About

Who we are

The TALK ABOUT Trust work is built around three pillars: supporting young people, their parents and carers and the professionals who work with them:

Early intervention and prevention approaches for children and young people
Ensuring we equip young people with the knowledge and life skills to make safer choices before any potential problems begin. This primary goal has been enhanced with targeted work for children most vulnerable to alcohol and drug misuse, plus harm reduction approaches for older teenagers and young adults including support on cannabis and vaping.

Supporting teachers and youth professionals with everything they need to deliver effective and engaging alcohol and other substance education (training and resources)
Evidence shows that trusted adults who know the children well are best equipped to deliver health education. The TALK ABOUT Trust therefore provides workshops, training, online and face-to-face support and resources for teachers, youth workers, health professionals and those working day-to-day with 8 - 25 year-olds of all abilities and backgrounds. This is both an affordable and sustainable model as those trained are then confident and equipped to use positive life skill approaches and can cascade their learning to others.

Empower parents and carers
Parents and carers are the key suppliers of alcohol to young people (70%) and play an essential part in setting boundaries and being good role models. These ‘tough love’ skills delay the age that young people drink or use other substances and the amount that they drink or experiment. The TALK ABOUT Trust therefore facilitates workshops and seminars and has a dedicated web area for parents and carers, with advice varying from the law, the physical and mental effects of early alcohol use to hosting parties.

Our mission

To keep young people safe around alcohol and drugs, improve life chances and reduce negative risk taking. We support teachers, parents, carers, community leaders and those under 25.

Our goals

Raise the age of onset of drinking whole drinks from the current age of 13 to at least the UK Chief Medical Officers’ Guidance of age 15 with a long-term goal of the legal purchase age of 18.
Reduce the prevalence of vaping, cannabis and other substance use through early intervention and prevention.
Reduce the prevalence and social acceptability of binge drinking and drunkenness, vaping, cannabis and other substance use among young people to the age of 25.
Raise awareness of the lifetime risk of early alcohol and other substance use.
Ensure the life chances of young people most vulnerable to alcohol and drug harm and abuse are improved.
Reduce the accidents, violence, assault and harm caused to young people and the community by alcohol and drug use.
Encourage diversionary activities for young people that reduce anti-social behaviour crime and onset of drinking and drug use.
Support young adults to the age of 25 in University and other settings and reduce the prevalence of spiking under 25.

Want to learn more about what we do?

Celebrating 15 years as a charity

During June 2025, The Talk About Trust celebrated our 15^th Birthday. Read Founder and CEO, Helena Conibear's 15^th Anniversary speech, or see more in our special anniversary newsletter. Click on the image below to see our 15 year timeline.

WHAT WE DO

We aim to reach children before they begin drinking or experimenting with vaping or drugs and help them work out why it makes sense to wait until they are older (if they choose to drink) and how early and heavy drinking or substance use increases their risk of injury, accidents, health harms, grooming, exploitation and assault and makes them more vulnerable to others. We use evidenced approaches to build young people’s knowledge, resilience and life skills, helping them make more responsible, informed choices as they encounter alcohol and other substances. A new key focus is working with younger children to raise awareness of vaping.

As young adults begin to navigate the world of parties, pubs, clubs, festivals and independence, we equip them with the knowledge, awareness and strategies needed to stay safer around alcohol and other substances such as cannabis and vaping. We have specific programmes addressing drink spiking and safer nights out as well as how alcohol and substance use affects consent and increases other vulnerabilities.

Our interactive activity-based and award-winning Talk About Alcohol programme for schools with additional elements for SEN settings is proven to improve knowledge and significantly delay the age that teenagers choose to drink whole drinks, so reducing harms and improving health outcomes. We have also applied our knowledge and resilience approaches to vaping, cannabis, ketamine and other substance education for all abilities and youth settings. We focus our support in regions where alcohol and drug related harms are highest and have targeted approaches for those most vulnerable to alcohol and drug misuse, such as care experienced children and victims of childhood trauma.

The teachers and youth professionals that we equip with the knowledge, skills and resources to support young people ongoing around alcohol, cannabis and vaping become our ambassadors and cascade their learning to others. This means our programmes cost under £1 per young person. We continue to mentor those we train with new and updated resources, provide professional development and ongoing phone/email support via our highly experienced and regionally based staff.

Lecturing, scare mongering and ‘just say no ‘ messages are proven to be ineffective in changing young peoples’ attitudes and behaviours to alcohol and drug use.
The TALK ABOUT Trust uses highly evaluated discussion-based activities, rehearsal strategies and interactive approaches with young people in a variety of settings both face to face and online that build young people’s decision-making skills, resilience and ability to resist peer pressure and so make informed, safer choices. young people’s decision-making skills, resilience and ability to resist peer pressure and so make informed, safer choices.