CAYAD Project
The Waitakere Community Action on Youth and Drug (CAYAD)
project is part of a national initiative funded by the
Ministry of Health. The purpose of the project is to improve
the health and wellbeing of Waitakere's population.
CAYAD works to empower local groups to achieve community
action by building their capacity and increasing their
ability to take ownership and control of youth and drug
issues and solutions. This in turn enables local groups to
develop and facilitate sustainable community based
programmes that minimise the harm caused by illicit drug use
to both individuals and the community.
CAYAD Objectives
CAYAD works to achieve the following outcomes
- Increased informed community discussion and debate
about issues related to illicit drugs;
- Effective policies and practices to reduce harm
adopted;
- Increased local capacity to support young people in
education, employment and recreation;
- Reduced supply of drugs to young people.
Current CAYAD projects
Alcohol and Drug Policy for Youth Organisations
The purpose of the project is to improve the health and
wellbeing of youth by reducing methamphetamine, cannabis,
alcohol and other illicit drug related harm. This will be
accomplished by aiding Auckland youth organisations to
develop drug and alcohol policies. The policies will provide
a secure framework within which all staff can work to
safeguard the health and safety of youth within the
organisation.
Waitakere CAYAD is doing this project in partnership with
Auckland City CAYAD. We are working initially with three
youth organisations: Zeal, YMCA, and Youth Town. We hope to
assist these three organisations to complete their
guidelines by early next year.
Volatile Substances
In 2008, CAYAD spoke to organisations that provide services
to youth and their families. We asked these organisations
what drugs were causing the most harm to youth and their
communities. A number of these service providers named
volatile substances (also known as solvents).
As a result, CAYAD is now finding out more about volatile
substance abuse in order to find out the best way to limit
the access to these products by young people.
CO-LAB Poster Campaign
CO-LAB is the collaboration of four top local hip hop crews
with CAYAD, Darrell Winning and YMCA. Four posters featuring
Sweet & Sour, Odyssey, Limit Break and Trak1 have just been
released with their own bold statements on drug-free
lifestyles emblazoned across them. These posters will be
featured at local events, youth organisations and schools
and will be available to fans at their events for a small
fee.
Kick It
Kick It is an alternative action programme aimed at
addressing the issue of illegal drug use, mainly cannabis.
The programme is currently offered within two Waitakere
secondary schools. The programme offers students who are
caught with drugs while at school an alternative to facing
disciplinary action form the Board of Trustees (BOT) and
enables the students to remain at school. Kick It is
abstinence based and consists of students being offered
ongoing support and counselling throughout the programme to
stop using drugs and use random drug tests to ensure their
abstinence. If the student gets repeated positive tests they
are removed from the programme and are required to report to
the BOT.
2008 Needs Assessment
The 2008 Needs Assessment is a key piece of work that
CAYAD and SWAP have been working on this year. Components of
this work include; interviews with local service providers
and community groups, a media scan, review of local and
national youth, alcohol and drug statistics, youth focus
groups and a literature review. The findings from the 2008
Needs Assessment are due out in September 2008.
Wild Waitakere Warriors Progamme
During April 2007, 18 secondary school aged students from
Waitakere had the opportunity to participate in the Wild
Waitakere Warriors programme. The programme aimed to provide
Waitakere teenagers, who exhibited strong leadership
potential, the opportunity to develop their leadership
skills.
The programme was developed by Matt Kerr, from Pure
Productions, with sponsorship and support from
Mayor Bob Harvey,
Safe Waitakere - CAYAD, NZ Surf & Snow Tours, AWOL
Adventures, Youth Team Trust, Primal, Pure Productions,
West
Wave Aquatic Centre and the Waitakere City Council.
Resources in Waitakere were utilised as the
location for the exciting adventures the Warriors
experienced during the four-day programme.
The programme consisted of:
- assessing and building water confidence skills
- surfing at Piha and learning about beach and ocean
safety
- leadership workshop
- canyoning
- abseiling
- team building
- celebration BBQ
The feedback from the Wild Waitakere Warriors and their
parents regarding the programme has been positive. We would
like to thank everybody who was involved in helping make
this programme a success, especially the Wild Waitakere
Warriors.
If you would like more information about any of the above
projects please contact the CAYAD team.
Links to support services
For further information about local support services
check out the sites below:
Waitakere Alcohol and Drug
Service Directory
Drug related
information and sites
Youth related sites
Statistics and research
|
