4th December 2025

Members of our Going Forward team were delighted to recently support the work of an impressive group of students from Edinburgh College’s Sighthill Campus.  

In Autumn 2025, Fast Forward delivered a bank of four workshop sessions focusing on risk-taking behaviours with a small group of students who were identified as potentially being vulnerable and at-risk. During the workshop sessions, members of the group were clear that vaping around campus was as an issue that they were particularly interested exploring further. 

Our young group members advised that they wanted to make a short film that would subtly highlight some of the reasons as to why they made the decision not to vape and decisions that they, and their peers, make when it comes to vaping.  

After discussing and spotlighting their choices and decisions around vaping, the idea of making a film simply titled #DropTheVape was born.  

The group was supported by Fast Forward to storyboard and script their #DropTheVape film before of the students researched the lines and parts that THEY wanted to play in the film.  

As part of the resource development process, we gathered feedback from several of the groups members: 

“Although I was a wee bit nervous about being in front of the camera, I actually really enjoyed it and would love to do it again.”  

Student,  Edinburgh College 

Not only was the feedback from our young group members really positive, Jasmine Lapointe, the groups lead tutor at Edinburgh College, was delighted with the final resource and the positive impact that the sessions were able to deliver for the students she mentors and supports: 

“We have been so grateful to have Donald engage with the students at Edinburgh College. Our courses are geared towards students with mild to moderate learning difficulties and Donald has consistently been able to engage with the students, build a safe space and share information about many topics that support our students’ health and wellbeing.   

Donald has been working with students with more complex needs, and he has managed to differentiate the learning, and bring meaning to topics to students who need information simplified. Again, he has managed to make these sessions meaningful and engaging for the students and has built a strong rapport with the group.  

We are hugely appreciative and value Donald’s and Fast Forward’s input for our students. It enhances the curriculum and ensure that our students are better prepared for navigating difficult choices.”

‘#DropTheVape’ is a Fast Forward and Edinburgh College production.  

Supporting and guiding peer-led projects like this is fundamentally vital to the work that we do at Fast Forward. When young people take control of leading the conversation about the choices they make on risk-taking behaviours, the positive outcomes speak for themselves — fun, creative, confident, and genuinely impactful.  

Huge thanks to Jasmine Lapointe and the team at Edinburgh College for their hard work, flexibility and support.