Youth Voices Youth Choices

A Student Film Production Curriculum to Create Methamphetamine Awareness

Do you want to:

• increase awareness and knowledge regarding methamphetamines and other illegal drugs in your schools?
• foster healthy attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward drug use and being drug-free?
• build student connectivity to their school and community?
• bolster resiliency and social competence in youth with an emphasis on bonding?
• provide opportunities for youth to practice filmmaking skills through interactive approaches?
• develop innovative prevention tools for use in the schools and communities?

Oregon Partnership brings you Youth Voices Youth Choices (YVYC), a student film production curriculum to create methamphetamine awareness. This binder, CD, and DVDs can be purchased separately or are part of our one-day Youth Voices Youth Choices trainings. This innovative program offers twelve exciting lessons that educate teens about methamphetamine and other drug use and provide opportunities for them to create their own messages to educate others about drug use. Since 2003, this program has been used in several school districts throughout the state of Oregon. The program gets students behind the camera, on the screen, in music studios, and at the editing suites to create video projects that will help other young people avoid the pitfalls of drug use. This innovative approach generates excitement by training teens to use basic video production techniques, providing engaging, hands-on learning for teens; and giving them the opportunity to have an effect on their communities.

View a video sample of the Youth Voices Youth Choices.

Research-based

Throughout the four-year project, Oregon Partnership staff worked with RMC Research Corporation to document the success of the implementation of the project and the outcomes of its participants. Pairing substance abuse prevention with a skill-building filmmaking project was shown to be a viable prevention program model, and participant interviews yielded the following findings:

• Participating youth reported a high level of satisfaction with the program sessions and staff, and reported acquisition of filmmaking skills.
• Participants reported increased confidence, and improvement to social skills such as public speaking and working in groups. They also learned that very different people can come together and work towards a common goal.
• Participants gained knowledge of facts and risks related to methamphetamines and other substances; and further, this knowledge supported their desire not to use.
• Audience surveys indicated that films created by youth are well-received.

Skills-based

YVYC supports experiential and inquiry-based learning and gives targeted students access to vital prevention resources and video/film production training, and enables them to address substance abuse issues in their communities.

Learning standards-based

Promoting Protective Factors
The lessons provide interactive workshops and creative activities to produce a positive peer culture, develop self-confidence, build trust, enhance protective factors, and increase youth's positive attitudes toward remaining drug-free.

Strengthening Community Connections
YVYC collaborates with community partners to increase the availability of, and improve community access to, methamphetamine prevention services. Components include outreach to youth, parents, and other community and business leaders outside the after-school intervention.

Youth Voices Youth Choices–Training of Trainers

Developed by Oregon Partnership Education and Training Center, this one-day Training offers suggestions and guidelines for building strong community partnerships; teaches basic Prevention 101 and community-building; covers basic technical filmmaking skills; works through the essentials of each lesson; and provides film premiere planning advice, parent involvement strategies, and tools for evaluation.