5 Steps to Holding an NDAFW Event
National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week® (NDAFW) will take place Monday, March 22nd to Sunday, March 28th, 2021. To maximize the success of your NDAFW activity, follow these 5 steps.
Step 1: Form Your Planning Team
- Include a mix of adult and teen organizers.
- Adults should have an interest in educating teens about healthy living, including drug use prevention. Teens have credibility with their peers and play an important role in making sure the messages and activities will speak to other teens.
- Involve your community.
- Consider partnering with local schools, businesses, and organizations to strengthen your event. They may help to share in the planning associated with the event or offer speakers who share motivational or personal stories.
Please note: Only adults age 18 or older can register NDAFW events.
Step 2: Plan Your NDAFW Event
- Choose Your Topic. Your NDAFW event can focus on a specific substance or address substance use in general. NIDA has several promotional activities that are specific to the following themes:
- Specific drugs, such as alcohol, marijuana, MDMA, opioids and other prescription drugs, tobacco, nicotine, & vaping (e-cigarettes), new psychoactive substances (synthetics).
- Specific populations, such as college-aged and young adults and teens in the juvenile justice system.
- Choose a Location. The type of event you host may determine the location. An NDAFW event or activity can be hosted any place in your community where teens are, such as:
- Schools, afterschool programs, community/recreation centers, or places of worship.
- Donated space from theaters or other privately held meeting spaces.
- Space available through your state or local health department.
- Social media.
- Virtual activities can be held at home.
- Get permission to hold the event.
- School events. Check with the principal and any other administrator well in advance of the event.
- Local community events. Be sure to check with the location’s leadership and see if there are permission forms or other requirements you need to complete. Be sure to ask who your point of contact is to make sure everything runs smoothly.
- Determine what type of activities will work best for your space and your audience. Work with your team to create an event that works best for your school or community.
- Participate in National Drugs & Alcohol Chat Day.
- Use the NDAFW Teaching Guide.
- Select from NIDA’s list of great activities.
- See what others have done for NDAFW in the past.
- Include the Privacy and Confidentiality for Event Attendees Statement.
- Include and read aloud the privacy and confidentiality statement on privacy ground rules at the start of your event.
EVENT TIP: Have a plan in place for appropriate intervention if a teen reveals a potentially harmful personal situation.
Step 3: Register Your Event
By registering, you get the following benefits:
- Your event added to NIDA’s Event Map.
- Connection with NIDA staff, who can offer advice and answer questions.
- Free materials from NIDA sent to you in time for your NDAFW event.
- Increased exposure for your group because you are linked to a national project.
- An ongoing relationship with NIDA, a component of the National Institutes of Health.
Step 4: Secure Your Science
All NDAFW events must use science-based information to make sure the participants get the facts about drugs and drug use.
Use at Least One of These Scientific Sources
- NIDA Materials
Check out our Order Free Materials section for science-based educational publications. These materials are a great way to prepare students before the event, to hand out at the event, or to use for posters to decorate your event. NIDA also offers many online resources about drugs and drug use.
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- NIDA Web-Interactive Events
Use these fun and educational web interactive activities with individuals or as part of an event utilizing a large screen for group participation.
- National Drugs & Alcohol IQ Challenge
Test their knowledge! Every year NIDA uses the latest science to create an interactive quiz that challenges what students know and helps SHATTER THE MYTHSTM,SM around drugs and drug use. - Drugs & Your Body: It Isn’t Pretty
Developed in partnership with Scholastic Inc., this experience will ‘show’ students the ugly truth about how drug use can damage to their body. From acne to addiction to disease and death, this interactive activity features animations, audio clips, and videos that will engage and educate.
- National Drugs & Alcohol IQ Challenge
- A Scientific Expert
Bring your event to the next level. To help answer teens’ questions, find a local expert with a professional background in the science of drugs or addiction. Here are a few great resources in your community:
- Local Colleges and Universities. Go to your local university’s website to find people in departments—like psychology, psychiatry, public health, or neurology—that might be interested in working with you. Explain about NDAFW and see if a professor, researcher, or graduate student with a background in any of these disciplines would be willing to volunteer.
