Use the AOD Lifecycle Planner to connect with your community

Different people have different attitudes, behaviours, issues and risks. So, engaging a specific audience can give your plan focus and ensure it is effective and evidence-informed.

The Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Lifecycle Planner will help you find the right approach for your target audience.

To keep things simple, the handy guide breaks down information needs by age group - from 0 to 70+ years - providing advice on how to develop targeted and effective plans for each group.

Information in the AOD Lifecycle Planner

The AOD Lifecycle Planner contains important information to help guide the development of your project, event and activity.  It features:

• Issues - The key alcohol and other drug-related issues that affect your target age group. From risky drinking to early experimental use, potential risks vary as we age. For example, drink driving is considered an issue for both people aged 18 – 30 years and 50 – 60 years.
• Risk factors - These are factors that increase a person’s risk of alcohol and other drug harms and can change with age. For example, a program addressing academic failure would be more likely to have an impact for young people aged 6 – 11 years than the same activity aimed at people aged 50 – 60 years.
• Protective factors - These moderate the influence of risk factors. Like risk factors, they’re different for different ages. For example, if your target audience is 12 – 17 years you might promote positive role models. But if your target audience is 50 – 60 years you might look at other protective factors like volunteering programs or involvement in recreational activities.
• Influences - It takes a community to support people at risk of alcohol and drug harms. Involving people such as parents, peers, GPs and others may have a positive effect on your target audience.

How do I use the AOD Lifecycle Planner?

Use the AOD Lifecycle Planner as you start to plan your project. It’s also a useful reference to check as your project swings into gear.

For example, say your target audience falls in the 30 – 50 years age group.

From our lifecycle planner you could easily see:

• risky driving is an issue
• isolation (geographic and social) is a risk factor
• participation in social activities is a protective factor
• peers, GPs and carers are key influences.

So get started now and download the AOD Lifecycle Planner.

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