An 18-year-old trainee youth worker, who used to get drunk on strong cider most nights, is the driving force behind a new initiative to tackle youth drinking.

An 18-year-old trainee youth worker, who used to get drunk on strong cider most nights, is the driving force behind a new initiative to tackle youth drinking.

Kimby Tosh is to launch Core Spirits, a peer-led alcohol support group in Perth and Kinross, after receiving £11,000 funding.

Based in Blairgowrie, the group will follow the mentoring and discussion format of a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, except that it will be completely led by young people.

When it launches in early August, it will initially be made up of eight mentors and will provide information, guidance and support to young people from 12-25 years old affected by alcohol misuse in the Strathmore area.

Core Spirits is the brainchild of Tosh, a trainee youth worker at Strathmore Centre for Youth Development, (SCYD), a charity that provides information and services on a range of issues to youths, which will become the venue for the group's weekly meetings.

"The idea for Core Spirits came about when I saw my friends were starting to get into the same state with alcohol I'd got into. I didn't want that for them and I wanted to change things in the area," says Kimby, who chairs a weekly youth forum at SCYD, and now has several awards under her belt, including the overall Spirit of Youth Award 2009 for her work in the community.

Kimby is no stranger to the negative effects of alcohol abuse. She was expelled from school at 15 with no qualifications, and was regularly in trouble with the police due to the disruptive behaviour caused by her excessive drinking.

She began drinking alcohol when she was 13 after suffering from depression, and was drinking heavily on a daily basis by the time she reached 16. During an average week, Kimby would drink up to three litres of cider a night, and would share a 70cl bottle of vodka between two at the weekend, followed by more cider or cans of beer.

The turning point for Kimby came when she was invited on a residential weekend with SCYD and felt inspired to start volunteering for the charity. When Kimby was offered a 12-month placement at SCYD through charity ProjectScotland, she decided it was time to seek help for her alcohol addiction.

She was referred to the Tayside Alcohol Problems Service, and received counselling from mental health organisation, Mindspace, which helped her get her drinking under control.

In October last year, Kimby and other volunteers at SCYD carried out a survey on the views on alcohol of 80 teens aged from 11 to 17 years old in Eastern Perthshire. When the results showed 80% of the young people questioned believed an alcohol peer support group would be beneficial, Kimby applied to the Big Challenge fund for money to set up Core Spirits, and secured £4000 in funding in February. She now has additional funds from Mentor UK, Perth and Kinross Council and charity Fast Forward, who will be giving the Core Spirit mentors training on alcohol, drugs and peer education.

Kimby hopes that by telling other young people about her experience with alcohol addiction, and educating them on the potential dangers of excessive drinking, she will encourage those who are referred to the group to make informed choices and to take a sensible approach to drinking.

"I think it's easier for young people to relate to and talk to someone their own age about alcohol, and I would like to see peer support happening across Scotland," she says.

The goals of Core Spirits include a reduction in anti-social behaviour in the local area, and the provision of training for young people involved to become peer supporters themselves. SCYD is also currently discussing the development of a software programme with The University of St Andrews, which would work by scanning an individual's photo and producing an image of what they could look like in the future if they continue to abuse alcohol, to demonstrate the ageing effects of long-term heavy drinking.

The creation of Core Spirits has come in the wake of fierce dialogue surrounding alcohol misuse in Scotland, with an alcohol summit in Edinburgh last week discussing the country becoming one of the first to introduce minimum pricing.

Young Scot also launched a National Youth Commission on Alcohol in March, which will study Scotland's youth drinking culture and also makes up part of the Scottish Government's Framework for Action on alcohol misuse, which includes plans to make licensing boards think about an over-21s off-sales purchase age for their area.

SCYD manager and youth worker Craig Cantwell is convinced that peer support is the most effective means to tackle youth drinking.

"By changing the law on alcohol sales, all you're doing is displacing the problem. Why not bring the issue out into the open? A young person who has problems with alcohol is more likely to listen to someone like Kimby, who's walked a mile in their shoes."