6th February 2024
| The 5th February marked a very important day for the youth charity The Alcohol Education Trust. After 14 years, the charity has changed its name to The TALK ABOUT Trust, to reflect the fact that it supports young people with the knowledge, life skills and resilience to make safer choices around vaping, cannabis, NOS and other substances, drink spiking and county lines as well as alcohol. Our flagship programme is called Talk About Alcohol and so the new name gives us continuity plus the flexibility to talk about other important issues facing young people today. Helena Conibear CEO commented, ‘When we started providing youth and parent workshops and teacher training in 2009, alcohol was absolutely the substance of experimentation for young people and is still hugely important, however vaping and cannabis use have increased hugely over the last five years, whilst youth drinking and binge drinking have thankfully been declining. As a result, we have been supporting children and young people and the teachers and professionals who work with them more and more on cannabis, cannabis edibles and more recently vaping, where children are experimenting at a shockingly young age. The name change to The TALK ABOUT Trust gives us the flexibility to talk about whatever is important to improving young peoples’ health, wellbeing and life chances, so we are very excited by this new chapter.’ Colin Weston, MBE High Sheriff for Dorset and a Youth Court Magistrate, made the keynote address at the TALK ABOUT Trust new name launch held at the charity’s headquarters, which includes a café and community hub Pavilion in the Park (PiP) Poundbury. 'Both as High Sheriff and as a Youth Court Magistrate for many years, I have seen at first hand the huge impact that both alcohol and drugs can have on young people and indeed on older people as well. 25 per cent of referrals to substance misuse services stem from the youth justice system – the National Crime Agency tells us that 100% of children involved in County Lines and child exploitation are excluded from school, and research shows that 40% of prison inmates were under the influence of alcohol and 45% under the influence of drugs when committing an offence. I have no doubt that the work that The TALK ABOUT Trust does goes a long way in ensuring that our young people are kept safe and understand the dangers of substance misuse. Thank you for all that you do.’ The charity made sure it consulted the young people it works with, its wonderful funders and other stakeholders to ensure that the new name reflected the day to day work that it does in providing engaging interactive resources, websites, lessons and workshops for young people on alcohol and other substances, training and support for teachers and youth professionals and online and face to face support for parents and carers. You can learn more about the TALK ABOUT Trust’s work across England and Scotland via helena@talkabouttrust.org |
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| Photos from the new name celebration on Monday 5th February |
| Further information The TALK ABOUT Trust is a national charity which provides children and young people with the knowledge, resilience and life skills to make safer choices around alcohol, vaping, cannabis and other substances. The charity provides free engaging resources online and face to face for young people, and highly-evidenced resources, CPD and training for teachers and youth professionals, plus support for parents and carers. As early onset of substance use is the greatest vulnerability for substance treatment for under 18’s, early intervention and prevention is at the heart of the charity's work, moving to harm minimisation for older teenagers and young adults. You can learn more by visiting www.talkabouttrust.org , our youth facing website www.talkaboutalcohol.com and our young adult advice hub www.life-stuff.org The TALK ABOUT Trust headquarters Pavilion in the Park ( PiP) on The Great Field Poundbury in Dorset forms a really important part of The TALK ABOUT Trust’s remit to encourage community cohesion and diversionary activities for young people. From their community hub, the charity run holiday clubs, an after school art club, an annual teen hang out day as well as family events for Halloween and Easter, for example. To learn more of if you would like to volunteer or get involved with our clubs and activities, please email kerry@pipspoundbury.com For further details please contact Helena Conibear via helena@talkabouttrust.org 07876 593345 |