The Approach
How it works
Planet Youth is not a 'program' or ‘project’ — it is a method to identify and establish evidence-informed, community-driven strategies that promote social and environmental change.
Planet Youth was developed from the Icelandic Prevention Model – an evidence-based primary prevention approach with demonstrated effectiveness in reducing substance use in Iceland for over 20 years. It is designed and proven to reduce, delay, or prevent drug use among young people — while helping to build and strengthen communities. Pioneered in Iceland in the 1990s, it is now used in countries worldwide. We are bringing this approach to life, and need your help, here in Oxford.
The Planet Youth approach shifts the focus of substance use prevention from individual responsibility to community involvement. It calls on adults in a young person’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:
- Evidence-based practice
- Using a community-based approach
- 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.
The Method: Ten Steps
- Local coalition identification, development, and capacity building
- Local funding identification, development, and capacity building
- Pre–data collection planning and community engagement
- Data collection and processing, including data-driven diagnostics
- Enhancing community participation and engagement
- Dissemination of findings
- Community goal-setting and other organized responses to the findings
- Policy and practice alignment
- Child and adolescent immersion in primary prevention environments, activities, and messages
- Repeat steps 1-9 annually