a top UK Home Office expert said yesterday.

And Mrs. Chris Browne said that some Bermudian projects had already been discussed in the UK and been acted on.

She explained that a run-down former mining community in her area of Leicestershire had been very interested in programmes for parents like the Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE) and an inter-church anti-drugs drive.

Mrs. Browne said: "I shared that with a group of people and they have actually used that to build a parenting programme which has been going for about six months.

"They were very interested in what they could learn from Bermuda -- I hope that is the start of an exchange which will continue.

"The principle was the same and it saved them from starting from scratch.'' Mrs. Browne was speaking at a meeting of the Council Partners Charitable Trust yesterday.

And she unveiled the results of a massive study -- Taking Back The Streets -- into success stories in community collaboration against drugs carried out in the US and Bermuda and funded by a Winston Churchill Scholarship award.

Mrs. Browne studied drug prevention programmes in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Baltimore and those in Bermuda.

She admitted that, at first sight, Bermuda had little in common with run-down areas in the US or UK.

But she said: "Bermuda is a microcosm -- there is so much going on and it's very easy to explore the connections.'' Mrs. Browne explained a colleague who worked with Judge Stephen Tumim on the Tumim Report on crime in Bermuda suggested the Island as an area for study.

She added: "Two key issues in the Tumim Report were the concern about drugs and drug-related crime which had to be a priority for Bermuda and some of the race issues which were relevant to me back home working in a multi-cultural area.'' But she pointed out that one thing all the projects she studied had in common was "the realisation that members of the public had to get involved''.

And she said: "It doesn't matter if you take Britain, Baltimore, Chicago or Bermuda, these same things are happening at street level, although the environs are different.

"Community participation is absolutely essential if we are going to take action against drugs.'' She added that all successful programmes had common elements in place vital to the end result.

These include a training programme for members of the public, an action plan to co-ordinate activities and make sure people were pulling in the same direction -- and some quick, high-profile results to encourage people to make a difference in their community.

Mrs. Browne singled out the joint action by Bermuda's churches against drugs, the Youth to Youth programme and the PRIDE scheme as good examples of joint action.

She added: "You can't just expect people to do things themselves -- they need training and backup so they feel strong and confident enough to take action -- that is something I think I saw happening here in Bermuda.''