In 2019, as part of our local project “Addiction Prevention in the Municipality of Ravne na Koroškem,” we hosted two experts for workshops about alcohol, who were working for FamilyLab at the time. Later we realized that the workshops for primary and secondary school students, as well as lectures for parents on addiction and alcohol titled “Soberly about Alcohol” (“Trezno o alkoholu”), were being funded by the alcohol industry—specifically by one of the Slovenian alcohol distributors. “Fortunately,” they only held the lecture for parents and educational staff, but not for the students. Here is an excerpt from their 2019 annual report (https://www.pernod-ricard-slovenia.com/):
“Collaboration with Pernod Ricard Slovenija: In the spring of 2015, following an invitation to collaborate by Pernod Ricard Slovenija, we developed a comprehensive educational/preventive program on alcohol and youth alcohol consumption to be implemented in selected schools. The program consists of three lectures for parents and professional staff, and a series of workshops for 8th or 9th-grade primary school students or lower-year secondary school students.
In 2017, we continued with the project and expanded it to additional primary schools (OŠ Stranje, OŠ L. Pliberška Maribor, OŠ Vižmarje Brod, OŠ Murska Sobota, OŠ Frana Kranjca Celje, OŠ Kette Murn). Furthermore, we extended the program to secondary schools and grammar schools (Gimnazija Ormož, Gimnazija Celje, and STŠ Koper).
In 2018, we continued the project at OŠ Kette Murn, Gimnazija Celje, and BIC Ljubljana; and in 2019, at Gimnazija Moste Ljubljana, OŠ Gustava Šiliha Maribor, OŠ KDK Šoštanj, and OŠ Pod Goro Slovenske Konjice.
In 2020, in cooperation with the company, we will design a new project that will focus more on working with children and youth, and less on working with adults. The collaboration between the Institute and Pernod Ricard Slovenija is based on a sponsorship agreement; for the implementation of the program from January 2019 to December 2019, we received €10,000 from the Association of Alcohol Importers, and €5,856 from Pernod Ricard Slovenija (the latter for the execution of the 2018 project).”
There is also a more current campaign by Spirits Slovenija, a representation and trading company, available at https://odgovorno.si/. This particular CSR project seems to have ended in 2023, here’s the industry source with the scope and a brief content description of the project (you can translate into english via web-browser):
https://www.pernod-ricard-slovenia.com/novice/trezno-o-alkoholu). About 200 “educational” events were apparently held in various settings between years 2015-2023, and in total as part of the project, their activities were allegedly attended by 3,300 parents and/or pedagogical workers, and as 1,200 children and adolescents.
As far as https://odgovorno.si/, it presents itself as an “educational responsible-drinking” resource primarily for parents. The website belongs to STAS – Spirits Trade Association Slovenia, which is a combined association of four major Slovenian spirits import companies (G3 Spirits, d. o. o., MERIT HP, d. o. o.,Pernod Ricard Slovenija, d. o. o., PPD Distribucija, d. o. o.). The association is a Slovenian branch of the spiritsEUROPE (https://spirits.eu/). The Slovenian branch association has apparently started a one-year pilot project in 2024 called “We Need to Talk About …” described by the association as “a project designed to support parents dealing with challenges related to young people’s alcohol consumption. The project offered parents free professional counselling. Over four months, 67 parents expressed interest and 51 participated in counselling.” (source: https://odgovorno.si/projekt-pogovoriti-se-moramo-o/#).
Contact persons: Sandra Rados-Krnel & Gorazd Levicnik from the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), Slovenia