Clare Cassells

Olivia Joyce

Niamh Randall

Maria O'Mahony

Stephen Synnott

A great response to community needs. Clare cassells

Best information and support site for young people with drug problems Marie Prunty

I work with various underprivalidged young people and the challenge for us is always to develop teaching methods where in we can stimulate thought and discussion with our groups. www.dap.ie is innovative because the young people actually get to create Poll's and Quizz's that get placed on the site. This feeling of ownership the youth have with the site actually causes them to promote the site, They have had online debates regarding drug issues with other schools in Wales, Scotland, England, India and America and they are amazed at the different opinions out there. I feel truely lucky to be able to call upon this service for myself my colleagues and the young people I work with. Deirdre Ryan

It is the first online drug education/ information/ support and counselling site available here in Ireland and I have not been able to find its equal anywhere else in Europe (Havent checked the rest of the world). It is totally anonymous and we use it with school groups. The young people I work with log on and ask questions regarding drug issues and get an instant response in a type of chat room. The young people reallyu like its interactive nature and in the years I have been teaching I think this interactive approach really helps the young people to retain the information they are given. A lot better than me reading it to them from a book. They also have a map of resources that teachers or other professionals or really anyone seeking help can access. The site is broken up into two sections 1. Youth 2. Parent/ Professional and I heard recentlyt that in the first 6 months they recieved more than half a million hits. Deirdre Ryan

Its very inforitive and helpful. The live help section is brillant, it really helped me answer questions that I needed to help a friend I was worried about. A very kind and help person called Michael. I think it should be awarded for every award there is to be awarded! Ronan Harte

Superb resource. Marcus MacDonald

The site boast a live interactive operator answering help call from Mon-Fri 10am - 2pm and they would like to expand the service hours.

This interactive,drug-prevention /education web sitewas launched in May 2003 and has received over 330,500 hits since then and averaage of over 66,000 hits per month. The live helper has had 216 person-to-person interactions. Through Live Helper the DAP offers information, support advice and referral to anyone who needs it. This is an excellent resource to young people, parents and schools and I strongly recommend it Mary Forrest

This is a wonderful service, first Interactive Drug Education website in Europe, with a live interactive operator answering help calls. They now need to expand their service hours. Mary Forrest

Very clear, easy to navigate. Plenty of accurate information. Colourful, attractive, imaginative. Ground breaking for Ireland where there is a dearth of youth-oriented drug information web sites. Colma Nic Lughadha

www.dap.ie was launched in May 2003 as Ireland's first interactive website providing continually updated drug information and live online support for three target groups: young people, parents and professionals. It includes a Live-Helper Messaging system whereby a visitor to the site can type in an enquiry which a trained counsellor replies to, there and then, in complete confidentiality. The site now boasts over half a million hits and close to a thousand help calls. "Even DAPdon't know the identity or the web address of the caller. The computer assigns them a code number so that we know if that same person calls again, but they remain completely anonymous unless they want to disclose who they are," Ann Loughney