Youth Ambassadors at Northeast High School have now completed 3 training sessions and also successfully planned and implemented the “Human Experience,” formerly known as the “Haunted House of Addictions,” on October 11 at Marley Station Mall.
During the Human Experience, Northeast High School Upperclassmen took over a large empty storefront and turned it into an impactful real-life experience about the impacts of substance use, even engaging local police and firefighters to heighten the experience.
The experience was designed to “portray the lives of teens that struggle to make the right decisions in life, and how those decisions can affect their lives and others.” Students worked hard with staff liaison Brandi Dorsey to plan and portray a party scene, an overdose, treatment, a car accident, a funeral, and more. Freshmen from several local high schools attended the event as a field trip, and the event was open to the public on Friday evening.
Read more about this change project here.
About Living the Example
Our ‘Living the Example’ (LTE) peer-to-peer program empowers youth to speak up and out against drugs and provides them a platform to be heard. Through interactive outreach campaigns and listening to our youth, we provide the tools for them to become their own advocates for staying drug-free. The program has shown promising results in terms of shifts in attitudes towards drugs and intent to use drugs. Overall, findings from the first LTE pilot project conducted together with the George Washington University suggested that peer-to-peer substance use prevention via social media is a very promising strategy.
Youth Ambassadors
The program targets Seniors within selected high schools to become LTE Youth Ambassadors. Youth Ambassadors are trained in Leadership, Advocacy and augmenting existing Social Media skills to become agents of change within their school communities. During the Fall and Spring Semesters, the’ Youth Ambassadors are expected to implement a series of peer-driven schoolwide “change projects” at each school. The projects aimed to engage and educate the entire school community and positively alter the attitudes around drugs and alcohol and other risky behaviors. The change projects are stipend-supported by Mentor Foundation USA.
Read more about our Living the Example Program here.