The drug education charity’s Safer Choices programme will enable young people to learn about communication and staying safe strategies
The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs (DSM) Foundation is proud to announce that it is now an Approved Activity Provider (AAP) for the Skills section of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE).
The Safer Choices programme, run by the DSM Foundation, is a self-study course accessible for ages 13 plus and can now form part of a young person’s Bronze or Silver DofE Award.
The Safer Choices programme provides relevant, age-appropriate, up to date and evidence-based information about drugs, so that young people can make choices that will keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible.
The DSM Foundation
is a drug education charity established in 2014 following the death of 16-year-old Daniel Spargo-Mabbs from an accidental overdose of ecstasy. His family felt that he simply hadn’t known enough to be able to make decisions that would keep him safe and realised there was a huge gap in the resources and support available to schools. They set up the charity to spare other families going through what they had experienced. They have now been working with young people for a decade, delivering workshops and other educational resources in schools and colleges.
DSM Foundation director and founder Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE said: “We’re so excited to have this opportunity to reach more young people through partnering with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, enabling them to access important information and strategies for keeping themselves and the people around them safe. We share a vision of enabling young people to build confidence in who they are, develop the skills they need to navigate life successfully, and manage the challenges that might come their way safely, and we’re proud to be part of their highly respected Award.”
To do their DofE, young people aged 14-24 choose activities in four sections: improving a Physical and Skills activity, Volunteering for a cause of their choice, and completing a demanding Expedition. Along the way they have fun, grow in resilience and self-belief, discover new talents and passions, and learn practical skills to help them in future – while working towards a highly respected Award.
More young people than ever started their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in 2023-24 – with half a million actively participating and more schools, community organisations and prisons running the DofE.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award wants to see 1.6 million young people start their DofE by Spring 2026. It has launched ambitious projects to fund schools and community organisations in the UK’s most deprived areas to start offering the DofE, and to support more young people with additional needs and disabilities to achieve their DofE Awards. The DofE is also delivered in prisons and young offender institutions.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Media enquiries about this press release or the work of the DSM Foundation should be sent to media@dsmfoundation.org.uk
About the DSM Foundation
The aim of the DSM Foundation is to provide young people with relevant, age-appropriate, up to date and evidence-based information about drugs so they develop the skills to make choices that will keep themselves and their friends as safe as possible. To this end, the charity is currently working in around 750 schools, colleges and community organisations across England and Scotland with children and young people, and also provides workshops for parents and caregivers, and training for school and college staff.
Educational settings are also able to access “I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die”, a verbatim play by Mark Wheeller that was commissioned by the charity to tell Dan’s story in the words of his family and friends, through studying the work itself, which is a GCSE Drama set text on the Eduqas syllabus, or booking a Theatre in Education performance. Schools and colleges can also download age-appropriate, relevant, up to date and evidence-based drugs education lesson resources free of charge from the DSM Foundation website for delivery by teachers through PSHE provision. For more information about the DSM Foundation, go to https://www.dsmfoundation.org.uk/.
For further information, interviews with young people or DofE spokespeople, or photographs, please contact the DofE press office on 01753 727420 or email media@DofE.org
About Approved Activity Providers
Approved Activity Providers (AAP) are organisations, both commercial and charitable, whose opportunities have been approved by the DofE as meeting our sectional conditions and can count towards achieving a DofE Award. You can find out more about AAPs on the DofE website.
About the DofE
Every year, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) inspires hundreds of thousands of young people, from all walks of life, to explore who they are, grow in confidence and develop the skills they need to successfully navigate life. We help them build life-long belief in themselves, supporting them to take on their own challenges, follow their passions, and discover talents they never knew they had. The DofE is delivered in schools, colleges, community organisations, hospitals, prisons and more, all over the UK.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is open to any young person aged 14-24. Participants build their own programmes – choosing activities and a cause to volunteer for, in order to achieve a Bronze, Silver or Gold DofE Award. In 2023/24, more than 330,000 young people started their DofE, with participants giving more than 4.7 million hours of volunteering in their communities.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award charity wants to see 1.6 million young people start their life-changing DofE by spring 2026. Find out more at DofE.org.
