Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 2009
Source: Nanaimo Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Nanaimo Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1608
Author: Robert Barron
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)

STUDENTS GET A TASTE OF HARD LIFE

Youth Take A Tour Of Vancouver's East Side As Lesson On Drugs

A tour earlier this month of Vancouver's drug-riddled downtown east 
side was a real eye-opener for two Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district students.

Jessica Biekx and Kortney Ashcroft, secondary students from the 
district's Junior Learning Alternatives Program, joined others from 
districts across the province in Vancouver on April 4 to participate 
in the first annual "On Track Youth Ambassador Workshop" dedicated to 
showing youngsters a first-hand and close-up look at the perils of drug use.

Biekx and Ashcroft are now preparing a slide-show presentation on 
what they learned at the workshop, hosted by Odd Squad Production, a 
non-profit society created in 1998 by seven Vancouver City Police 
officers, to address some of the major social problems affecting 
communities, to present at secondary schools throughout the district.

"We want to show other kids what can happen when you get involved in 
drugs," Biekx said Thursday from her south-end school called the 
Junior Alternative Program, formerly known as Five Acres Alternative School.

"I think Kortney and myself were chosen by the district to attend the 
workshop because most students in the regular system wouldn't grasp 
the realities around drug use and addictions as easily as students in 
the alternative programs because many of us had more exposure to these issues."

Nanaimo RCMP Const. Trevor Shields said having peers prepare 
presentations of this nature for other students is a new concept, but 
one he feels might have more of an impact than if presented by adults.

"Obviously, many of these students have been exposed to things that 
most students in the system are sheltered from," Shields said. "It's 
a reality for many of them that's not far from home."

Biekx said it's important to get the message about the dangers of 
drug use to fellow students as early as possible.

"It we don't get the message to students before they start 
experimenting with drugs, the problem is much harder to deal with if 
they become addicts," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom