School just teaches us how not to take drugs. Our approach to education empowers young people to reduce the harms of drugs, and find their voices in the policy debate.
Safer Partying Initiative
The Safer Partying Initiative is a trailblazing project that connects University students with harm reduction tips and drug testing kits to make drug use safer in their communities.
One of the first projects of our organisation, the Safer Partying Initiative began as a collaboration between the Melbourne University Student Union (UMSU) and the SSDP team at the University of Melbourne.
From 2017-2019 SSDP UniMelb worked with the Welfare Department at UMSU to develop and implement a program to give re-agent drug testing kits to students, and expert harm reduction education from the DanceWize program at Harm Reduction Victoria. The Safer Partying Initiative has since spread to Edith Cowan University in 2019 in collaboration with the ECU Student Guild.
Contact us at hello@ssdp.org.au if you’re interested in helping us expand the Safer Partying Initiative on your campus.
Smarter About Drugs
Smarter About Drugs is a collaborative school drug education project and resource co-developed by Australia21, Australian Lions Drug Awareness Foundation, and SSDP Australia.
The Smarter About Drugs resource includes a Teacher Manual and a Student Manual, which together aim:-
To encourage critical thinking and open discussion about the motivations for, and the reasons why, people use alcohol and other drugs.
To facilitate critical analysis of the ways in which policies, laws or rules influence perceptions and behaviours around drugs
To offer young people the tools to consult evidence, and identify pathways to participate in discussions and debates around drugs and drug policy.
The resource has been in continuous development and improvement since 2014. SSDP Australia joined the collaboration in 2019 as part of a funded pilot study at two Victorian secondary schools, supported by the Alcohol & Drug Foundation and evaluated by RMIT University.
A team of young people from across Australia is currently reviewing the Smarter About Drugs resource in light of the evaluation’s recommendations.
Contact smarter.about.drugs@australia21.org.au to register your interest or find out more.
Get Involved
We’re representing and empowering young people to bring change to drug policies.
