September 2010    The Australian Drug Foundation’s new educational resource – Your Shout – an Australian first for alcohol education has been launched to schools around the nation.  The Your Shout DVD and teachers kit brings an open and honest discussion into the classroom about the way young Australians drink alcohol – a method the Australian Drug Foundation believes will reinvigorate discussion and prevent alcohol-related harms.

“As a nation we have not succeeded in preventing young people binge drinking so there’s a need
for new and innovative techniques to relate to the lives of teenagers. We saw an opportunity to
produce a national peer-to-peer tool that gives young people a real voice on the issue,” said Dr
Joseph Borlagdan, national youth spokesperson, Australian Drug Foundation.

“Overall fewer school students are drinking alcohol but one in six 16-17yr olds are still drinking at
harmful levels every week. So there’s a need to demystify drinking and get young people thinking
about the role alcohol plays in our lives,” added Dr Borlagdan.

Your Shout builds on a range of great resources already available to schools and is different
because it:

• uses unscripted teenagers speaking honestly (peer-to-peer), rather than relying on expert
advice,
• provides a range of perspectives on why adolescents drink alcohol and the effects,
• uses a unique method of encouraging young people to think and discuss the issues
themselves, and
• uses experts that young people can relate to (<30yrs) to provide facts and contextualise
the teenage discussion.

The Your Shout teacher support kit draws on evidence for effective drug education and is
designed to be incorporated into age-appropriate health education curriculum across all states
and territories.

Your Shout was created by the youth division of the Australian Drug Foundation and speaks
directly to teenagers aged 14-17. The resource acts as an ice-breaker to get young people talking
about:

• Australia’s alcohol culture,
• The effects of drinking alcohol,
• The pressure to drink and
• Coping with stress.

“Rather than rely purely on expert advice, the youth division of the Foundation made a conscious
decision to film real Australian teenagers speaking openly and honestly about their own
experiences and thoughts about drinking,” added Dr Borlagdan.

“The feedback we’re getting from teachers tells us that Your Shout with its teacher support kit will
get teenagers talking about alcohol and its impact, and that’s the first step to shifting Australia’s
drinking culture for generations to come,” added Dr Borlagdan.

By the age of fifteen, 90 percent of young people have tried alcohol. Your Shout highlights the
role alcohol plays in a young person’s life and challenges teenagers to think about the way they
drink. For more information or to preview Your Shout, visit www.adf.org.au/yourshout

From information provided by the Australian Drug Foundation, September 20, 2010.

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