The Project euro parents
Parents, of course, play a very special role in the lives of children. The euro parents practice-based project, which ran for 18 months from 2001 to 2003, took the innovative approach of involving parents as peers in the addiction prevention. The 'Parents as Peers' Guidelines were developed in 1998 and 1999 as part of the euro net project. The essential aim of euro parents was to implement these Guidelines in practice.
The aim of euro parents was to encourage parents – and in particular those who had not been reached by conventional educational programmes - to talk about addiction and dealing with addiction with groups of other parents and with their children. In order to reach the desired target group, the euro parents workers contacted associations in their respective regions. Parents were sought as peers who were involved with their children in sports clubs. A total of 102 parents from nine European countries took part in the peer training sessions for euro parents.
The project supporting body for euro parents was the Dutch network partner TACTUS. The Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht, Belgium, was responsible for the scientific consultation and evaluation. Expert advice was provided by the VITAL office in Steyr, Austria, and the Fachgruppe Gesundheitsförderung in Zurich, Switzerland. euro parents was funded by the European Commission.
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