Three projects from Belgium, Poland and Lithuania were awarded the Pompidou Group’s 2021 European Drug Prevention Prize, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Group at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The 2021 Prize winners – S.A.M.E.N. (Together) project in Belgium, TripApp in Poland and Operation Snowball in Lithuania – were selected out of 53 candidate projects.
First launched in 2004 by the Council of Europe’s drug policy platform known as the Pompidou Group, the European Drug Prevention Prize is awarded every two years to highlight excellent drug prevention projects that have proved successful in involving young people. A jury of seven young people (aged between 16 and 21 at the time of their appointment) evaluated candidates and awarded the three winners a trophy and prize money of €5,000.
Belgium
S.A.M.E.N (=TOGETHER) is a multidisciplinary project for youth with shared responsibility, ownership and commitment. Among its aims are reducing legal and illegal drug use, providing alternatives to substance use and abuse and limiting harm to oneself and to society as a whole. The project is based on a bottom-up approach, involving peers and role models.
Poland
TripApp is an app meant to reduce the harms related to the use of drugs, through providing people with honest and reliable information about them. It connects people directly to drug checking results, harm reduction service providers, safer use information and drug law legislation. The app allows for real-time alerts about drug-related risks and informs about local drug services in 15 different languages.
Lithuania
Operation Snowball is a preventive youth programme which aims at raising awareness among young people of the effects of psychoactive substances and their impact on the human body, making them feel responsible for their actions, health and public welfare, and developing their psychological resilience, communication, cooperation and leadership skills. The project shows the importance of sobriety in a way that can be accepted by young people, through youth camps and activities.
European Drug Prevention Prize: winning projects from Belgium, Poland and Lithuania