Brasília, 1 December, 2022 - The National Secretariat for Drug Care and Prevention (SENAPRED), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) promoted on Tuesday, 29, the first online session of the Training Workshop on EUPC - European Prevention Curriculum.
The event, held under the Project to Support the Implementation of the National System for Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drugs (SINAP), was also supported by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and the European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR). In all, five online training meetings will be held on 29 and 30 November, and 1, 7 and 8 December.
During the opening of the event, the national secretary for Drug Care and Prevention, from the Ministry of Citizenship, Quirino Cordeiro, highlighted the importance of joint action, from international cooperation, in favour of prevention in Brazil.
"We have been working together in several actions to fight drugs and in the construction of the National System for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drugs Use, the SINAP. We have signed technical cooperation agreements with UNODC and partnerships with UNDP in drug use reduction actions on several fronts. These are articulated programmes, based on evidence", he said.
As part of these efforts, the goal of the EUPC training is to begin the process of adapting the training curriculum on prevention aimed at managers, which will add to other prevention programmes already adapted to the country's context, such as Elos, #TamoJunto and Famílias Fortes.
"Prevention programmes are effective when they respond to community demands, involve all relevant actors and are based on scientific evidence. We have already supported the Brazilian government in the past in the process of identification and adaptation to the national context of prevention programmes focused on school and family environments, so this one, focused on managers, may add to the others by expanding the range of possibilities for prevention actions in a systemic way," says Nara de Araújo, UNODC Liaison Officer.
In addition to representatives of SENAPRED and UNODC, the training sessions bring together representatives from management, academia and other professionals working in the field, such as members of the police force, among others.
Focus group - After the online training, selected participants will follow the discussion on December 15 and 16, in Brasilia, where they will act in focus groups for cultural and context of the course and the EUPC manual, so that it is applicable to the Brazilian reality. Important strategic issues to ensure the quality and standard of EUPC courses will also be discussed.
The European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) is specifically designed to provide essential prevention knowledge to management representatives on proven effective prevention interventions and approaches. "The aim of the EUPC is to "shake up" prevention systems and provide impulses for their innovation rather than align prevention to a country's existing situation," explained Gregor Burkhart, one of the training facilitators.
