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Initially, opioid deaths were largely driven by a flood of legal prescriptions for drugs such as Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, and Morphine. But in recent years, as prescriptions fell, illicit fentanyl became the main cause of overdose deaths.
The fentanyl epidemic has reached every state, but the effects are not felt equally across the US. When adjusted for population, West Virginia and Washington, DC had the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths. http://bitly.ws/AzSB
According to data from the Skilz Dot Org Model 3 Opioid Awareness Program (which over 700 high school students participated in), over 85% of participating students did not have a good understanding of opioids and particularly the dangers of fentanyl.
Based off this lack of knowledge of the dangers and to increase the odds for students to make better choices on November 1st, 2021 Skilz.org began “The Storyteller Project” with the TEAL Center at Newark Tech High School in Newark, NJ. Our goal is for the students to teach other students about the dangers of fentanyl by producing Public Service Announcements (PSA) and other marketing materials. We utilize storytelling skills and techniques to teach the dangers of opioids because Stories–rather than pronouncements or warnings–are invaluable in teaching. Additionally, knowing how to tell stories is invaluable in living.
We are currently in our third year of “The Storyteller Project”. During this journey, our students learned potentially life-saving information, learned storytelling skills, technological skills, and how to work within a group in by creating PSAs that will save lives. This is not your run of the mill educational program but this is not your run of the mill problem. We must be ambitious and bold. The Storyteller Project is both.
This current school year (2023-2024) we formed 3 groups of TEAL students at Newark Tech High School tasked with creating a social media marketing plan to spread awareness about the dangers of fentanyl through PSAs and other peer-to-peer content. On April 11th, 2024 we had those 3 groups present their plans & content to a panel of experts.
All 3 groups were excellent but we had to pick a winner and the Theory of Relativity 2.0 group won the day. Below are examples of the PSA’s that were created for “The Storyteller Project” 2024 campaign plus a video of the winning group’s presentation.
Participating students were asked if they knew about fentanyl and then told that 71,000 people died from fentanyl in 2021. They were then asked to scope the lethal amount of fentanyl (represented by salt) using the cups and spoons provided. After measuring the amount they were informed how many actual people that amount would kill.
Even the students that knew about fentanyl were shocked at how LITTLE fentanyl it would take to kill one person. Watch the amounts that some of the students chose.
For more information about “The Storyteller Project” please click here.