MACRO POST 2
After finalizing the project that we were going to work on for this semester, we started our practicum with event planning. For the past few weeks, our team has been working on spreading awareness about substance use and abuse for middle schoolers. We planned to carry this through conducting a poster contest and a virtual/in-person meet with students or through providing them with videos or testimonials of people in recovery. We started to contact middle schools and high schools in Johnston County to participate in our campaign and described to them the various project ideas we had had for the students to get involved and get educated on the perils of substance use. we started contacting various schools through email and we waited for their acceptance of the program. We were not sure if we would be able to work with school-goers with covid and its restrictions. At last, we were fortunate enough to get in touch with two middle schools for conducting the event at their schools. With only a few weeks left for Red Ribbon Week, our team and the JOCO angels’ team has been working with us to present a project for two middle schools from Johnston County, they are the Benson middle school and the McGee’s crossroad middle school. This event was to bring awareness to them about peer pressure and substances such as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs including prescription medication. We are conducting a two-day meeting with the schools with fun as well as an educative poster contest and a presentation with video demonstration and testimonies to spread this message of “SAY NO TO SUBSTANCE USE”. We have created two posters for students as a model for them for the contest. Apart from this, we have also planned to conduct a pizza and ice-cream party for the student as a part of the red ribbon week. We hope that this small part we play would create positivity among students and promote education on the harmfulness of substance use on their physical and mental health. The first video we have created consists of three scenarios. The first scenario demonstrates peer pressure, smoking, and bullying. The second scenario shows alcohol and drug abuse and also the dangers of underage drinking and the last clip show drug overdose and fear of stigmatization. Each of the scenarios has a question to go with it that students have to identify and at the end of each scenario a message related to the scene will be provided in the form of a presentation. Apart from the presentation students are provided with resources for them to use if they need help. The second video is a testimony from a teenager who has lost their dear ones to substance abuse. The testimony represents how they suffered from mental health issues and issues with fitting into a new place and that it would be easier to become friends with a group of kids who relate to each other only due to smoking or alcohol use to fit in. This testimony also speaks about how important it is to pay attention to our mental health and how important it is to keep our morals intact. During these weeks I have learned and participated in a lot of new things that I have never experienced up until now. Coming from a background with minimum knowledge on substance use I have educated myself on how people cope with substance use through videos and through reading few articles. I have come to know that a lot of the student and people in general who are impacted by the use of substances have had experienced trauma and has turned to the use of substances as a coping mechanism for it. Hope these small projects conducted to educated middle schoolers about the dangers of substances and peer pressure has a positive effect on them to say “NO” to peers and use of substances and to affirm them that they are not alone in the process of realization and recovery.