UK Youth in partnership with Drinkaware will be holding a ‘Young People and Alcohol’ Conference and launching a new Drinkaware Challenge programme to tackle alcohol misuse amongst young people and underage binge drinking.

According to the Government’s new alcohol strategy ‘Safe, Sensible, Social’, 30% of young men and 22% of young women aged 16-24 drink at a harmful level[1]; while 44% of young people aged 16-24 are more likely to binge drink than any other age group.[2] As well as having an adverse effect on young people’s health, there are also strong links between alcohol consumption and other risk factors such as teenage pregnancy, youth offending, and exclusion.

UK Youth says that non-formal education approaches can enable young people to question their attitudes to alcohol use; and boost their self-esteem and develop essential life skills so that they are equipped to deal with the pressures that may influence them to drink excessively. The Drinkaware Challenge programme will strengthen Government initiatives in combating alcohol misuse by taking on a holistic, non-formal approach to raising awareness of alcohol use and misuse.

The Drinkaware Challenge will empower young people to influence alcohol education themselves and will present them with the challenge of how to change attitudes and behaviour. The programme will also provide national accreditation via the Youth Achievement Awards, which will formally recognise young people’s learning and achievements. UK Youth will launch the Drinkaware Challenge programme and explore new and innovative methods of engaging young people in non-formal alcohol education at the ‘Young People and Alcohol’ conference on 21 June 2007.

For more information, please visit www.ukyouth.org.

[1] ‘Safe, Sensible, Social: Next Steps in National Alcohol Strategy’ by HM Government (June 2007)

[2] Ibid.

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For further media assistance (case studies, images, interviews) or to register to attend this event contact Jasmin Qureshi, 020 8450 3657 or  This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it     

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Notes to Editor

1. UK Youth is the leading national youth work charity working with over 750,000 young people, 40,000 volunteers and 7,000 youth projects, youth clubs and groups.  UK Youth works to help young people raise their aspirations, realise their potential and have their achievements recognised.  UK Youth runs the Youth Challenges and Youth Achievement Awards programmes – to accredit and recognise young people’s learning and development.  For further information see http://www.ukyouth.org/
2. Drinkaware is an independent UK charity that aims to change public behaviour and the national drinking culture by providing people with practical advice and information. For more information about Drinkaware visit our corporate website at www.drinkawaretrust.org.uk.
3. Drinkaware’s flagship website – www.drinkawarewww.drinkawarewww.drinkaware.co.uk  – provides information about responsible drinking to consumers. It currently receives around 2 million hits every month.
4. ‘Young People and Alcohol’, a national conference, will look at non-formal approaches to developing and accrediting alcohol education work with young people. This conference will launch the Drinkaware Challenges, a project which will provide resources and support to help young people make informed decisions about alcohol. Delegates attending will hear a range of key note speakers, including a representative from the Department of Health, attend practical workshops on the theme and take home a copy of the new Drinkaware Challenges Resource, a toolkit of sample YAA challenges and targets as well as activities and guidance. The conference will be held on Thursday 21st June 2007 at the MIC Hotel and Conference Centre, 81-103 Euston Street, London, NW1 2EZ (10 minutes walk from London Euston Station). Conference Fee:  £70 + VAT (total £82.25) per person including lunch, tea/coffee, The Drinkaware Challenge Resource and a DVD of the Drinkaware Film screened. For more information or to book, please contact Charmaine Simpson on This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it   or 020 7242 7774.