Australian Clubs Fight Drug Abuse

Two Australian Quota clubs are working to help teens avoid drug abuse. Both clubs have partnered with existing organizations to create solutions for their communities.

In Mooloolaba, Queensland, Quota partners with a group called Community Solutions to help teens—ages 12 to 17—who have been suspended from school for drug use. Quota organizes school activities that are free of drugs and alcohol. And they work to educate families in ways they can make a difference.

Club members volunteer during Community Solutions workshops designed to teach parents and siblings of troubled teens how to help their family members and each other. One important workshop teaches the signs of drug abuse and offers parenting strategies for dealing with them.

The Mooloolaba club also helps raise funds for Street Angels, a volunteer group that staffs a coffee bar/drop-in center on Mooloolaba Beach for young people in distress.

In Lismore, New South Wales, Quota partners with the Far North Coast Life Education Van to educate parents and children about the dangers of drug abuse. The van travels to over 130 schools. It is equipped with mobile classrooms that use video technology to teach the children about drug abuse in new, innovative, and attention-grabbing ways. The van also distributes workbooks to the children to reinforce the lessons they learned after the program is over.

Lismore Quotarians help raise funds for the van's educational materials and paid for the training of a speech pathologist to transmit the message to deaf and hearing-impaired students.