- Local Hospitals or Pharmacies. For area hospitals, call the main hospital number and ask to be linked to the psychiatry or mental health department. They may be able to link you with an expert who treats people with substance use disorders. For pharmacies, go to your local pharmacist and explain your event and see if they or a colleague can volunteer an hour of their time to attend.
- Local Health Departments. Check out your state or local health department website. Most have programs that focus on teens or drug use prevention. They can work with you to find a person or other resources to help bring science to your event.
- Local Colleges and Universities. Go to your local university’s website to find people in departments—like psychology, psychiatry, public health, or neurology—that might be interested in working with you. Explain about NDAFW and see if a professor, researcher, or graduate student with a background in any of these disciplines would be willing to volunteer.
Brush up on Your Drug Facts Knowledge
Drug use is an evolving field. Take some time to brush up on your knowledge of drugs and their effects before your event. Here are a few of NIDA’s resources to get you started, or explore the NIDA website.
- Commonly used drugs. Learn how using drugs, even just once, can affect your body and your mind.
- Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. Learn the science of drug use and addiction.
- Marijuana Drug Facts. Read the latest, including its harms and potential medical uses.
- Popular Chat Day Questions. Check out common questions teens ask and what scientists say in response.
- National Drugs & Alcohol IQ Challenge. Test your knowledge of drugs and their effects.
EVENT TIP: See our Teaching Guide for recommendations on how to engage teens and encourage them to learn more.
Step 5: Promote Your Event!
The Promote and Enhance Your Event section has everything you need to reach the widest possible audience.
Get Activity Ideas
National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week® (NDAFW), an annual health observance week, connects teens with resources to SHATTER THE MYTHS® about drugs and alcohol.
There are countless activities that teens, parents, caregivers, and teachers can do that don’t involve leaving the house. Here’s a list of our favorites:
- Play the Kahoot! games with an online class or encourage students to play the games individually.
- Taking the National Drug & Alcohol IQ Challenge. Test students’ knowledge about drugs and alcohol with this short, interactive quiz, available in English and Spanish, that can be used on mobile devices. More than 200,000 people took the IQ Challenge last year.
- Share the facts on social media. Social media platforms can be powerful tools to SHATTER THE MYTHS® about drugs and alcohol. Tweet, snap, or post. Use the new “Not everyone’s doing it” social media cards and hand-held placards.
- Participate in the Drug Facts Challenge!, an interactive game using scientific facts about the brain and addiction, marijuana, vaping, and more.
- Use free, science-based resources in classrooms and communities, or at home. These include activity ideas on various topics; science- and standards-based classroom lessons and multimedia activities on teens and drugs; and the recently updated Mind Matters series, which helps teachers explain to students the effects of various drugs on the brain and body.
NIDA would love to see your NDAFW images! Please include this release form with any photographs, audio files or videos that you share with NIDA:
NEW: "Not Everyone Is Doing It" Placards (PDF, 19MB)
During NDAFW, youth have the opportunity to SHATTER THE MYTHS® about drugs and alcohol. One of the biggest myths related to teen use of drugs and alcohol is “everyone is doing it.” According to the latest data from the Monitoring the Future Survey, we know that’s just not true for teens. Use the “Not Everyone Is Doing It” placards to help spread this message about a variety of drug- and alcohol-related topics.
Download and print the placards (PDF, 19MB). Encourage students to hold up their placards (either individually or as a group) and take photos or videos to share their positive messages about healthy behaviors with other young people.
NIDA would love to see your NDAFW images! Please include this release form with any photographs, audio files, or videos that you share with NIDA:
Activity Ideas
Check out some of the activities below for ideas and for help with planning your National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week® event or promotional activity. It’s going to take some work—but if you can pull it off, your event is going to be awesome and it might just save some lives!
NOTE: Be sure to read our privacy notice out loud to the audience before your event. Also, NIDA would love to see your NDAFW images! Please include the “SHATTER THE MYTHS” Photo and Video Request (PDF, 3MB) release form with any photographs, audio files or videos that you share with NIDA.
Need more ideas? Check out the photos from past events on our Flickr and events on our View Events Map page. Register your own NDAFW event on our Registration page.
