good
practice as well as gaps in education and service delivery.
9. Undertaking appropriate research to develop
and produce resources in the appropriate language.
10. Supporting local community by working with
religious, business, statutory and voluntary organisations
to engage with community development and support issues
to mitigate the impact of drug use.
For any information about these activities please contact
DAAP on Tel: 020 8843 0945 or email [email protected] |
