Hope UK are looking for volunteers

Hope UK are looking to recruit volunteers to train as Drug and Alcohol Educators in their local communities to help children and young people make drug-free choices.

“Scotland has much to be proud of, but when it comes to alcohol, you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Dr. Aric Sigman writing in the Herald

Hope UK, a Christian drug prevention charity, recognises the importance of parental influence and includes drug and alcohol awareness work with parents in its efforts to reduce harm to children and young people.

Jo Pickford, a resident of Moray, has recently been appointed to recruit volunteers in Scotland who will be trained to become Drug and Alcohol Educators in their own communities.

The Educators will work with schools, youth groups, parents groups and other voluntary organisations to enable children and young people to make drug-free choices.

Jo comments:

“We want to make as many young people as possible aware that they can choose to say no to drugs and alcohol and not face the same problems that many of their parents are facing. We also aim to help parents and carers to protect their children from drug-related harm.

The number of people responding to the need for Educators has been really encouraging; several have already commenced training with others in the application process. There is always a need for more workers."

In the meantime, there are three educators in Scotland able to provide training in the Edinburgh, Inverness and North Lanark areas. If you are interested please contact Jo (see contact details below).

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Jo Pickford is also a trained Drug Educator and can provide drug awareness or training sessions anywhere in North East Scotland.

Hope UK is a registered charity in Scotland (No SC040550). It costs nearly £900 to train each volunteer with a 120-hour course accredited with the National Open College Network.

If you would like to train towards becoming an educator, support the work of the charity, or are interested in having an educator visit your group, please get in touch. See also Hope UK website.

Jo Pickford
Mob. 07907 502693 or
E-mail j.pickford@hopeuk.org

The Editor, 06/10/2011