For children and adolescents, there are two primary environments for prevention of
psychoactive substances use – family and school. The advantage of schools is the ability to
implement interventions with all children (universal prevention), not only those in risk groups
(selective prevention) or vulnerable individuals (indicated prevention). All children can benefit
from universal interventions in schools, given that they are all exposed to some degree of
risk. Furthermore, the messages we convey to all youth in school can be received without
stigma, because the interventions do not rely on the identifiying and potentionally isolating
youth who have already started using psychoactive substances. In addition, isolating high-
risk yoth into a closed group (Poulin, 2001) has been proven to increase their risky behavior.
Research on preventive interventions in the school environment has demonstrated their
effectiveness in improving academic performance and preventing school dropout (Gasper,
2011) – these are two basic academic goals.
Not all preventive activities and programs will be effective for all school populations, so the
intervention should be implemented with the age group for which there is evidence of its
effectiveness. School prevention programs should contribute to the reducing of risk factors
and the strengthening protective factors in the school environment. Preventive activities
should be integrated into the school curriculum to ensure their long-term implementation.

Preventive projects and programs implemented by the NARKO-NE Association in
schools

Who Actually Wins? is a prevention program aimed at preventing youth involvement in
gambling, intended for first and second-year high school students, and aims to improve the
professional approach to gambling prevention and reduce gambling among this population.
Let's grow up together is an eduactional program for promoting health and personal
development of children from 1st to 4th, or 5th and 6th grades. Let’ s Grow Up Together is
based on the approach of enhancing life skills (which can also be described as personal
development), meaning that children’s social and personal skills are strengthened.
Guiding stars is one of the projects that NARKO-NE has been implementing since 2010.
Educated volunteers are students of humanities who, through educational work with children
at risk, work on developing social skills and healthy habits, but also provide educational
support to children who live and/or work on the street.