Last July, in celebration of World Youth Skills Day, youth participants from the Youth Forum 2021 proudly published their co-created digital magazine, the UNODC Youth Initiative magazine: "Butterfly Wings". Organized as a creative outlet to empower and provide youth with a platform to explore and discuss their perspectives and solutions to the world drug problem, it was completely written, illustrated and published by the youth contributors. With their hearts set on creating a positive vibe and to help educate their peers and throughout the world, youth have reflected on what substance use prevention means to them, and how to promote youth engagement across their societies.
With its release, the 1st issue of the “Butterfly Wings” managed to catch the eye of Youth Forum alumni, as youth participants from previous Youth Fora showed interest in becoming part of the creators of the 2nd issue of the magazine. And as a result of the strenuous work by Youth Alumni beyond the Youth Forum 2021, UNODC is excited to announce the release of the 2nd issue of the "Butterfly Wings".
In this recent issue, youth reinforce the importance of robust mental health. They explore the importance of critical thinking before getting immersed in the alluring content often portrayed through the media. The youth also highlight the importance of engaging with everyone (including the elderly and children who may be in vulnerable situations) in preserving protective factors whilst minimizing risk factors to substance use and continue to implore for youth voices to be heard and be considered as active changemakers in society. This time around, youth have also created a crossword puzzle, meant to invoke important keywords and initiatives related to science-based prevention. Try it out for yourself by clicking here.
We invite you all to take a moment out of your day to read an article (or two) from the youth, see how invested these young people are in striving to advocate for evidence-based drug use prevention, and, to use the words from a youth contributor, “make the science of prevention understandable for everyone.” We congratulate the youth alumni on their successful publication, and look forward to the development of the next issue!
Read the 2nd issue of the magazine here, and click here to read the 1st issue of the magazine.
