YP4All Bonfire Night Special
Intro
Buckinghamshire’s Youth Justice and Support Team (BYJST) helps prevent children and young people from offending and re-offending.
The BYJST hosts a young people’s forum called YP4All.
In YP4All young people who have received help from the BYJST provide ideas and feedback to make services and programmes better for young people.
On Monday 4 November 2024, YP4All members took part in a Bonfire Night Special session. They spoke directly with senior leaders about drugs, their impact, and keeping safe. Meanwhile, an artist created a chalkboard mural reflecting their conversation.
Key points
The art piece reflects the following key points, raised by the YP4All members in the conversation:
Are drugs bad?
- In general, yes, drugs are bad – except medical drugs.
- Longer-term drug use can make you brain-dead.
- Drugs can stop you achieving your goals.
- When someone you know has had a bad effect from drugs, it becomes a personal deterrent to not do it – for example someone losing control of their legs from NOS balloons, someone’s lung collapsing from vaping in school toilets, liver issues caused by alcohol.
Should weed (cannabis) be legalised?
- Weed can reduce pain if you’re depressed.
- People self-medicate with weed to help with dementia, mood, low self-esteem, sleep, to chill.
- It’s still bad to smoke weed. But if you’re medically diagnosed with depression, weed should be allowed.
- Legalising weed would mean it can be controlled and regulated to make it safer.
- Making NOS illegal has reduced use, but people are still doing balloons. The bad effects are better known though – e.g. you can lose control of your legs from it.
Vaping
- You can get vapes from mates – it’s social.
- People smoke vapes to try and fit in with a crowd.
- Sometimes vaping is alright, sometimes it’s not.
- It’s easy to get vapes as a teenager – an elder can buy for you for a fee. And you can buy vapes online, for example on snapchat or TikTok, it’s like Uber!
- But you never know what’s inside them. If it’s cheaper, it’s probably no good. The quality also depends on who your vape dealer is.
- When friends pass vapes around, it’s like you’re kissing each other – all that saliva and germs shared.
- Teachers talk about vaping in PSHE – different lessons and approaches in different schools.
What can leaders / professionals do to help keep young people safer from drugs?
- More talking about it.
- There used to be events at schools with different services / charities you could meet and learn from, but now events only seem to be about careers.
- At the Youth Summit, young people got to learn about and discuss vapes and drugs, in a practical, interactive way – that’s better than lessons.
Education
- There are talks in schools – not just about drugs, also safety – but it’s not always relatable.
- “I don’t think anyone in my school would listen to external speakers coming in. They’d tell them to [get lost].”
- Drugs are taught about as part of PSHE every year at school, although you get less as you get older.
- Teachers are often shocked in PSHE by how much students know about drugs.
Stop and Search
- Being stopped and searched is not nice, embarrassing, weird – especially when done publicly.
- The suspicion / allegation feels bad.
- Some Police officers take advantage of the amount of authority and power that they have. This can make them come across as arrogant and power hungry.
Social media
- People flaunt pictures and videos of money on social media – shows they’re doing well for themselves.
- Showing other people they can do it as well – it’s a recruitment strategy. Come join, you can get this.
- Drugs aren’t sold at school much, but drugs have been found at school – hidden in gutters, toilets.
Smoking and snuff
- Some people smoke cigarettes, some hash.
- Mostly young people only have tobacco in with hash.
- Some people use snuff (gum tobacco) – it’s legal, in the supermarket. It’s nasty, it recedes your gums, cancerous. People use it to keep calm, you can get a nicotine rush. And to quit smoking / vaping.
Alcohol
- Alcohol and drugs are available at Halloween parties, birthday parties. Lots of people avoid drugs but do drink.
- Alcohol can make you aggressive, you can see people get into fights.
- Alcohol can make you make bad decisions.
About the session
Settling in
The young YP4All members arrived at the Wycombe BYJST offices and settled into the sofas and beanbags in their usual room.
Everyone introduced themselves.
Lisa explained the plan for the evening.
Krissie shared some key messages.
You can view the full session plan by clicking the button below.
Attendees
- YP4All members x 5
- John – Director of Children’s Services and Youth Justice Board chair, member of the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
- Andy – Head of Buckinghamshire CAMHS, member of the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
- Artist Elly Bazigos (@ellybazigos)
- YP4All facilitators Lisa, Kingsley and Lamar
- BYJST manager Kate
- Krissie from the Youth Voice Bucks team
The discussion
We went into the garden and settled around a table next to a huge blackboard.
Artist Elly had already created a central image for the artpiece.
We sipped hot chocolates while talking about drugs and safety, using a mindmap to guide our conversation.
Elly added to the blackboard art while we spoke, reflecting key points from the conversation through diagrams and key words.
Breaktime
We went inside during the break to warm up with hotdogs, smores and popcorn.
Kate had hidden sweets around the BYJST building. The YP4All members went on a treasure hunt to find them, exploring the changes that Lisa and the team had made to the building following YP4All’s feedback in their previous session.
YP4All members also played pingpong and pool with Kingsley and Lamar.
Wrapping up
After the break, we went back outside to see what Elly had added to the mural.
We all signed the artwork and took a group photo.
Krissie gave out Thank You cards with the link to this webpage.
John and Andy thanked the young people for sharing their experiences and views. They will share key points from the conversation with their colleagues in the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.
Lisa confirmed that the mural will stay up in the garden for at least 1 year!
The final mural
Elly came back to the office the next day to finish the art.
Here is the final mural!
Feedback
It was a fantastic team effort and the output is amazing.”
– John
For more info
If you are interested in hearing more about this project, please email youthvoicebucks@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.