Addressing Youth Substance Use and Crime: Prevention and Recovery Lessons from Kinshasa

ABSTRACT

Youth substance use and involvement in crime rarely result from a single risk factor. Vulnerability can increase when individual, family, peer, school, community, and socio-economic risks accumulate, particularly where protective factors and opportunities for positive participation are limited.

This presentation will explore how prevention, early intervention, recovery, and reintegration can be connected when addressing substance use and crime among young people. It will highlight the importance of strengthening protective factors, providing timely psychosocial and health support, involving families and communities, and creating meaningful pathways to education, skills, livelihoods and social inclusion.

Drawing on WFAD's experience implementing the Sober Life – Healthier Communities project in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the presentation will illustrate these principles in practice. The project supported 1,179 young people affected by involvement in the Kuluna street gangs, combining psychosocial support, family engagement, vocational training, income-generating activities, and mentorship to support recovery and reintegration.

The presentation will conclude with practical lessons from the project, including the importance of building trust with young people, addressing mental health and social exclusion, involving young people in shaping interventions, and recognising economic and social reintegration as important components of prevention.