Youth Voices in SUD Management: Challenges and Opportunities

Youth Voices in SUD Management: Challenges and Opportunities - Spanish Interpretation

ISSUP Uganda, ISSUP Kazakhstan, and ISSUP Colombia present their webinar on Youth Voices in SUD Management.

The webinar discusses the role of the youth in the management of SUDs.  The speakers are youth leads from three different regions: Africa, Latin America, and Asia. As part of the webinar, the youth reps share their experiences as youth focal points within their respective organisations, countries, and geographical region.

The inclusion of youth representatives within the leadership structure of National Chapters is a relatively new initiative and the webinar seeks to outline the challenges, key learnings, and opportunities from this initiative.

The speakers, who work in different areas of SUD management—prevention, treatment, and recovery support—will also engage in open dialogue, sharing their approaches to promoting youth involvement through evidence-based initiatives on both a regional and global scale.

Intended Audience:

• Youth who are involved in youth peer groups or community initiatives, Policy makers and Prevention Managers

Learning Outcomes:

Following the webinar, participants will:

1. Gain an understanding of the pivotal role youth play in addressing Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) at local, national, and global levels.

2. Develop actionable insights for promoting youth engagement and building networks in SUD management initiatives.

Presenters:

Barbara Nakijoba - Youth Mentor, ISSUP Uganda.

Barbara is a Senior Social Worker and Monitoring & Evaluation Officer working with Uganda Youth Development Link. She is deeply engaged in prevention programs at the community level in the urban slums of Kampala, targeting out-of-school slum youth. Her interventions are focused on delaying the onset of substance use among slum youth, with the primary goal of creating a safe environment and reducing substance use. As an M&E Officer, Barbara harnesses program data to inform interventions, enabling the organization to address emerging substance use trends and contribute to the success of its prevention programs.

Nassaka Mastula -Youth Network Lead, ISSUP Uganda.

Representative speaker of the youth committee of ISSUP Uganda. 

Nadezhda Cherchenko - Youth Mentor, ISSUP Kazakhstan.

MD, ISSUP Kazakhstan Coordinator, National Coordinator of Opioid Substitution Therapy, Opioid Overdoses and New Psychoactive Substances, Republican scientific and practical center of mental health, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Representative of the Youth Committee of ISSUP Kazakhstan 

Dina Suraganova - Youth Network Lead, ISSUP Kazakhstan.

Astana Medical University. Member, ISSUP Kazakhstan.

Daniela Junco Rocha - Youth Network Lead, ISSUP Colombia.

Daniela Junco Rocha is a journalist with a strong background in creating graphic content, educational podcasts, and corporate videos focused on preventing psychoactive substance use. With experience in implementing prevention programs, Daniela is dedicated to community education and awareness, developing effective strategies in collaboration with various organizations and communities.
Her personal experience in researching migration processes allows her to address mental health and well-being from an inclusive and empathetic perspective, highlighting how these experiences influence drug use prevention.

Moderator:

Juliana Mejía Trujillo -Youth Mentor, ISSUP Colombia.

Juliana is a Social Worker with a Master’s in Anthropology and a PhD candidate in Public Health. She is the Director of Prevention at Corporación Nuevos Rumbos in Colombia. With over 20 years of experience in NGOs, Juliana’s work focuses on research and prevention of alcohol and drug use, including the development, adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of family- and school-based programs. She has also designed communication campaigns for prevention, with a focus on vulnerable and migrant populations. Juliana brings extensive experience in teaching, training, and collaborative work with international organizations across Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

Webinars and online events delivered and hosted by the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) are provided for informational purposes only. They are educational in nature and do not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.