{"id":11886,"date":"2016-07-04T13:46:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T13:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?page_id=11886"},"modified":"2025-03-22T19:02:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T18:02:37","slug":"teenex-success","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/teenex-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenex Success !!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Teenex<\/a><\/p>\n

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teenex e.v.<\/span><\/p>\n

a story of success<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Looking Back<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Testimonials<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Photo Gallery<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Boldly Go … With The Teenex Force<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    1. \u00a0 LOOKING BACK ON THE GROWTH OF TEENEX \u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Ann Stoker, a drug treatment and prevention specialist directed two drug agencies in West London boroughs in the 1980s\/1990s. Each of these agencies, SaBu in Hillingdon and CEDAR in Hounslow worked directly with drug users, individually and in group sessions.\u00a0 Courses were run for parents and teachers in schools and colleges in the area.\u00a0 A weekly youth group was initiated for youngsters involved in glue sniffing and through their attendance at the club they were encouraged to meet on a one-to-one basis with counsellors and helped to stop using.<\/p>\n

      When Ann was first asked to tackle the problem of drug abuse in our town, back in 1988 there was no mention of Prevention in my job briefing. The assumption then by most authorities was that all energy should be focused on treating the problem, and helping people who had developed the problem. This is an understandable assumption to make. But as she explored the international research on the subject, she soon found that there was more that could be done before<\/u> problems developed \u2013 and this was the great potential of prevention. There will always be some people who develop problems, for their own personal reasons or their social situation, and of course they must be helped to recover, but the primary goal, for the health and economic prosperity of society, should be to help the great majority of people to avoid such problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      At this time, Ann\u00a0 was completing her degree course and became extremely interested in the psychology of social learning theory.\u00a0 Much of her experience with young people had come from working with teenagers in youth club settings and in particular with those youngsters who had begun to use illegal drugs.\u00a0 Research showed that there are two societal groups who are more influential on young people than any other\u00a0 – parents, and the young people themselves \u2013 this group we now call \u2018peers\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0She also found that in general, the reasons why most people get involved can be defined under 5 headings \u2013 curiosity, peer pressure, pleasure\u2013seeking, boredom and escape from problems. Ann’s husband Peter also worked in the CEDAR drug agency and we had been attending PRIDE (Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education) conferences in the USA \u2013 at our own expense \u2013 for five or six years.\u00a0 One year Ann persuaded her manager to allow me to spend some of her training budget to send four young people to America to attend a PRIDE camp; they came back brimming with confidence and enthusiasm for drug prevention and became founder members of a youth drug prevention group.\u00a0 Later they were able to encourage twelve others to attend a PRIDE conference one year \u2013 raising all their own money to do this.<\/p>\n

      Ann had designed and delivered training packages for parents, but she now wanted to design a package which would address the reasons why young people use drugs – a package for young people, which would allow them to be directly involved \u2013 instead of just being recipients of older people\u2019s knowledge. She had seen the fun that youngsters had at PRIDE camps with singing and dancing and believed this could be included in a wider drug prevention programme. This was the birth of Teenex.<\/p>\n

      Teenex has a philosophy \u2013 Trust the Process.\u00a0 It addresses curiosity about drugs by giving accurate and unbiased information about substances, it teaches peer pressure reversal techniques, and it keeps the participants busy from the time they wake up until they go to bed \u2013 no time to be bored.\u00a0 They have fun !\u00a0 They play games, they write skits.\u00a0 They learn to sing and dance.\u00a0 In small groups they discuss emotions \u2013 why we feel as we do, they share problems and make friends who will help them deal with sadness, bullying, bereavement, divorce.\u00a0 Friends with whom they can share our dreams and their aspirations.\u00a0\u00a0 All this learning is done in a supportive and positive environment. No lectures \u2013 lots of discussion.\u00a0 No adults preaching \u2013 just peers helping each other and learning how to have fun without drugs, how to resist peer pressure and how to motivate their friends to be drug free also.<\/p>\n

      Since then, Teenex has been introduced to Portugal where over 30 camps were run in one year, to Poland, and to Bulgaria. In the UK, sadly, Teenex was unable to continue due to lack of adequate funding but our colleagues in Germany have thrived for over 15 years since Ann and Peter Stoker visited Germany and shared the Teenex philosophy with enthusiastic workers in a trainers camp. And it is still going strong today! (As of 2025).<\/p>\n

      Since the first visit by Ann and Peter, under the excellent direction of Corrina and their team, Teenex in Berlin has thrived and Teenex e.V. now has a permanent home \u2013 a castle no less ! \u2013 Schloss Blossin – and continues to run Teenex camps as well as rehabilitation programmes for drug users, a mother and baby facility, training placements for psychology students and much more. We cannot praise their achievements too highly and we are proud to have been a part of the Teenex success story in Germany.<\/p>\n

      Ann an Peter recently visited Teenex e.V. to meet up with their colleagues and they were given a full tour of their new building, Schloss Blossin, the main castle building and the training block; they saw a well-preserved and nicely-decorated establishment. They also met some of the current residents, who gave an impromptu presentation, and they met several of the staff. The overall impression was of an impressive, professionally-run operation.<\/p>\n

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      Programmes are not limited to drug\/alcohol treatment; they also address academic requirements, and they also provide specialised training and craft rooms.<\/p>\n

      Teenex is an example of good practice in prevention. More than twenty years after the first Teenex camp\u00a0 NDPA put a\u00a0 message on Facebook, asking anyone who had attended a Teenex camp to tell NDPA what they remembered \u2026.. in the paragraphs below\u00a0 \u00a0a few comments received have been\u00a0 <\/strong>put together<\/strong>–\u00a0 although, for each of them, Teenex was just one week, they write to say how this experience impacted their lives and how they have never forgotten what they learnt.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      1. \u00a0 TESTIMONIALS – \u00a0FEW TEENEX GRADUATES GIVING THEIR COMMENTS <\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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