LemonAiD
The LemonAiD subgroup are working on Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking. We are working in partnership with Sally Hills, Young People's Commissioner, from Essex Drug and Alcohol Team.
Our group set the following priority areas for our work:
-- Attend training
-- Develop a "Safe House Party" toolkit and resource pack
-- Partnership working
Minutes of meetings:
13th June 2010
24th May 2010 .
8th May 2010 .
28th March 2010 .
7th February 2010 .
6th December 2009 .
7th November 2009 .
4th October 2009 .
5th September 2009 .
12th July 2009 .
6th June 2009 .
10th May 2009 .
28th March 2009 .
1st March 2009 .
About our logo:
The subgroup’s name and logo represent many aspects of our work.
The name LemonAiD is a play on the drink name, lemonade, which, as a soft drink, is an alternative to alcohol. The changed spelling to AiD was originally A/D, short for “alcohol and drugs” which are the issues our subgroup is addressing. “Aid” also means help and we’re hoping that our toolkit will aid (help) young people to have safer house parties.
From this name, we chose our subgroup colour – lemon, which became yellow.
The logo itself represents a bottle of champagne, which is a “good time” drink. However, instead of bubbles popping, we have music notes streaming (sic) out, showing that ingredients other than alcohol, such as good music, contribute to having a good time at a party.
We are a small subgroup, so decided right from the start that we needed to set realistic aims. We therefore decided that the Safe House Party project would be our main focus, with the other priorities, the training and partnership working, being used to inform and support that.
Questionnaires were distributed in order to provide us with more information. One important thing we wanted to do was to consult with not only young people, but with parents too. Even with taxi drivers, so that our toolkit takes into account everybody who goes to and is affected by house parties.
We are now at the point where everything is being pulled together and we can launch the pack, which includes the following:
- -- EYPDAS DVD
- -- 2smart comic book (from Essex Police)
- -- Presentation from FATA (First Aid Training Associates) - digital version
- -- About the LemonAiD Safe House Party Toolkit
- -- Safe House Party poster
- -- Emergency Action Plan poster
- -- Hints and Tips infosheet
- -- Safety infosheet
- -- Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks infosheet
- -- Nuisance / Police infosheet (we had this checked by the police)
- -- Warning Signs infosheet
- -- Reports from our questionnaire results *
- -- OCN Accreditation – files to support the delivery of work around awareness of drugs, solvents, alcohol and smoking issues – digital version
* We had two questionnaires in circulation. One was to find out young people's experiences of house parties and another one was aimed at parents, so we get their viewpoints too. We also ran a questionnaire with taxi drivers to get their opinions on fares or pick ups from parties. We aimed to consult with as many people as possible.
The questionnaires we ran are below:
Follow this link to the young people's questionnaire.
Follow this link to the parents' questionnaire.
Follow this link to the taxi drivers' questionnaire
We intend to “officially” launch our pack at the YEA sitting in April 2010. However, prior to that, we have been invited to make a presentation about our work and show a preview of the pack at a “Risk and Resilience” staff training day on 6th March 2010.
And here it is!
The first copies of the ‘Safe House Party Pack’ have now been released!
Members of LemonAiD were invited to a ‘Risk and Resilience’ staff training day at Danbury Youth Centre on 06.03.10. We gave a presentation on the development of the pack and issued the first copies of it to the training delegates.
Fayaz, Rhiannon, Alix and Arren presenting their Safe House Party Pack
Four of us, Fayaz, Rhiannon, Alix and Arren spoke to the trainees and explained about the YEA, the LemonAiD subgroup and how we came up with the idea of a resource around house parties. We talked about the journey we had made to develop the toolkit, the training we undertook to help with our own knowledge and recognised all the help we have received from other organisations.
We received a fantastic response from everybody who attended the staff training day. All the delegates were given a pack to take away and use with young people. Now, following on from the official launch in April 2010, every single youth worker, full and part time, in Essex should have their own copy of the pack.
If you haven't received one, please contact us at yea@essex.gov.uk and we’ll be pleased to make sure that one gets to you straight away!
There are around 200 complete packs and lots of digital versions (CDROM only) that we have for further distribution. Please contact us if you would like one or more to be sent to you. This offer is open to anybody at all and the packs are FREE of charge :)
Drugs and Alcohol Awareness
The group have already attended drugs and alcohol awareness training with EYPDAS. We watched the DVD they already have about house parties and asked permission to include it in our toolkit.
