HUNDREDS of Clackmannanshire school children gathered at Alloa Town Hall last week as part of the ongoing Choices for Life programme.

Last Thursday’s Human Under Construction event is just one part of the project which aims to support positive life choices for local youngsters and to help deter them from substance abuse and other harmful behaviours.

Around 350 third year pupils from Alloa, Alva and Lornshill academies were invited along to hear from those within the local criminal justice system.

Charlie Mitchell, Community Inspector with Alloa police, said: “Human Under Construction was a fantastic event, with the pupils at the event learning the importance of compassion and understanding when dealing with the issues of drugs, smoking, alcohol and violence.

“As a community in Clackmannanshire we must play a pro-active role in supporting our young people through the difficult choices they will have to make regarding substance misuse.

“Hopefully, this event will assist those who attended in making the right choices as they become adults.” The event was co-ordinated by Keith Jack from the Violence Reduction Unit and was sponsored through support from the government’s Choices for Life programme, Asda, Alloa Leisure Bowl and Medics Against Violence.

Paul Wheelhouse, minister for community safety and legal affairs, added: “The Human Under Construction event in Alloa, actively promote prevention messages to secondary school pupils right across Scotland and do so in a very effective way.

“The fact that much of the accompanying advice is delivered online means it is effective in reaching young people at a time and location that suits them well, in a way that young people will find more engaging and means they’re much more likely to take the messages in and adopt positive life choices.” Sheriff David Mackie, who chaired the event, gave a speech to the audience in which he warned against demonising youngsters who find themselves within the criminal justice system.

He told the Advertiser: “In my work I meet young people who for one reason or another have come into conflict with the law as a result of bad choices they have made.

“Most often young people find themselves in life circumstances which were not their choice or of their making.

“There comes a time in life, however, often in the late teens when individuals begin to think for themselves and encounter the choices they do have and that is when they can look to others with more experience of life for help and guidance in making their own choices.” He added: “Young people are not different from the rest of us, that we do not live in a social filing cabinet under our particular labels, that we are all part of the same community, not separate but together and we all move through the different stages of life.

“It is a two way process and that as we pass through life we all continue to learn from each other’s experience.

“[We must focus] on people’s strengths and abilities, not the things that have gone wrong. Instead of dwelling on prohibition and castigation much better to focus on what people can do and do best.

“I am sure that the people who mattered most, the young audience, will remember what they saw and heard when, in the months and years ahead, they come to make their own choices in life.”