Welcome to the VIDA project. What does VIDA stand for? VIDA means Vital Information for Drug Awareness. Through the VIDA project, we aim to work with young people and their youth workers across Europe to raise their awareness of how drugs affect young people in Europe, and to build their understanding to be able to address this issue.
Young people nowadays deal with a range of complex stimuli and confront issues such as climate change, online bullying, mental health and complex social pressures; however, the issue of drugs remains. In this context, education that reaches out to young people directly on platforms they engage with plays a vital role in assisting them to make informed choices and avoid addiction. The VIDA project provides Interactive Infographics, as well as a a suite of educational materials, which have been purposely-designed to address drug awareness.
During a two years' project, we developed 12 interactive infographics, which youth workers can use with young people in their groups, to address drug awareness and the impact that drugs can have on young people’s lives.
What are interactive infographics? Interactive infographics are graphic posters that are interactive! By this we mean that these posters will contain QR codes and links, to bring young people and youth workers to a series of educational videos, games and quizzes, that will help them raise their awareness of how to define the problem and plan suitable intervention and prevention strategies in relation to the issue of drugs in our communities.
Throughout the course of the VIDA project, we will also train youth workers to be able to develop their own Interactive Infographics; meaning that they can apply this method to a range of different topics and issues they address through their youth practice.
VIDA has been funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme. The VIDA project commenced in June 2020 and will run until May 2022. VIDA is currently being delivered by a team of five youth organisations from Finland, Czech Republic, Ireland, The Netherlands and Portugal.
The VIDA project - Vital Information for Drug Awareness - provides drug awareness training materials in the form of 12 Interactive Infographics and the following resources which address the core issues of Problem Definition, Appropriate Response Reaction and Prevalent Problems today.
All Intellectual Outputs are available free of charge on the online interactive portal - VIDA MOOC. In this respect, the VIDA MOOC hosts all of the learning materials that have been developed and therefore provides access to the Interactive Infographics, In-Service Training Program and Peer Leadership Program in all partner languages. The access to the VIDA MOOC e-portal is open to anybody interested in the project topic and offers several activities such as educational videos, quizzes, escape rooms and WebQuests. These resources are also directly accessible through the QR codes on the Interactive Infographic posters.
Interactive Infographics
Each infographic features an interactive suite of learning materials embedded within the infographic. The infographic includes a QR code that leads directly to resources like WebQuests, digital breakouts, videos, audios, quizzes and puzzles, engaging the individual throughout the interaction.
In Service Training Program
The In-service training programme for frontline youth workers aims to build their skills to develop Interactive Infographics, providing them with the technical know-how to use programmes like Powtoon, VideoScribe, StoryboardThat, Kahoot, LearningApps and other open source programmes. This training also helps youth workers to develop their skills to adapt their facilitation skills and youth group activities to inclide the use of these Interactive Infographics.
Peer Leadership Program
A peer leadership programme has been be developed to support youth leaders engaged in the challenging environment of combating substance abuse, providing them with innovative interactive materials in the real and virtual world where the infographics can extend their knowledge on key themes and reach young people where they are most likely to be influenced online.
MOOC
The VIDA MOOC acts as an online interactive portal, which hosts all online learning materials developed and features the 12 Interactive Infographics, which are available in 5 languages. This MOOC is compatible with smart phones, tablets and laptops. In addition, hardcopy infographics containing QR codes link directly to this portal.
To get involved and support our project, please find and follow us on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/Vida-106496577769525/
