Thierry Charlois

Training Guidelines and Professional Profile of the Outreach Worker in Harm Reduction

APDES, AFR and 10 other European organisations working in the harm reduction field have submitted with success an application to the Leonardo programme. The goal of this 2-year project is to identify the basic guidelines and contents for the training of outreach workers on harm reduction. 350 participants from 12 European countries will take part in 17 meetinsg and visits across Europe in order to contribute to the development and dissemination of a training manual.

As coordinator of the AFR international partnerships working group, I manage the participation of the organisation within the project.

The 1st European Harm Reduction Meeting

The European Harm Reduction Network (EuroHRN) has been recently formed by ten organisations with a shared interest in advocating for and sharing knowledge on drug-related harm reduction within Europe.

The 1^st European Harm Reduction Meeting, co-organised by the EuroHRN, the AFR and the city of Marseille, will be held in Marseille on October 6th-7th, 2011. Through plenary sessions and capacity building workshops, the meeting will gather the network's members and concerned stakeholders with the aim of:

• Sharing an assessment on the harm reduction situation within Europe;
• Improving the EuroHRN sub-regional networks (Southern, Northern and Central-Eastern European networks);
• Developing the European Drug Users Network;
• Enhancing the partnership between the harm reduction field and the local elected officials based on the experiences from consumption rooms' implementation;
• Advocating for a drug policy reform;
• Improving our networking and building our future together…

As consultant, I help the AFR to take part in the project and to organise the meeting (programme building, partnership coordination).

More information on http://www.eurohrn.eu/

Access to treatment and harm reduction for drug users in custody

The ACCESS project is a European initiative aimed at bringing together organisations from different EU member states to contribute to the knowledge base and practice of harm reduction services, with the aim of improving access to treatment for drug users within the criminal justice system in European countries.

ACCES has received co-funding through the EU Drugs Prevention and Information Programme for the period 2011-2012. The project will work to:

1. Widen knowledge of harm reduction in prison, through research activities;
2. Increase awareness and improve capacity of staff working in prison regarding harm reduction and treatment models, through 2 training academies;
3. Support experiential learning on implementation of harm reduction and treatment services in the CJS, through placements and study visits;
4. Disseminate information and evidence on harm reduction and treatment for drug users in the CJS to a wide European audience, through web site; newsletter; newsflash, final conference.

The French Harm Reduction Association (AFR) is involved as partner in the ACCESS project. As a consultant, I support the AFR's participation in the project.

 

The NEW Implementation project

 

The partners of the DC&D Safer Nightlife platform and the members of the Basics Network submitted with success an application at the EU Public Health Programme called "Nightlife, Empowerment, Well-Being Implementation project" (NEWIP). This 3-year project (2011-2013) proposes responses to the new challenges in the field of synthetic drugs harm reduction such as partygoers’ mobility (party tourism), new youth cultures and trends of drug uses, necessity of improving nightlife community empowerment as well as filling the gap in terms of geographic coverage.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• improving field work interventions;
• adapting responses to partygoers mobility;
• developing innovative responses adapted to youth cultures;
• developing community empowerment (nightlife and health professionals, local authorities, etc.) ;
• implementing new projects and enlarging the network (mainly among new member states);
• improving rapidity of responses. 
  

To reach the objectives, the partners will: 

• collect, adapt and implement best practices standards and guidelines;
• organise training sessions and study trips;
• organise common field interventions in 6 big international music festivals (180 000 people);
• support the implementation of safer party labels in 12 EU cities involving the local communities;
• set up a database on synthetic drug checking results and develop an early warning system on dangerous substances and new trends of uses;
• organise the "EU NEW Safer Night" and a dissemination conference.
  

I was involved as a consultant for the main partner, ABD - Energy Control, to submit the application. During the project development, I will manage the external cooperation of the network. My support to the application submission was made into the framework of the European Action on Drugs.

Supporting the integration of the AFR at the EU level

The French harm reduction association (AFR) is a national umbrella gathering individuals as well as organisations in order to advocate towards the French institutions and to share practices among members. Since 2007, I have been involved with the AFR as a consultant and volunteer with the aim of improving their integration at the European level as well as the members' capacity to work in local partnerships.

Until now, the results of this mission are:

• the creation of the AFR working group for local and international partnerships;
  
• The integration of the AFR in the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs;
• the participation of the AFR in the European Harm Reduction Network , in the ACCES project as well as in a Leonardo project;
• The integration of the AFR in the International Drug Policy Consortium.
  

Since October 2009, I am member of the AFR board of Directors and this October 2010, the treasurer of the organisation.

The Democracy, Cities & Drugs conference "New Challenges, New Solutions" - Vienna, Feb. 23-25, 2011

The partners of the Democracy, Cities & Drugs II project organised the New challenges, New solutions conference in Vienna on February 23^rd – 25^th 2011. This conference approached the DCD II topics that the working groups dealt with during the project, as well as the new challenges and solutions the local partnerships will have to tackle with.

This event made possible the participation of European Mayors, local elected officials, representatives of International and European Institutions as well as practitioners, researchers and experts active in the field of drug policies.

The result of this conference has been the Democracy, Cities & Drugs resolution.

As consultant, I was in charge of coordinating the conference Scientific Committee elaborating the programme.

Expert visit to the Safer Nights programme in Cyprus

On April 2011, in the framework of the NEWIP project, I was invited as consultant by the Cyprus Anti-drug Council, which leads the Cyprus safer nightlife programme called "Safer Nights", in order to support the development of their project. The activities undertaken during this 2-day visit were:

 

1. A meeting between the expert and the Safer Nights management board;
2. A training session for the outreach workers;
3. A meeting with the involved nightlife professionals.

This visit was an opportunity for the local team to share their practices with a European expertise and to join in the future the European Network of Safer Nightlife Labels (Party+ - Article on this network soon). Read more...