Building Teacher Skills for Drug Prevention in Schools
Safe and Drug-Free is a project focused on supporting teachers in preventing stimulant and drug use among young people. By providing interactive educational materials and practical tools, the project aims to strengthen teachers’ ability to respond effectively to sensitive situations, combining empathy, guidance, and accountability. The ultimate goal is to equip schools with methods that foster a safer and healthier environment for students.
Within the project, we developed the Sets of Impro, a set of educational materials designed to help teachers manage real-life situations involving drug use. The materials include an animated presentation explaining what stimulants are, their effects, and signs of misuse; an interactive escape room, Escape from Stimulant Castle; and two role-playing activities, one improvisational and one structured as a quiz, where teachers practice how to respond when students are caught using drugs like marijuana.
In the beggining of this year, we piloted the Sets of Impro with teachers from Primary School "Goce Delčev" in Sveti Nikole, North Macedonia. During the workshops, teachers actively engaged with the materials, participated in the escape room challenge, practiced the role-play scenarios, and reflected on how to handle real-life situations involving students and drug use.
The experience was very positive. Teachers found the materials useful, practical, and easy to apply in their work with students. They shared that the session was interesting and gave them new ideas for approaching sensitive topics more effectively. However, it was also clear that this is only a small step. While tools like the Sets of Impro are very valuable, much more continuous work is needed to be fully prepared to handle the serious and growing issue of drug use among youth.
Link to the project website: https://safeanddrugfree.eu/
Links to some of the materials:
