Hope UK - Phoenix from the Ashes

Hope UK has a long pedigree in alcohol education. Beginning life in the nineteenth century as the Band of Hope, providing an educational and social resource for generations of children, Hope UK has now adopted a new name and a new approach to tackling the alcohol and drug problems of the twenty-first century. Here, George Ruston, Director of Hope UK, describes its contribution.

Attending the finals of the Global Rock Challenge means listening to loud music and stunning performances from students who are there because the organisers want them to have a natural high whilst performing on stage. The idea is that young people are given alternatives to the artificial highs produced by alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs.

Hope UK, like the Global Rock Challenge, has a vision of enabling young people to make drug-free choices. There is no artificial separation made between alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs, although, obviously, account has to be taken of legal status. Are Hope UK's activities -- and those of the Global Rock Challenge -- a postmodern version of what used to be called the temperance movement? What seems to be lacking from the government alcohol strategy is a significant realisation that people are going to have to drink less -- or not at all -- and also pragmatic solutions that offer alternatives. In January 2008, Kevin Brennan MP, stated that the government was going to deliver a social marketing campaign in order to foster a culture where it is socially acceptable to young people to choose not to drink, and, if they do, to do so later and more safely¹.

Social marketing on its own will not foster that culture -- it requires practical action and significant peer influence and role modelling. Literally, people have to stop drinking alcohol products. How will the shareholders of drinks businesses feel about this? It may be easier for government to focus on criminal justice issues, although the recent initiative to increase price is to be welcomed. At the end of the day, people make their own choices. And, however it is dressed up, alcohol-free options need to be given a higher profile.

Professor Virginia Berridge, in her review of the temperance movement² and the lessons that can be learned for current and future alcohol policy, debunked the idea that it had little relevance to the present. She outlined how the movement was part of a general social change. Professor Griffith Edwards once described the Band of Hope as a ‘social event’, which held its adherents by virtue of the social enjoyment of being together. This is a long way from any worthy but dull presentation of facts about alcohol. One of Berridge’s key conclusions is that temperance history showed that the issue of cultural change is central. Hope UK's response in a postmodern world is built around such holistic views.

Hope UK was 150 years old in 2005. Formerly, it was the UK Band of Hope Union with a history that includes Queen Victoria as its patron, and over 3 million members in the late 1890s -- all enjoying what Griffith Edwards described as a social event. Today, its focus is on providing voluntary Drug Educators who will work directly with children and young people as well as providing training for those adults who have responsibility for them. Last year, these Educators reached over 50,000 young people -- either directly or via responsible adults. This year, Hope UK has launched a step change plan which will see it reaching 500,000 young people, with 1,000 trained Drug Educators by the end of 2011. (Training is provided by a 120-hour Open College Network accredited course, developed by Hope UK's training team.)

Postmodernism may have started as an architectural concept, and there is still much debate as to what it really means. However, it recognizes that we are in a society where individual choice is important -- we have moved a long way from Henry Ford offering a colour choice for his model T car of black or.... black... or black. Behaviour and attitudes need to be examined interactively in ways that make people think for themselves and beneath the surface of myths and misunderstanding. So many individuals still think that illegal drugs are responsible for more deaths than alcohol and tobacco – and very few people appreciate that one in every 10 children are suffering because of their parents’ alcohol or illegal drug use -- most because of drinking.

Hope UK is bringing something new and something old to the party. Old in the sense that it focuses on people and seeks to communicate with them at the level of everyday life. New, because training voluntary Drug Educators means that there is a growing workforce available to meet people where they choose to meet -- in evenings or at weekends, particularly. At present, there are 209 Educators throughout the UK, either trained or in training. There is a traditional emphasis on alcohol-free options (as part of the drug-free option) with a postmodern approach that features a holistic emphasis, which goes far beyond looking at the facts.

At the same time, changes in culture and civil society -- as identified in Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone³ -- mean that many of the traditional sources of people to speak to (churches and membership groups) are finding their numbers diminishing. New ways have to be found to communicate with people. Hope UK's involvement in the recent Pentecost Festival in central London saw its Educators offering members of the public the chance to walk a white line wearing beer goggles. Those who were a little shy were offered the chance to play Jenga instead. Conversations start from these activities.

Thirst for life

The thirst for life campaign (www.thirstforlife.org) encourages individuals to try to go alcohol free for 40 days. Typically, people find this hard. They are also encouraged to try the 10 point self-audit test to check out their drinking levels. One individual recently e-mailed to say that he had been shocked to realise how much he actually drank and took ‘time out’ by going 40 days without alcohol. thirstforlife has been run on a shoestring, but it illustrates an attempt to communicate in practical ways that individuals can respond to -- a historian might recognize elements of signing the pledge, albeit for a temporary period.

One of the key elements to Hope UK’s revitalised activity is in recognizing the potential that exists within the voluntary and community sector. Although 50% of its work is outside Christian networks, Hope UK’s Christian basis is enabling it to mobilise churches and their organisations to include alcohol and drug prevention activities within their programmes. There are 50,000 local churches within the UK. All of them have some form of community presence and their members live and work alongside people who will have or develop issues with their alcohol and drug use. By equipping them with knowledge and confidence in the effectiveness of peer influence and role modelling, change can be brought about. This is a long-term project. It is also work that targets everybody who is concerned with children and young people and seeks to involve organisations for which alcohol and other drug education may be peripheral or non-existent -- yet which have a huge potential for influencing their clientele.

Hope UK’s focus on universal prevention fits within the Government’s Youth Strategy and the Every Child Matters policy framework. The publication (in 2007 and 2008 respectively) of the Government’s Alcohol and Drug Strategies for England highlighted the need to reduce the level of harm related to substance use. Similar Government strategies for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all point in the same direction.

Hope UK’s step change Plan, launched at its Annual Meeting in May, 2008, is centred on a strategy that will make a Hope UK Educator available locally to every community within the UK. This will mean training 1,000 voluntary Drug Educators who will be able to reach 500,000 children and young people each year by the end of 2011. It was put together with assistance from the Pilotlight capacity building charity.

A new Hope UK is arising from the ashes of the temperance movement. But the journey is only just beginning, and it will be fascinating to see how much of the old remains, in reforming and strengthening the new work that is being developed by means of the voluntary Educator workforce.

References:

1 Hansard 8 Jan 2008

2 Temperance – The history and impact on current and future alcohol policy Virginia Berridge, JRF Drug and Alcohol Research Programme

3 Bowling Alone: The collapse and revival of American community Robert D Putnam Published by Simon & Schuster