The aim of the project:

The main goal of the project is to connect programs that build on and complement each other. Our primary goal is to provide all members of society with appropriate information about the development of addiction and the harms of addiction (drug and behavioral addiction), but primarily the target group (young people in a marginal situation (aged 14-20) living in the countryside) and those living in their immediate environment ( parents, teachers, social workers) to shape attitudes related to addictions and physical/mental health. The project has several objectives that are closely related to its main goal.
1. Development of the professional competences of partner organizations, thereby providing better quality services to the target groups. By preparing their own drug prevention action plan, the party organizations want to collect their priorities and develop their own good practices, which are sustainable in the long term and in line with the organization's possibilities.
1.1. Expanding service delivery - training youth helpers and building their network. The youth helpers, who expand their addiction and helper competence during the implementation of the project, thereby become capable of group and, if necessary, individual prevention work with young people. With their activities, the youth helpers ensure the continuity of the member organizations in the field of drug prevention. An important aspect is that the youth helpers involved by the partner organizations are young adults in a similar life situation, who, with their professional knowledge, can contact the young people locally in a way that is not foreign to the language and culture. The youth workers with their empathy, with their professional preparation, they can provide appropriate mental and, if necessary, physical help (finding an institution) to young people suffering from addiction or prone to deviance. We consider it an important element in the project that the youth workers build regional and international professional relationships, the goal of which is that the youth workers always know how to find the right request for help or service if they get stuck in the course of their work. Among themselves, the youth workers form an international team, which provides an opportunity to exchange experiences, recognize and solve common problems, more effective representation of interests, and policy action. that youth workers always know how to find the right request for help or service if they get stuck in the course of their work. Among themselves, the youth workers form an international team, which provides an opportunity to exchange experiences, recognize and solve common problems, more effective representation of interests, and policy action. that youth workers always know how to find the right request for help or service if they get stuck in the course of their work. Among themselves, the youth workers form an international team, which provides an opportunity to exchange experiences, recognize and solve common problems, more effective representation of interests, and policy action.
2. Promotion of a multidisciplinary approach - We find that there is little cooperation and professional forums between organizations active in the care and prevention of addiction at the regional level. Those organizations that actively participate in the organization of programs for young people in other areas (e.g. sports, leisure activities, preservation of cultural heritage, development of language skills) are completely excluded from these professional forums and are not prepared to recognize possible problems related to addiction. Even if they manage to detect the presence of the problem, they cannot handle it, and due to the lack of relational capital, they cannot even ask for professional help from other competent organizations. That is why we want to connect those civil organizations at the regional level,
3. Policy activity - analysis of the literature and methodology of effective drug prevention, our goal is to study and consolidate the policy (drug prevention strategy, legal framework) and methodology (good practices) of five countries and the European Union. We want to utilize the international knowledge gained from this on two levels.
3.1 Active participation in international and regional policy - we support the work of regional and international organizations with international study volumes.
3.2. Representation of the interests of young people belonging to the target group of the member organizations - the newly formed network and professional attitude of the youth helper is ready to help the profession with its work.

Activities:

After the contract signing process, the party organizations meet in person (opening conference, Szeged), where they get to know each other personally, present their organizations' profiles and objectives in the project, agree on the tasks undertaken during the project, deadlines, frameworks, and cooperation rules. It is important to emphasize that the partner organizations hold an online professional meeting every month during the duration of the project, at which they report on the difficulties in implementing the activities experienced in the project, help each other's work, and carry out process evaluations. They discuss the next steps and analyze the effectiveness of the implemented programs. At the beginning of the professional activities of the project, the partner organizations search for and invite for cooperation those potential youth helpers, local young adults, who are suitable for the activity with their professional qualifications and other competencies (application condition: Europass). After that, the partner organizations begin to include the regional statistical and policy data in the study of the specific situation of the country and to visit the state and civil organizations dealing with regional drug prevention and treatment. After the connection is established, a regional database is created. (July-December 2022). After the connection is established, a regional database is created. (July-December 2022). After the connection is established, a regional database is created. (July-December 2022).

The next activity is the professional training of youth helpers in Subotica. During the training, international experts dealing with addictionology (prevention, harm reduction, rehabilitation) give lectures and workshops. The topics of the training are the development of addiction, the drug use habits of young people, the psychology of adolescence, adolescent deviance, limits of competence, innovative drug prevention - peer support (story therapy, psychodrama, practicing the technique of supportive conversation). Afterwards, within the framework of their own regional organization, the youth workers draw up their own prevention workshops based on the knowledge and good practices acquired in the training realized during the meetings and implement them several times for the target group of local young people. The preparation of the regional action plan of the partner organizations is a background activity, which is a continuous agenda item of the monthly online partner meetings. It is created as a result of the organizational experience gained during the project and the mapping of local needs. It includes a situation analysis, and after analyzing the emerging needs and problems, the organization outlines its own place, role and vision in the care system. It defines services that the organization is able to provide successfully and efficiently in the next 4 years. (period April-July 2023).