"That's not cannabis, that's just a bush!" complains one young man. He's one of a group of 15-year-olds from Coventry who are taking part in a school-based drugs information session called "Wicked Night Out", run by project worker Vicky Millard.
Millard has rearranged the classroom furniture into a less formal setting. Then having established ground rules, she uses cards with images and information about drugs that young people have to match.
The teacher stays in the background, helping with forming small groups, collecting cards and crowd control, if needed. A second card exercise raises issues such as spiked drinks, emergency contraception and how risky situations can be made safer. There is plenty of banter and swagger, but careful listening also shows more serious discussion too.
In the beginning
Back in 1997, health officials in Coventry were worried. The city had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country, and it faced a challenge of a new government looking for ideas on strategies for dealing with this and drug abuse.
The solution was to give responsibility for young people's health education to the youth service. A decade later and the Shadow Project has 10 full-time staff, eight of whom deliver sex, drugs and healthy lifestyle education sessions in every secondary school, college, special school and pupil referral unit in the authority. They also cover the care system, training providers, youth offending service and Connexions. Staff come from a range of a health and youth work backgrounds. Demand for its services mean the project has grown from 18,000 pupil hours in 2002 to 39,000 in 2006.
The project's manager, Brian Mason, is funded through the youth service, but most of the money comes through a service-level agreement with the primary care trust and drug and alcohol action team.
"Shadow is unique: I'm not aware of any project like it," says Mason. "There was very little sex and relationship education in schools. The teachers weren't happy doing it and young people found it hard to engage on sensitive issues with those in authority. Hence the decision to go with young youth work staff."
Mason acknowledges that the early focus on seven priority schools did cause some resentment among youth services. "People saw resources seemingly taken away from traditional neighbourhood approaches and into schools. In the past four years, we've tackled that and got health educators to look at how they can complement - not take over - the health curriculum for youth services."
Each team member is now partnered with a local youth project, where they look at the project's needs and come up with potential structured activities.
Promoting discussion
On the same day of Miliband's workshop, fellow Shadow worker Francesca Middleton is taking a sexual attitudes session with another group of year 10s. In the first activity, small groups are asked to consider a scenario from a newspaper agony column, which features an anguished mother trying to curtail her 16-year-old daughter's sexual activity.
An early response of "I'd tell my mum to eff off!" quickly leads to agreement that the best way forward is open discussion. Most of the groups give excellent advice, though a pair of quiet, shy boys are reluctant to join in. Middleton makes it clear she can talk to them privately later, encouraging them to feel that their opinions are as valid as everyone else's.
During a second activity, three groups write down all they know about pimps, and another three do the same for prostitutes. The discussion then questions the impact of opinions and prejudice, and takes on some of the received wisdom passed on through rap songs and videos.
An afternoon session at City College sees Beccy Lawrance and Lynn Crawford working with a group of design students aged 17. The hour-long session starts with a discussion based on "the drugs box", a case full of realistic samples of drugs and paraphernalia.
In the main part of the session, Lawrance and Crawford hand out sets of 40 cards containing snippets of information that make up a murder mystery-style thriller about a wild night out involving drink, drugs, sex and a mysterious death. It's a fun, but a complex and demanding job to find the links and come up with a plausible theory. However, the students stick closely to the task, with Shadow workers listening in, prompting and dropping in suggestions as required.
In the Shadow office, healthy lifestyles worker Jordan Rix looks at the sessions he can offer. They include anti-bullying workshops, stress management, conflict resolution, healthy eating and a "body MOT". "Young people respond to sex and drugs sessions quickly, but you have to sell other areas a bit harder," says Rix.
Positive results
Willenhall youth worker Kirstie McElroy, who teams up with Middleton, is enthusiastic about the impact the team has had on the youth service: "As youth workers, we used to have to be the font of knowledge, but as face-to-face workers we don't always have the time. Francesca can come in as just another youth worker playing pool, but then throw some sexual health playing cards into the mix. From that we'll start building a programme based on their needs."
McElroy will sit down with Middleton and plan what interventions are needed. For her, it's a case of booking what time she can and making the most of what Shadow can offer. Recently they have been targeting 15- to 19-year-olds with resources such as the Sexopoly board game and Wicked Night Out sessions. "Young people can get advice at drop-in clinics, but bringing this kind of thing into their own centre, where they are comfortable, works really well," says McElroy.
Shadow has made waves beyond Coventry too. Richard McKie, senior development officer for health at The National Youth Agency, is impressed: "Three cheers for Coventry for investing in this. It is by far the biggest youth service health response I have come across. It shows a service confident and ambitious enough to offer programmes across the educational sectors."
Also significant for McKie is that the team works on prevention, but is in touch with those who are drug users, have sexually transmitted infections and so on. "It's an interesting model in the context of targeted youth support requirements. The joint funding puts Shadow exactly where the youth service needs to be - cheek by jowl with the health service and mainstream education."
So has Shadow made a difference? The teenage pregnancy rate in Coventry has dropped by 10 per cent in the past two years. Evaluation also shows a nine per cent increase in knowledge for those who have attended Shadow workshops. But Mason is keen to develop the measures: "We're not as canny as we could be about recognising the change in confidence and self-esteem - areas as important as knowledge. Our approach needs to be different to youth work - the challenge is to operate in both worlds."
Further information For more information about the Shadow Project call 02476 786 232 SHADOW'S TOP 10 TIPS FOR DEVELOPING A YOUTH WORK HEALTH CURRICULUM
1. Develop good relationships with key health partners. Know what services they offer and how young people can access them.
2. Involve young people. Find out what they know, what's important to them and what they need to know.
3. Ensure the work is appropriate for the target group. Have you considered: age and size of group; gender and sexuality; race, ethnicity and faith; literacy issues; learning styles?
4. You can't change the world in 45 minutes. Four or five key messages is more than enough during a session. Follow the 5 x 3 rule = five messages, repeated three times.
5. Know what you want to achieve, make it realistic and break it down into manageable chunks.
6. If it's good, pass on the information. One day it might save your project time and money if other services reciprocate
7. Keep partners and stakeholders regularly updated and share challenges. Measure what you can and don't exaggerate what you can't prove.
8. Make sure you use resources young people will engage with. Don't be afraid to design your own.
9. Ensure you give up-to-date and accurate information.
10. If its enjoyable, it's usually engaging. Make it so.
