This is a one day training workshop designed specifically for the Drug Action Teams aimed at providing the skills to deliver key messages on a range of drugs related issues through the media.

We recognise the need for a "bottom-up" in reaching your target audience-young, local people, drug users and vulnerable people within at-risk groups, rather than through the national media feeding messages down.

So, we will focus on how to get the best out of your local media-local papers, freesheets, websites, chatrooms, local radio and even Regional TV.

We want to help you communicate key messages from the new drugs strategy such as:

• Focus on Class A drugs
• Prevention - help young people resist drugs
• Treatment works - effective for those with drugs problems

The Workshop will focus on being proactive with the media, as well as reactive, when crises occur, PR Skills and techniques, Press Release writing, handling media enquiries and "selling in" stories to journalists.

We lay the emphasis on showing you how to do it yourself - since you are the experts on these drugs related issues.

We want to help you turn around the culture of blame where the media only writes about drugs when someone dies of an overdose or councils are seen as "failing" because they are low down the league tables in terms of drug abuse.

While we will empower you with the Crisis Management skills to handle these crises when they occur, another way of turning around this culture of blame is to be proactive and feed the media positive stories on a regular basis.

This Workshop will address proactivity issues, such as highlighting newsworthy and positive stories which are occurring within DATs and writing them up in an eye-catching way.

We cover the whole process of proactivity, from highlighting the idea, writing the press release, making the follow up call to the journalist, to handling the press enquiry and interview.

We will also help you identify those stories within your region which will be of most interest to the media, to maximise your chance of promoting the valuable work you do.