1. 2014 National Drug Facts Week Recap

2014 National Drug Facts Week Recap

National Drug Facts Week (NDFW) is a health observance week for teens that aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. Through community-based educational events and activities, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), launched the fourth annual NDFW in 2014 to reach teens and their intermediaries with science-based information about the harmful effects and consequences of drug use on the brain, body, and behavior. The 2014 NDFW, which was held January 27 to February 2, experienced the largest participation to date.

Thank You for Your Participation in National Drug Facts Week 2014!

  • 2014 NDFW Events

Educational events and activities brought the scientific facts about addiction directly to teens. In 2014, NIDA doubled the number of NDFW events to 1,084 in 50 states and increased the number of event holders to 449, which was 34 percent more than in 2013.

View the events map

  • Who Participated?

Schools and after-school programs made up nearly half of all 2014 NDFW planners, engaging students throughout the week. Additionally, community-based coalitions and programs, youth leadership groups and clubs, behavioral health providers, and colleges and universities were champions of 2014 NDFW activities and events.
 

  • Partnerships

NIDA’s Partners in spreading the word about 2014 NDFW included federal, state, and local agencies, as well as 30 national youth leadership organizations such as Students Against Destructive Decisions, National 4-H Council, SparkAction, and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. Partnerships also included prevention coalitions, Drug Free Communities grantees, public health agencies, and nonprofits; demand reduction programs; professional and university pharmacy groups; and high school and middle school students, teachers, parents, and staff.
 

  • Spreading the Word

Tweets, Facebook statuses, e-mails, blogs, and websites were updated to help spread the word about 2014 NDFW. From 2013 to 2014, overall social media impressions increased by 123 percent, including 20,600 Twitter followers for @NIDANews and 12,428 likes on the NDFW Facebook page.
 

  • Website Promotion

For the 2014 campaign, there were 294,445 visits to the NDFW website, 411,921 individual page views, and 28,248 downloads of IQ Challenges, logos, fact sheets, brochures, etc. Of those website visits, 110,688 were made from mobile devices.
 

  • E-mail Outreach

E-mail efforts reached more than 75,000 unique contacts. More than 20,000 contacts engaged with e-mail by opening targeted e-mails, clicking through to the NDFW website, downloading materials, registering events, or sharing embedded social media content via Twitter.
 

  • GRAMMY Foundation® and MusiCares® Teens! Make Music Contest

Six songs by teen musicians were chosen in the 2014 GRAMMY Foundation® and MusiCares® Teens! Make Music Contest and are featured online. The contest requested young aspiring musicians, ages 14 to 18, to create an original song and/or music video that celebrated a healthy and inspirational lifestyle or accurately depicted a story about the dangers of drug abuse.
 

  • Additional 2014 NDFW Highlights

View pictures from 2014 National Drug Facts Week Events on NIDA’s Flicker page, and contribute your own event and activity photos by e-mailing drugfacts@nida.nih.gov. See proclamations, press coverage, blog posts, posters, videos, and websites highlighting 2014 NDFW, and read the 2014 Drug Facts Chat Day transcript.

Start Planning Your 2015 NDFW Event!

The 2015 National Drug Facts week will be held Monday, January 26 through Sunday, February 1, 2015.

For more information, visit NIDA’s National Drug Facts Week site and youth.gov’s Substance Abuse Youth Topic page.

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