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 Devon's Action and Awareness Campaign
Protecting and Educating Devon ’s Young People
Does your school or community group want to take part in this project?
The Action and Awareness Campaign (AAC) is an innovative project which aims to educate young people about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and solvents in an attempt to tackle the root of the under-age sales problem by changing attitudes and raising awareness of legal, health and personal safety issues. It has proven to be a very successful medium for educating children and we are pleased with the amount of positive feedback received from the community. AAC events have taken place in 22 schools across Devon and many students have remarked that they enjoyed it and gained a lot from the experience. Devon Trading Standards has now released the project online for use by teachers and others who work with young people. The free toolkit and the resources to conduct AAC event including the script to the drama production called the “Incident Room”
The campaign is designed primarily for Years 7 and 8 (ages 11-13) as part of PSHE and Citizenship learning. The educational materials available from the website can be used by teachers or youth workers. The school or group can create a team of project workers from higher years/age groups to manage and perform the project. Those running the project should read the advice below carefully and ensure all elements of the programme take place.
- Session One uses a quiz and answer sheet. This can be done in the week prior to the performance. The aim of the first lesson that is to find out how much the pupils know about the law and health issues relating to alcohol, tobacco and solvents. A video can also be shown at this time. Your local Trading Standards Service or Police may be able to assist you in supplying a suitable underage sales video or speaker. Devon Trading Standards Service and Devon and Cornwall Police have produced a video called “Action and Awareness Campaign” that can be used in Devon Schools (30 minutes)
- Session Two is the drama Incident Room. For this you are provided with a script and a plan for the workshop that takes place in the middle. There is a final scene in the script that the audience must gather together to view after the workshops. A whole group of up to 150 pupils could watch the drama presentation and then return to classrooms for workshop sessions. This has been done successfully in previous events where the AAC has featured. (90-120 minutes)
- Session Three follows on up to a week after session 2 and discusses the issue of responsibility. Who was responsible for the problems that developed in the drama? This is an integral part of the successful running of the project, which gives further meaning to the use of the drama. (30 minutes)
Ideally while the campaign is running your Local Trading Standards and Police Services could be undertaking inspections or trader education with local retailers and licensed premises.
The Drama Presentation
The “Incident Room” is the drama component of Devon County Council’s Action Awareness Campaign and was devised under the direction of Carly Mays, who is currently Company Manager of Exstream Theatre Company. In this exciting new phase of the AAC, the “Incident Room” script is being released online for use by teachers and others who work with young people, for this peer learning project.
It is important that the project is supervised to ensure the correct information is being given throughout the campaign, and it is strongly advised that professionals that specialise in working with young people on issues of substance misuse are involved on the day of performance and/or the follow-up lesson. It is also highly recommended that young people working on the drama element of the programme do so closely with someone who has knowledge and experience of producing theatre, and that they are familiar with the concept of Applied Drama (or Theatre in Education). It is also useful for the young people themselves to be given some information on the principles of using drama for learning.
Checklist of what you will need to do
- Identify a group of people to perform which may be a worthwhile project for school or community drama groups
- Identify the target audience which can be up to 150 people
- Timetable the three sessions
- Find a suitable performance area, including space to break out for workshops. Ideally this could be the assembly hall for drama component and classrooms for workshops.
- Identify who will facilitate the workshops after the drama event e.g. class teacher
- Find sound equipment for the performance, and prepare a suitable piece of music for the dance routine in the party scene
- Find a tape player for use in the workshop and to prepare the other physical items used in the workshop
- Find costumes, including a police officer’s uniform or ask the Youth Affairs Officer to play the police officer role in the drama
Other Elements of the campaign
- The ACC project is community based and works best when different agencies are involved including educational professionals, school nurses, parents, Police, Trading Standards Service, Youth Affairs Officers and community workers. You should consider the following activities to maximise the impact of the project
- After The AAC event use the Pupil/Parent questionnaire provided to improve parent’s awareness and act as a stimulant for further discussion on the issues raised.
- Involve the Police Youth Affairs Officer in the project at an early stage
- Contact your local Trading Standards Service and Police to see if they are prepared to conduct visits to retailers and licensed premises in the area to ensure traders are aware of and are complying with the legal requirements.
- Involve school nurses at an early stage and ensure they are aware of the issues raised by the campaign. They then can be given the opportunity to provide further information on any key issues that may be raised by school pupils. The event may act as the focus of a broader campaign focussed on health and personal safety issues for young people at the school
- Engage the support of local traders and interested groups. You could approach the local branch of the Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA) or a Local Community Safety Partnership for support and sponsorship of the event.
If I need to know more who can I contact?
This project is made available to Devon schools and groups engaged in underage sales issues by Devon County Council’s Trading Standards Service, who can be contacted via the online contact from or by telephoning our Community Services Team 01392 381381. The campaign materials can be freely used by groups outside of Devon for the purposes of raising the awareness of young people about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and solvents on a not for profit and non commercial basis. If you intend to use the campaign please complete an initial contact form and a post event feedback form which are both available online below
To find your local Trading Standards service click here.
List of Support Materials
SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3
FEEDBACK
History of the AAC
The AAC was developed in the late 1990s, after a number of exercises were carried out on the sales of "age restricted" products showed a high prevalence of illegal transactions by retailers to young people. The experience of Trading Standards officers throughout the country was similar, with criminal sanctions appearing to have limited and relatively short-term effect. Strategies of the initiative include:
- reducing the supply of alcohol, cigarettes, lighter fuels and solvents
- raising awareness of the dangers associated with their use and abuse and consequently to curtail demand
- limiting the harm caused by these products to young people.
The Action Awareness Campaign was officially launched by the then Home Office Minister Alun Michael at the Riverside Leisure Centre Exeter on 9 January 1998 . New powers were granted in December 2001 so that Trading Standards Officers could enforce the law on underage sales of alcohol, as a joint responsibility with the police.
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