Stay Smart this fall — be smart / be ready fall 2026

Stay Smart this fall

Summer's final city festivals are just around the corner, including Culture Night. Above all, each event serves as a family holiday — an opportunity for generations to gather and enjoy the day. We encourage parents to Stay Smart and keep a close eye on their child and any young people in their care. We recommend that each family enjoy the festivities together and head home as a group when the celebration wraps up.

We are seeing signs of increased alcohol and drug use among young people, alongside growing excitement and interest
in municipal outdoor events as summer fades. 

With this in mind, we want to emphasize the following points: 

Decades of successful preventative work stem largely from parents presenting a united front. Because of this, parents must communicate with one another, prevent unsupervised gatherings, and respect laws governing alcohol, drugs, nicotine, and curfew.

Discipline and boundaries in child-rearing from birth are extremely important.
Research highlights protective factors for a child and young people, including family time together, staying informed about their whereabouts and companions, and getting to know their friends alongside those friends' parents.

Furthermore, engaging a child or young people in an activity — such as an organized recreational activity — provides a significant safeguard against risky behavior. We urge parents to discuss respect, tolerance, healthy relationships, consent, and boundaries with their child and other young people. These discussions help build essential social skills. When it comes to the social lives and leisure pursuits of young people, parents serve an indispensable role as both role models and guardians. This holds true for city festivals and Culture Night, making it crucial that a child and young people head home alongside their parents.

About the Stay Smart preventative work campaign:

Reykjavík City designed the Stay Smart campaign to raise public awareness regarding the modern challenges facing preventative work. 

The objective is to deliver positive, constructive messages to a child and young people, while engaging parents and others who play a key role in preventative work. 

Stay Smart about what matters most for the well-being of a child and young people.