How it Works
Learn about our methods, the Icelandic Prevention Model & Planet Youth
Our Method - Guided by the Data
Our goal is to support youth and prevent challenges before they arise through systemic change. We bring youth voices into the conversation to embrace their perspectives and offer customized solutions that address the root causes of their challenges and address their specific needs. ​We plan to accomplish this in four steps, based on the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM).
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By following these four steps to guide our work, we can identify youth-related issues in real-time using local data, and then work together as a community to address them. This means that all of our actions will be evidence-based, utilizing a community-based approach, and will foster and maintain dialogue among our community, research, policy & practice. ​
The Icelandic Prevention Model
The Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM) approach was developed in the 1990s in Iceland. At the time, Iceland had some of the highest rates of teen substance use in all of Europe. It was clear that traditional prevention methods, focused on teaching students about the risks of drinking and drugs, were not working.
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Today, Iceland’s youth substance use rates are among the lowest in the world.
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Their new approach emphasized getting all relevant partners to the table to build a network of support, monitoring, and opportunities for positive youth development at the local community level.
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The IPM is a data-driven, population-wide model. It focuses on identifying community-level risk factors and strengthening protective factors to reduce youth substance use and other negative social outcomes among children and young people. The IPM emphasizes delaying the onset of substance use to reduce long-term health and social implications. The IPM has been documented and described in numerous peer-reviewed academic publications.
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What is Planet Youth?
​Planet Youth is an international organization based in Iceland, dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of young people. Through a collaborative, data-driven approach (the IPM), Planet Youth partners with communities around the world to help them create safer, healthier environments where children and adolescents can flourish.​
​The Guidance Program is Planet Youth’s structured, supportive framework that helps communities around the world implement the Icelandic Prevention Model. Through training, resources, and ongoing collaboration, it empowers local leaders to create data-driven strategies that strengthen protective factors, reduce risks, and delay the onset of substance use among youth.
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Changing the social environment requires collaborative participation of a wide range of community members, including youth, adults, and the service providers who care for our youth.
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By guiding us through this process, ​Planet Youth helps communities identify youth-related issues in real time with local data, and then work together as a community to address them.
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The change won’t happen overnight, but through years of working together to collect data and implement interventions, we can build an environment that empowers youth to be their healthiest selves.
Planet Youth Guiding Principles
Society is the Patient
Applies a primary prevention approach that focuses on developing an organized system to enhance the social environment in communities over time. Youth outcomes are a direct reflection of the environments they live and grow in.
Meaningful Connection is a Treatment
Enhances the connection between children and their families, peers, schools, communities, and adults. Schools are embraced as the natural hub of neighbourhood efforts to support child and adolescent health, learning, and life success.
Sustained Attention as a Treatment
Engages and empowers community members to make practical designs using local, high-quality, accessible data and diagnostics.
Builds Capacity for Leadership and Problem-Solving
Integrate researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and community members into a unified team dedicated to solving complex, real-world problems.
Match the Scope of the Solution to the Scope of the Problem
Encourages authentic assessment of the problem and the solution. It’s important to remember this effort calls for realistic timeframes, a long-term commitment and funding.
Global Community
Planet Youth Nogojiwanong is part of a global network whose aim is to create healthy communities that support young people to live their best lives.
As of 2024, Planet Youth is actively running in over 200 communities in 16 countries, including Canada.
Each community implements the Planet Youth framework using the same methodology, but uses its own information from surveys of local youth and takes action that is determined by the community.
Just as Planet Youth in Ireland will look different than Planet Youth in Argentina, the prevention activities implemented in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough may look different than the interventions implemented in by other Ontario Planet Youth Partners!
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See what our friends are up to: Lanark County | Timiskaming | Calgary | New Brunswick | Idaho | Iceland | Ireland