(Click to enlarge)

In 2008, IKEA Social Initiative collaborated with Mentor International to address drug abuse and its health implications among young people in five countries Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Romania and Russia. The school based initiative for 12-14 year olds has been adapted for each country and followed by training, implementation and evaluation.

It has now reached its final phase as the country teams gathered in London and Brussels with the Mentor Project leaders to prepare for the final year of the project, reporting evaluation and plan for dissemination and sustainability. There was tremendous enthusiasm and commitment to the project from all countries and in spite of addressing the practical hurdles that challenge all such projects the general feeling was one of optimism for the process and achieving the outcomes identified when the work began in 2008.