United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Welcome to the UNODC Youth Initiative!

Our mission is to empower and connect youth from around the globe to become active in their schools, communities and youth groups for the prevention of substance abuse. This site will help equip young people with resources and opportunities to help them make the best decisions for themselves and impact their communities on issues related to drugs.

We know our world's youth have lots of great ideas and can make a positive impact on the world. We want to help give them a voice, not just to peers and local communities, but also to leaders of international organization and policy makers from around the globe.

We have launched a Facebook Page to connect with youth from around the globe! We'll be hosting a variety of discussions, activities, contests, and events throughout the year. Please join us!

The United Nations is committed to working with youth. Below are some resources that my be of use for youth and youth leaders. While we hope these resources will provide a good foundation to learn about issues related to drugs, our real goal is for it to be a starting point for individual discovery processes and leadership in disseminating positive awareness in local and global community.

For questions, comments and ideas, you can also contact us at youthinitiative@unodc.org.

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News!

Make the Youth Initiative a reality in your community - Apply for a grant!

Every year UNODC is able to promote drug prevention in many countries all around the world thanks to the work and generosity of the Drug Abuse Prevention Centre (DAPC) in Japan. The youth from DAPC mobilises communities and raises funds that they generously donate to the UNODC to support activities to prevent drug use among youth in low and middle income countries. This is truly from youth, to youth, for youth! Thanks to DAPC, UNODC will be able to sponsor activities of youth groups in low and middle income countries to initiate projects to empower youth to take more active roles in their communities and undertake drug prevention activities in line with the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention ( http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/prevention-standards.html), and make the Youth Initiative a reality in their schools, communities, youth centres.

Apply for the 2013 grants!

Here's the criteria for the awarding of the grants and the application form: a word version that can be completed electronically and a .pdf version that can be completed in hard copy. We will accept applications until 30 June 2013.

We Can Move the World

9 youth leaders, engaged to drug use prevention in their communities in 7 different countries, were gathered in Vienna 11-15 March to share their experiences, opinions and visions, and to deliver their joint message to the representatives from Civil Society, Governments and the United Nations, during the fifty-sixth Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Read more...
See the program of the youth side event

DAPC 2012 Grants Awarded

For the 2012 DAPC grants we received 203 proposals before the deadline, out of which 24 were selected for funding based on the quality and feasibility of the project proposal and on the geographical balance. Congratulations to the winners! Read more about the projects selected for funding...

Youth Initiative officially launched!

"Think ahead, act in longer terms, and let us not fail". These were a few of the messages presented by the Youth Initiative during the 55 ^th Commission on Narcotic Drugs, held in Vienna, Austria, from 12 to 16 March 2012.
The 20 young persons from 7 different countries and from the Vienna International School had the opportunity to exchange opinions and experiences, and analyze together the situation of drug use, prevention and treatment in their communities. Based on this they produced two statements, and addressed representatives from Civil Society, Governments and the United Nations with their hopes, dreams, and personal commitment for action. Read more...