Using Peer-to-Peer Techniques for Drug Abuse Prevention, 11-13 May 2001, Norrk?ping, Sweden
From the 11th to the 13th of May, a meeting of youth groups from 14 European Union States on the theme of using peer-to-peer techniques for drug abuse prevention took place in the town of Norrk?ping in Sweden. As some of you may remember, last year we held a theme meeting on using performance (drama, music, dance, etc.) for drug abuse prevention, this meeting was a continuation of that series of meetings. This 3-day meeting was organized under the aegis of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union and with the support of the Swedish Ministry for Health and Social Affairs and the municipality of Norrk?ping. The idea was to gather youth groups and youth workers from all over the EU and tap their knowledge of what it takes to establish a good peer-to-peer drug abuse prevention programme. Why are young people the best medium, as it were, to talk to other young people, what are the things that one needs to remember while designing a programme that channels the efforts of youth peer workers to prevent drug abuse? What, in effect, are the guiding principles, of peer-to-peer work? in Europe, more than in other parts of the world, one sees a great diversity of opinions about drug use. From staunch abolitionists to radical legalizers, Europe and the European Union Institutions see heated debate on the ethics and mechanics of drug abuse prevention. It was with this background that this meeting 
was organized. Other than the main aim, to produce a set of guiding principles for peer-to-peer work, the meeting was also an attempt to see if young people could transcend their very different backgrounds and opposing points of view to reach a consensus on what works and what doesn't. Stefano Berterame and Gautam Babbar from UNDCP and Veronica Skogg from Sweden (some of you may remember Veronica from the meeting in Banff, she was the strong silent type on the youth organizing committee!!!) facilitated the various working groups during the meeting. The idea was to discuss questions like "What do yo
u understand by peer-to-peer techniques?", "Suppose you had to advise a group of young people about using peer-to-peer techniques, what kind of advice would you give them?" and to reach a consensus on peer-to-peer techniques. The discussions were only part of the schedule. We also had a lot of interactive sessions including physical exercises, question-answer sessions, group presentations, etc. One of the interesting things that emerged during the meeting was that all the participants saw peer-to-peer work as a mutually beneficial process. A process in which both, the so-called "peer educator" and the person she is trying to help, gain immensely. This point is important because the success of peer-to-peer based programmes (in terms of how long they last and how effective they are) depends on the concrete benefits that the youth volunteers receive. These benefits need not be only financial or material, though these can be an important part of the package. Just as important is the feeling of self worth, the experience of using your own creative power to help someone else and the sense of community that genuinely participatory peer-to-peer work can provide. The municipality of Norrk?ping went out of its way to organize entertainment for us. Members of the Norrk?ping Executive committee sang for us at a welcome dinner in the town museum and the next day we were taken on a barbecue picnic where we cooked our own f
ood. On the last night, the rapporteurs from the three working groups and the facilitators sat down to condense all our discussions into a short statement to be delivered to the Swedish Minster for Health and Social Affairs who would then pass it on to his counterparts in the EU. What we came up with is the Voices of EuroPeers. As a follow-up to this meeting, all the groups that attended havenow been invited to join the global youth network and we have started working on producing a short guide on using peer-to-peer techniques for drug abuse prevention which will form part of the handbook on how to set up drug abuse prevention programmes. Incidentally, we have sent out the prepublication version of the handbook for comments. If any of you would like to comment on it, please let us know.