Reducing Underage Drinking A Collective Responsibility (2004) / Chapter Skim
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11. Communities
11. Communities
Pages 216-231
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From page 216... ...
Although most community coalitions have not been rigorously evaluated, several community trials provide evidence that community coalitions can affect alcohol-related outcomes and also document the elements that make community initiatives successful. In addition, numerous case studies and substantial qualitative research attest to the effectiveness of community coalitions.
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From page 217... ...
In recent years, community mobilization has been recognized, documented, and evaluated in efforts to reduce alcohol-related problems, including underage drinking. Case studies have documented how communities have organized and used the news media to support changes in alcohol availability, reductions in outdoor advertising of alcohol, increased compliance checks on retailers regarding service and sales of alcohol to minors, keg registration laws, and campaigns to eliminate alcohol sponsorship from ethnic holiday events.
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From page 218... ...
States have organized regional coalitions consisting of representatives from institutions of higher education, city and state political officials, liquor control and licensing officials, state and local law enforcement officials, restaurant and tavern proprietors, state health officials, and researchers to support the development and implementation of broad and comprehensive strategies. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2002)
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From page 219... ...
Recommendation 11-1: Community leaders should assess the under age drinking problem in their communities and consider effective ap proaches -- such as community organizing, coalition building, and the strategic use of the mass media -- to reduce drinking among underage youth SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY COALITIONS: TWO PORTRAITS Successful community coalitions include the use of multiple program strategies, such as education programs, community organization, environmental policy changes, strategic use of the news media, and heightened enforcement of existing policies (Hingson and Howland, 2002)
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From page 220... ...
The coalition relied on grassroots community organizing, which led to the involvement of city council members, as well as networking with decision makers and other activists at the state level. Their efforts led to state legislation permitting local control of alcohol outlets.
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From page 221... ...
A 5-year community alcohol trauma prevention trial, the Community Trials Program, involving a quasi-experimental design with three experimental communities and matched controls in California and in South Carolina, used community mobilization and strategic use of the mass media. It addressed all alcohol use, not only that of underage youth.
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From page 222... ...
The city council implemented a proposal to eliminate special land use conditions for alcohol outlets, adopted restrictions on the availability of alcohol in city parks, denied a new alcohol license, revoked a retailer's conditional use permit because of liquor sales violations, and instituted a citywide ordinance requiring new owners of offsite and onsite alcohol outlets to complete a responsible server course. In addition, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce voted to make its annual festival alcohol free.
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From page 223... ...
sought to reduce drunk driving and speeding through community mobilization. Communities introduced media campaigns, drunk driving checkpoints, business information programs, speeding and drunk driving awareness days, speed watch telephone hotlines, police training, high school peer-led education, Students Against Drunk Driving chapters, college prevention programs, alcohol-free prom nights, beer keg registration, and increased liquor outlet surveillance by police to reduce underage alcohol purchase.
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From page 224... ...
Support for effective strategies may in fact be higher than is often assumed by organizers at the outset of community mobilization efforts. For instance, research investigating student sentiment toward alcohol policies and laws consistently documents support for policies that control underage drinking (Wechsler et al., 2002)
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From page 225... ...
Strategic planning of coalition initiatives may also include establishing measurable objectives, creating target timelines, clearly defining member responsibilities, and developing leadership to maintain coalition efforts and membership involvement. Qualitative results from an evaluation of the 37 colleges across Ohio involved in the Ohio College Initiative to Reduce High Risk Drinking indicate that strong, well-trained leadership, active involvement of key campus leaders, and committed resources are the components sustaining organized efforts to change attitudes and behaviors.
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From page 226... ...
Collaboration Between Communities and Colleges Institutions of higher education can play a critical role in community mobilization efforts. Comprehensive college-based approaches to address underage alcohol consumption and high-risk drinking should be predicated on a model of student drinking that incorporates the environment and student campus culture, as well as individual factors (Presley et al., 2002)
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From page 227... ...
colleges and universities and the evaluation of the effectiveness of joint campus-community coalitions. New laws and regulations that affect the general community will also affect college student alcohol use, making institutions of higher education natural allies for coalition efforts.
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From page 228... ...
Ongoing efforts in this arena include the Ohio College Initiative to Reduce Underage Drinking, the Memorandum of Understanding Program recently undertaken by the campuses of California State University, the Committee on Community and University Relations begun in 1990 by the State University of New York at Albany, and the Matter of Degree Program developed by the American Medical Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Based in part on the findings of the original Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (Wechsler et al., 1994)
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From page 229... ...
· Georgia Institute of Technology and the city of Atlanta supported a successful statewide effort to create a keg registration law, to help reduce underage access to alcohol. The campus has seen a 9 percent reduction in heavy episodic drinking, and 12 percent fewer students report driving after drinking.
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From page 230... ...
FUNDING Just as community mobilization provides an essential context for effective interventions to reduce underage drinking, a strong and ongoing commitment on behalf of public and private funders to provide resources for community mobilization is critical to the success of the overall strategy recommended in this report. One existing model of federal support is the Drug Free Communities Program, originally authorized by Congress in 1997 and reauthorized in 2001.
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From page 231... ...
Recommendation 11-2: Public and private funders should support community mobilization to reduce underage drinking. Federal funding for reducing and preventing underage drinking should be available under a national program dedicated to community-level approaches to reducing underage drinking, similar to the Drug Free Communities Act, which supports communities in addressing substance abuse with tar geted, evidence-based prevention strategies.
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