What is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander portal for Positive Choices?
Positive Choices is an online portal to help school communities access accurate, up-to-date drug education resources and prevention programs.
Together, with feedback from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members, we have developed and collated existing content on drug and alcohol prevention with young people. All content has been identified as culturally appropriate and based on thorough research. The resources we have developed and feature on this website has been designed for all aspects of the school community: teachers, family members and students. We also have personal stories from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students about who inspires them, why they love to live in their community, reasons why they don’t drink or smoke and what they say when someone tries to make them do something they don’t want to do. These stories highlight how culture keeps them strong.
The original content for this website was directly developed with school students from schools in NSW and QLD with high Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Additionally, to ensure our content is appropriate and up to date, we have had multiple consultations with groups of parents, students (typically aged 12-14 yrs) and teachers. This process is ongoing. If you have any feedback, please fill in your name and message below.
The portal contains a lot of resources, which we are updating and adding to often. Many of our factsheets are also narrated, assisting accessibility in communities. We are also underway with developing translations of several factsheets in Arrernte, Warlpiri and Torres Strait Islander Creole. There are also videos, games and other resources available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.
The experts that have helped develop this portal include:
- The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, at the University of Sydney (formerly known as the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, at the University of New South Wales)
- Gilimbaa, an Indigenous creative agency
- Sydney University
- NSW Health
- South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
- National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales
- Newcastle University
- Edith Cohen University
- Black Dog Institute
- Department of Family and Community Services
- South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation
- Telethon Kids
- Australian Indigenous Health Info Net
- Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council SA
All art on Positive Choices Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander portal was designed by Jenna Lee (Larrakia)