Planet Youth Elgin-St. Thomas

The Model

How it works

Planet Youth is not a 'program' — it’s a method to identify and establish long-term, community-driven strategies that promote social and environmental change.

It’s designed and proven to reduce or prevent drug and substance abuse and misuse among youth — while helping to build and strengthen communities. It was pioneered in Iceland in the 1990s and is now used in countries worldwide. We want to bring this approach to life, with your help, here in Elgin-St. Thomas.

The Planet Youth model shifts the focus of substance use prevention from individual responsibility to community involvement. It calls on adults in a child’s life — parents, educators, and community leaders — to create a supportive environment that reduces the risk factors for substance use.

Our three pillars of success are:

  1. Evidence-based practice
  2. Using a community-based approach
  3. Creating and maintaining a dialogue among research, policy and practice

Risk and protective factors

The model focuses on four key factors that can influence youth substance use: their peer group, family interactions, experience in school and how they spend their leisure time.

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The Method: Ten Steps

  1. Local coalition identification, development, and capacity building
  2. Local funding identification, development, and capacity building
  3. Pre–data collection planning and community engagement
  4. Data collection and processing, including data-driven diagnostics
  5. Enhancing community participation and engagement
  6. Dissemination of findings
  7. Community goal-setting and other organized responses to the findings
  8. Policy and practice alignment
  9. Child and adolescent immersion in primary prevention environments, activities, and messages
  10. Repeat steps 1-9 annually
Frequently Asked Questions