Every year, we meet thousands of young people who feel under a great deal of pressure. They can be struggling with exams or with relationships. Or they may feel the need to look or act in certain ways. These stresses can have a significant impact on both their physical and emotional health.
Some will find positive ways to deal with whatever life throws at them. But we know that others will be more vulnerable, and may use drugs or alcohol to cope. That’s why we created our programme.
It helps young people to learn new coping skills and build emotional resilience, so they’re able to approach life’s challenges in a lasting and positive way.
In secondary schools, colleges and community settings, dedicated staff and volunteers explain the risks associated with substance misuse by sharing their own personal stories. Our teams include people in recovery from their own drug or alcohol problems. They may also have experience of mental health issues, or homelessness.
Rather than only providing information, or using a ‘scare tactics’ approach, these teams work with young people to look at the underlying causes and consequences of substance misuse and risky behaviours, and to hear about students’ real life concerns and pressures.
That way young people gain a wider, contextual understanding of the issues, as well as learning how to make better, informed choices about their own lives.
From 2014 to March 2019, our work in schools was conducted as part of the Amy Winehouse Foundation Resilience Programme, and delivered in partnership with treatment charity Addaction (now known as With You). This pioneering work was made possible with funding from the Big Lottery fund.
The Amy Winehouse Resilience Programme for Schools has been fully and independently evaluated by a team of researchers, from the University of Bath (UK) and Harvard University (US).
This team (which specialises in developmental psychology, and family and young person addiction) surveyed more than 80,000 young people. This is one of the largest school-based alcohol and drug education programmes to have been delivered externally, and evaluated through a charitable partnership, in England.
You can download a summary of this evaluation, including an overview of methodology and key findings, here.
‘Amy Winehouse’ and ‘Amy’ trademarks by kind permission of the Winehouse family.
Amy Winehouse Foundation. Registered charity 1143740 (England & Wales). Registered office: 5a Bear Lane, London SE1 0UH
