Inspira is urging young people in Cumbria to ‘Play Safe and Be Safe’ this festive period. Targeting 16+, Cumbria’s leading career management and personal development organisation is giving out over 5000 gift bags to remind young people to be responsible, and to look after themselves and each other when they are out this Christmas.

“The Christmas period is usually associated with having fun, but things can go wrong if you and your friends don’t keep safe,” says Caroline Ledward, Inspira’s contract manager for Youth Work and Reducing Risk Taking Behaviour.

The Christmas gift bags include a ‘spikey’ that people can put in the top of a bottle to stop someone spiking their drinks, a condom provided by Public Health, and a wallet sized card with contact details and useful links to services over the Christmas period relating to sexual health, alcohol & drug misuse, and personal safety.

“Whilst we want young people to enjoy themselves, we want them to stay safe as well and to know where to go if they needed support or advice if things happened to go wrong,” continued Mrs Ledward. “These gift bags will provide them with all the essentials to ensure their safety this Christmas.”

The gift bags – available from the 8^th of December – will be distributed at all our Advice Services Centres in the run up to Christmas. Other activities across the county will include using alcohol breath testers to check how much alcohol is left in the body after a night out, a game showing how long it takes for your body to get rid of alcohol and CO2 monitors to show the effects of smoking.  The Fire Service will also be involved to get across fire, road safety and Heart Start messages.

For more information, check out the Twitter page @AdviceServices and the Facebook pages Advice Services North Cumbria; Advice Services West Cumbria; Advice Services Furness, and Advice Services South Lakes for details.

Over the Christmas period, our Carlisle centre will be open Monday 29^th December 12pm-3pm and Tuesday 30^th December 12pm -3pm, with a telephone service operating on January 2^nd.

The centre in West Cumbria will be open on Tuesday 30^th December 1pm-3pm, and Wednesday 31^st December 10am-12pm.

Our Furness centre will be open on Monday 29^th December 11am- 2pm, and Wednesday 31^st December 11am-2pm, with a telephone service also operating on January 2^nd.

Finally, our Kendal centre will be open Monday 29^th December 10am- 1pm, and Tuesday 30^th December 1pm-4pm.

This campaign has been made possible by funding from the Community Safety Partnership and Cumbria County Council’s Youth Work and Reducing Risk Taking Behaviour contract.