The idea
"Amy's Story, Saving Lives " describes an educational workshop promoting the prevention of alcohol harm for children through interactive activities and hands-on learning. It forms part of our over-arching Share vision to empower our local community to make informed choices about alcohol. We have already successfully run this workshop with year 6 children for two years at the Crucial Crew event, reaching over 2000 children. We wish to expand this workshop into secondary schools with a pilot programme aimed at Year 8 students in Shrewsbury schools, which we will evaluate and measure the outcomes. By explaining the facts about alcohol through honest, age-appropriate dialogue, we aim to reduce long-term harm, including addiction and mental health issues. The project also supports parents with follow-up sessions, equips schools with meaningful PSHE-aligned content, and strengthens communities, empowering the next generation to challenge harmful alcohol norms.
What we'll deliver
- Create a fully mapped PSHE curriculum pack including a full scheme of work for Years 6–11
- Deliver alcohol awareness workshops for year 8 children.
- Host support groups for parents/carers to boost family awareness and prevent alcohol harm in young people.
- Purchase engaging workshop materials, including beer goggles to simulate the effects of alcohol intoxication
Why it's a great idea
There is no preventative work being carried out in Shropshire to warn children about the risks of alcohol harm, even though in England, among people aged 15 to 49 years, alcohol is the leading cause of ill-health, disability, and death. Evidence shows the earlier that children start drinking, the greater the risk of becoming dependent adult drinkers. Research shows the growing brains of teenagers are especially vulnerable to lasting damage from alcohol. The DSM Foundation has been delivering alcohol workshops to children for over ten years, and their impact evidence shows that these workshops reduce the likelihood of children starting to drink before the age of eighteen by up to 70%. Alcohol Change UK say there is substantial evidence that pupils’ enhanced understanding of alcohol-related issues reduces the frequency of alcohol consumption and drunkenness among school-aged children. These workshops will mean fewer children will be drawn into dangerous underage drinking.
Steps to get it done
- Adapt Year 8 workshop content and create feedback forms (by week 4)
- Deliver pilot Year 8 workshop and gather pupil/teacher feedback (by week 6)
- Refine content, create facilitator guide and parent leaflet (by week 8)
- Deliver workshops to 3 schools, reaching 90+ pupils (by week 12)
- Run parent/carer follow-up sessions in 2 schools (by week 14)
- Publish impact summary and share with partners (by week 16)
- Train 3 freelance facilitators for wider delivery (by week 20)
