The Mentor International
Prevention Awards 2010 were presented on October 14 during the Mentor International Gala in Washington
D.C. at the Four Seasons Hotel. The four Awards, celebrating achievements and innovation in the prevention of drug abuse among
youth, were presented by the Mentor Foundation’s President, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden.
The awards were
presented to outstanding programs in four categories: Achievement, Innovation, Youth Initiative and USA National Partner.
This was the first time the awards were presented in the United States.
Yvonne Thunell, the Chairman of Mentor International and USA (www.mentorfoundation.org), said that Mentor received more than 200 applications from 53 countries. “This shows that people all
around the world are committed to prevent drug abuse among children and adolescents. It is an honor for us to reward these
talented organizations.” The Mentor Foundation (Mentor) is a non-profit, non-government organization, which is unique in its focus on international
drug abuse prevention among children and adolescents.
Mentor was founded in 1994 in Switzerland and has its administrative offices in
the United Kingdom with national chapters in Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, UK, Colombia and a newly opened office in Washington
D.C. Mentor also has a regional chapter in Lebanon serving 22 Arab League Countries.
Terry O’Neill, Director of the Constantine
Institute of Albany, NY, said that he was invited to participate “as the result of the esteem in which our
eponymous patron Tom Constantine is held throughout the world among people who care about the welfare of children and who
wish to promote best practices and evidence-based programs that have been shown to protect children from the effects of mind-altering
drugs (defined to include alcohol and tobacco) and all the crime, violence and degradation that they bring.”
O'Neill says:
"Many of the programs that we have supported at the state and local level over the past two decades have been unsatisfactory
and remain scientifically unproven. We owe our children better than we have given them. The opportunity to participate and
network with individuals from many nations through the Royal Gala and the Mentor International Prevention Awards helps make
contacts with people who have been involved in developing many innovative approaches that have been effective enough to merit
international attention and Her Majesty's acknowledgement. By establishing these contacts, I hope that the Constantine Institute
may help to bring some of these ideas home to New York where we may adapt them to the needs of our children and ultimately
to have a New York program nominated for a future Mentor International Award. That is a goal well worth setting for ourselves."
The Achievement
Award was presented to the Center for Health Promotion Research at Oregon Health and Science University in
Portland, Ore., for the ATLAS and ATHENA project. This initiative is a health promotion
and drug abuse prevention program for high school students. The project aims to reduce the use of performance enhancing drugs,
alcohol and illegal drugs. The program also promotes exercise and nutrition and gives students tools to fight eating disorders.
The project has already involved more than 60,000 students and has been evaluated and subsequently recognized
as an evidence-based program that deters the use of drugs and alcohol among adolescents.
The Innovation Award was presented
to the Heideveld Trauma Project – Music for Life from Cape Town, South Africa for
its innovative approach in preventing drug abuse. The project works with vulnerable children exposed to gang activity, drug
abuse and antisocial behavior in impoverished areas of Cape Town. It employs music therapy to empower them by improving their
sense of self worth, their ability to manage difficult emotions and by eliciting positive social behavior. Ultimately the
project encourages
children to become their own agents of change within their social environment.
The Youth
Initiative Award was presented to SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) from Marlborough, Mass.,
for an initiative offered by youth for youth. The project is a science-based initiative to help school communities change
attitudes and social norms that currently encourage underage drinking among 9th and 10th grade students.
The Mentor
National Partners Award was shared by two organizations, one from Mexico and one from Panama.
Drug Prevention
through Life Skills, Academic Achievement and School Enrollment led by the Mexican Institute
of Family and Population Research in Mexico City is a project for elementary school children, their
teachers and parents. The main aim of this comprehensive program is to keep children enrolled in school as this is a major
protective factor against drug abuse.
Young People Creating a Better World, a project run
by the Panamanian White Cross, provides at-risk youth between the ages of 13 and 18 a camp experience to
develop their knowledge, attitudes and skills for healthy and positive lifestyles.
O’Neill says: “The opportunity to meet Martha Castellano Vallejo
of the Mexican Institute of Family and Population Research was particularly moving. Her acceptance
of the National Partners Award makes a powerful statement in the face of the desperate acts of human sacrifice that go on
every day in her country, and the calamitous statistics: the nearly 28,000 people who have been killed in drug-related battles
or assassinations since President Felipe Calderón took power almost four years ago, the thousands of kidnappings, the
wanton acts of rape and torture, the growing number of orphaned children. Where in the United States are we making so brave
a stand for our children?”
