Fish Bowl

Knowing that peer pressure is a major factor in young people’s drinking, the Fish Bowl Project aimed to turn that peer pressure into peer support by recruiting and training young people to raise awareness around unhealthy alcohol consumption.

The project involved two volunteer groups; Alcohol Peers (under 18’s) and Alcohol Educators (aged 18-24) who used tools such as beer goggles to educate their peers around alcohol and the effects it can have on health, behaviour and relationships, and to highlight the risks associated with unhealthy alcohol consumption.

To read about the impact of Fish Bowl on the young people we worked with click here.

You can also find out more from the feature on Look North:

 

Fish Bowl has been a huge success and over the 2 years and 3 months the project was running we engaged with 1694 young people across alcohol awareness and training events held at local high schools, colleges, youth cafes and as part of our Fish Bowl Saturday and Summer Events. This project has worked with two volunteer groups and both have shown great results:

• 195 young people aged 13-17 completed their training as Alcohol Peers with 139 becoming active volunteers.  “It felt great to pass on tips for safety, I went home feeling like I’d made a difference”
• 62 young people aged 18-25 completed their training as Alcohol Educators with 32 becoming active volunteers.  “I now understand units and realise I was drinking a lot more than I thought”
• The project provided young people with a great opportunity to gain work experience through volunteering, help them make better informed decisions and also to make a difference to the lives of other young people.
• Fish Bowl has provided 1048 volunteering hours where young people have helped to make a difference to other young people’s lives by passing on the right information about the impact of alcohol and tips for safety.
• 82% of young people who engaged in Fish Bowl activities said that they now know how to stay safe as a result of our work.