First Aid
We've also completed our first aid training with First Aid Training Associates of Harlow. The company devised a bespoke programme for us; much of the training was related to incidents that may (but hopefully won't) happen at parties. One of the outcomes of the training was the information for our first aid fact sheet for the "Safe House Party Toolkit" we're developing.
The photo shows four of us, Amy-Jo, Arren, Ashley and Alecs practising our resuscitation skills. We not only thoroughly enjoyed the session, but are now trained first aiders and will be receiving certificates as soon as they're processed.
Basic Food Safety
We have also now completed our food hygiene training which we took with Essex Adult Community Learning on 30th January 2010 in Colchester. The course is a proper qualification and nine of us have achieved a CIEH Food Safety Awareness in Catering Level 1 certificate. Level 2 next?
The training programme covered the following topics: 
- Food Safety (food hygiene, hazards, responsibilities)
- Personal Hygiene
- Cleaning
- Contamination
We're hoping that we'll be able to use our knowledge and training to help us plan and prepare for a celebration party for the last sitting of the YEA before we all retire.
Alcohol Awareness OCN
Three LemonAiD members brought together all their prior learning and evidence from their project work, completed the necessary forms and submitted portfolios to achieve an Open College Network accreditation in Alcohol Awareness.
We received notification that the portfolios have passed the moderation process and are now awaiting the certificates.
05 December 2009
On the 5th December 2009, representatives of LemonAiD, AlcoHelp and Trading Standards watched and judged the entries from 'Consider the Consequences' short film competition. The films were judged on their clarity, innovation, strength of message and how well they would engage the target audience (13 year olds). From the eleven films, four runners-up and one winner were selected.
LemonAiD judges, Amy-Jo, Ashley, Rhiannon and Alix with Lynsey Yarnell, Essex Trading Standards
Once the judging for the competition was completed, members of LemonAiD were invited to the special awards screening at the Cramphorn Theatre, Chelmsford, on 13th January 2010. Each of the films chosen by the group was screened and those films, along with other educational material, will be edited onto a DVD and taken back into local schools; providing a platform for teachers and their students to discuss the issues and highlighting the potential dangers of underage alcohol use in a fun and innovative way.
13th January 2010
The ‘Consider the Consequences’ film competition screening and prize-giving was hosted by Terry Martin from local charity, AlcoHELP, with assistance from Mike Hill (Essex County Council Trading Standards) and members of the Young Essex Assembly group LemonAiD.
Runners-up, who received certificates, were:
- Alan Cohol’s Story (Entered by James Dingle, aged 16, at Seevic College, Benfleet)
- Drinking (Entered by Ryan Lane, aged 17, at Seevic College, Benfleet)
- See No Evil, Drink No Evil (Entered by Year 12 Media students, aged 16/17, at Greensward Academy, Hockley)
- Smashed (Entered by members, aged 14-17, of the Colchester Youth Council, Colchester)
- What If? (Entered by Hannah Read, aged 16, at Colchester County High School, Colchester)
The winning students received certificates and £15 ‘Love2shop’ vouchers each, whilst drama teacher Gemma Peacock received a Panasonic camcorder, case, SD card and battery charger on behalf of the school. The winners were:
- Consider the Consequences (entered by Chelmer Valley High School, Chelmsford)
All of the entrants really worked hard on their films and carefully considered the dangers of drinking alcohol underage – well done to everyone who took part!
Ashley, Amy-Jo and Rhiannon preparing their award speeches
About the competition:
The competition was open to all 14-19 year olds in education in Essex. The brief was to make a 3-10 minute film around the dangers of consuming alcohol at a young age and to cover topics such as peer pressure, violence, vulnerability, truancy and long-term health problems.
A link to the competition website can be found here: www.alcohelp.com/consider
We work closely with Sally Hills, who is the Young People's Joint Commissioning Manager for Essex Drug and Alcohol Action Team, www.essexdrugaction.org.
We have also established contact with EYPDAS and they've kindly given us permsission to reproduce their DVD about house parties, and so we shall now be able to include it in our pack. Their website, www.eypdas.org.uk, is well worth visiting for information about drugs and alcohol issues.
We have made contact with the police and have obtained their permission to use their 2smart cartoon strip about house parties in our pack. Their design team have removed competition references and other specific information, so that it will be a standalone comic we can use. Have a look at www.2smart.co.uk for some really useful and interesting information.
Following the very successful first aid training that we received, we were so impressed with the content of the presentation that we asked if we could include it in our digital pack. Many thanks to FATA (First Aid Training Associates) of Harlow who kindly gave us permission to do so. More information can be found on www.firstaidtrainingassociates.org.uk.
