Blog – July ‘13

Summer time what do you think when you think of summer?

The past two weeks have been incredible but true!  Summer really came to visit Scotland.  Even if it’s fading, schools are on holiday and we hope it will return

This means it can be a quieter time too for our volunteer programme at Fast Forward, due to a combination of no sessions happening in schools during this period and of a few of our volunteers enjoying a well deserved summer break. However, there is always something exciting going on!

Indeed, great progress has been made with the Tobacco Leaflet Working Party, where 3 of our volunteers have given their fantastic input in shaping the ideas and project for a new leaflet. Similarly, another volunteer has developed a session on drugs to be delivered this Thursday, at the next SPEN meeting, to other peer educators from all across the country. Would you like to hear more about how both these initiative will progress? Keep an eye on this blog page!

What’s more, since our last blog entry on the volunteers’ programme, also our senior volunteer Donald received the Inspiring Volunteering Achievement Award. On that same evening Donald and Jay, one of our Senior Development Workers, attended the Boroughmuir High School Prom night at the Balmoral hotel, where they were invited to celebrate the end of the school and of the Peer Education Project they had run and developed during the entire academic year.

The 8 weeks Parent Peer training with a group of young mums was also concluded this month. These new peer educators have created their own session on drugs. They are now looking forward to deliver it to other parents’ group towards the end of the summer.

This Parent Peer Project consisted in training and support to run interactive drug / alcohol / tobacco workshops with parent groups. The 6 young mums we worked with between April and July created then a peer education session on drugs, using interactive learning and aiming to:

 

• Give accurate information about drugs and young people in Scotland
• Give parents and carers more confidence to talk to children and young people about drugs issues
• Dispel some myths about drugs and young people

Does this sound interesting for you? Are you a parent under 30 years old?? Please get in touch if you’d like to become a parent peer educator with Fast Forward! You’ll receive full training, the opportunity to work with other young parents and also to get involved with the other projects in our organisation. It’s a fantastic way to gain experience as part of a voluntary organisation that promotes health and wellbeing with, by and for young people.