Developing Prevention through Sport Settings: A Multi-Site Trial of a Sport-Based Life Skills Program for the Prevention of Drugs, Crime and Violence Amongst Youth

Line Up Live Up! is a 10-session open-source and evidence-informed intervention that responds to a need for evidence on the impact of sport on substance abuse or on mediating factors among children, as identified in the UNODC WHO International Standards on Drug Use Prevention. Line Up Live Up is a universal prevention program for 13-18 years old youth in marginalized and low-resource communities with mixed levels of risk for crime-, violence- or drug-related behavior. Each of the 10 sessions includes sport activities and debriefing sessions aimed at strengthening life skills in order to achieve changes in attitudes and behavior to prevent crime, violence and drug use. It is evidence informed as it is: a) constructed on the basis of the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention as well as the Standards on Crime Prevention; b) inspired by the evidence of the UNP:UGGED school intervention and adapted to fit a school-based or out-of-school sport context; and c) enriched with inputs from consulted experts in the field of crime, violence and drug use prevention. This presentation will give an overview of the piloting of Line Up Live Up that has been carried out so far in South Africa, Brazil and Kyrgyzstan through the delivery of training of trainers for sports coaches, teachers and others working with youth in sport setting, and through training roll out to youth. In addition, an overview will be provided of the data collected through process evaluation and of the tools developed to measure impact of the training programme.