HARVARD RESEARCH PAPER

Harvard Research Paper

Harvard Research Paper

Introduction

Multiculturalism and diversity are details of the up to date status that have a bearing on the association and functioning of societies. The detail that people inside a humanity may not have a distributed dialect, heritage or annals conceives new stress in that society. In the case of matter misuse, persons often accuse foreigners, outsiders or other ones for the disperse of pharmaceuticals and other compounds of abuse. Moreover, those "foreigners" or "others" are glimpsed as particularly awkward because "they have their own modes and entails of managing things and we don't desire to hinder in that …” The stigma adhered to pharmaceutical misuse is strengthened by racial and ethnic stereotypes while, at the identical time, the stereotypes themselves impel juvenile persons in the main heading of matter abuse. It is this convoluted cycle of strengthening contradictory stereotypes, marginalization and pharmaceutical misuse that provoked the study of the topic of avoidance amidst the exact goal assembly considered.

How the guide was written

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime "Hands-on Theme Meeting on Working with Youth from Ethnic and Indigenous Minorities on Drug Prevention" was held in Brisbane, Australia, from 2 to 6 June 2002. Workshop participants included both employees and volunteers of services working with young people from ethnic and indigenous minority groups and were drawn from countries all over the world, including Australia, Canada, Finland, Guyana, India, Lithuania and New Zealand. The workshop was structured in such a way that participants had an opportunity to share their experiences and stories about working with young people in drug prevention programmes. During the workshop, participants considered the following issues:

• Identification of the important things to consider when working on drug prevention with young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds;

• Developing effective drug prevention programmes with young people from ethnic minorities;

• Interacting with young people from ethnic minorities in developing effective drug prevention strategies and programmes.

While the workshop focused on developing drug prevention programmes for young people from indigenous and ethnic minorities, it is equally important to recognize the existence of different cultural and historical influences that may have nothing at all to do with ties of culture, community, history or genealogy. While ethnic and indigenous minority groups share experiences that can provide a foundation for action, the importance of the local context, including an understanding of cultural, political, historical and social influences on young people, is a recurring theme in the present guide. Indigenous and ethnic minorities have therefore been grouped together and analysed with a view to addressing the needs of specific subgroups that form a minority within the population and have some experiences in common.

The present guide is the result of discussions between the participants and the hard work of Ben Norris and Cindy Shannon, who helped to organize the initiative and worked on various versions of the guide. The Coordinator of the Global Youth Network project organized the overall initiative and, along with the Coordinator of the Global Initiative on Primary Prevention and a ...