From the song “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson
Since 2012, the UNODC Youth Forum has gathered young people from around the world who are active in the fields of substance use prevention, health promotion, and youth empowerment to provide the opportunity for them to exchange ideas, visions, and different perspectives on how to better protect their peers’ health and well-being. The forum is a part of the UNODC Youth Initiative, which aims to link young people from all over the world and encourage them to become engaged in their schools and communities, as well as in youth organisations focusing on drug use prevention and health promotion. Youth leaders can make significant contributions to our social well-being by fostering a positive environment aimed at the substance use prevention, and in doing so, they can also concurrently diminish the likelihood of risky behaviours such as criminal activities, aligning with the concept of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).
In addition to providing a safe environment as an approach to preventing substance use, another strategy to focus on, is enabling people to protect themselves from substance use. And to empower youths, it is also a good idea for youth leaders to help other youths in developing self-leadership, autonomy, and resilience to reduce the chance of substance use. Furthermore, it will establish a ‘two-way substance use prevention’ by creating a good society fit for living without drugs while enabling people to lead themselves.
It is comforting to know that youth leaders can prove to be substantial in substance use prevention in our society, helping to make the world a better place without substance use. As time passes, youths continue to grow, mature, and may live in new environments, possibly alone, owing to circumstances such as career opportunities, education, or migration. While adjusting to the new society, they might encounter something new or different from their previous society. This change in life conditions may have an impact on them.
It might be pleasant or unpleasant; we have no way of precisely anticipating what they will experience. The environment in the new society may not be as favourable compared to their previous society, and there may be exposures risk factors that may elevate the newcomer’s risk of substance use.
In such situations, a possible choice of action could be to ‘lead themselves’ away from the harmful environmental factors and learn how to manage the unexpected problems that come into their lives. Youth leaders may help other youths through practical skill-building workshops on self-awareness, self-management, and responsible decision-making by helping them understand vulnerabilities to substance use, recognizing triggers or risk factors that may lead to substance use, and understanding their own emotions and influence on behaviour. Skill-building and achieving autonomy in youths is crucial.
Youths can build skills through activities like time management, stress management, and, most importantly, setting life goals as it creates the strong bond between the youths and their commitment which will result in their consistent conforming behaviour.
Developing autonomy cannot be dissociated from environmental setting, which can contribute to substance use prevention. Environmental factors, according to research, have an important effect on human mentality. This highlights the young leader’s role in helping to create an atmosphere that supports the development of self-leadership. People who have mastered self-leadership will be able to serve as spiritual leaders, inspiring others to become ‘a leader for themselves’ as well. This continuous cycle of inspiration will help our society in the long run, since more and more people will learn to handle the harmful variables that surround them.
To make the world a better place, we must not just only lead others, but also enable others to lead themselves. As a result, individuals will grow to be self-reliant, understand what is best for them, and begin to change the world by changing themselves.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2020). Handbook on Youth Participation in Drug Prevention Work (p. 9).
The International CPTED Association (2022, January 3). Primer in CPTED - What is CPTED? CPTED. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.cpted.net/Primer-in-CPTED.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bryant, A., & Kazan, A. L. (2011). Self-Leadership: How to Become a More Successful, Efficient, and Effective Leader from the Inside Out (p. 4). McGraw Hill Professional.
