Take prevention science training to the substance use and crime prevention frontline

ended

This project is a practice application of established EU and international standards, evidence-based interventions (EBI) and policies for substance use prevention. Key condition for EBI uptake is to have a trained prevention workforce for proper application. FRONTLINE POLITEIA designs and tests training using the European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) (https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/best-practice/european-prevention-curriculum_en) for frontline staff: teachers, police, streetworkers. It follows-up on previous EU-financed work (EDPQS (https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/manuals/prevention-standards_en), UPC-Adapt (https://upc-adapt.eu/), ASAP (https://asap-training.eu/) that focused on training DOPs (decision-, opinion- and policymakers). FRONTLINE POLITEIA is their logical complement: the frontline staff coordinated by DOPs needs to be trained as well: in prioritising EBIs and phasing out obsolete practices. This proposal applies high-level training expertise in translating scientific facts into practice by hands-on tools and practicing in a blended learning delivery: e-learning intertwined with practical application in communities. The project team includes 9 of 15 partners from previous EDPQS, UPC-Adapt and ASAP projects. The academic and civil society organisations involved, cover 14 member states from all EU regions in 14 languages, adding countries with recent interest in the EUPC, like France, Sweden and Finland. The game-changing feature is the active and dedicated inclusion of law enforcement staff as important actors for integrated and improved prevention responses, with the European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN, https://eucpn.org/) as expert contributor. Focus is the design and testing of e-learning tools with interactive methods, and real-life application by local teams including police. Trained competences are applied in local analysis of interventions or needs with EMCDDA (https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/) and CTC-tools (https://www.communitiesthatcare.net/). The name “Frontline Politeia” embodies sustainability by referring a) to Plato’s dialogue about critical thinking and the importance of educated leadership, and b) to the EMCDDA PLATO platform (https://plato.emcdda.europa.eu/index.php/lt/about-us-lt), to which the project outputs (course, tools, manuals) will be compatible, for expected adoption.