Increase your awareness regarding underage drinking laws. If you’re a parent of middle and high school youth please register for an opportunity to speak with local law enforcement regarding underage drinking laws and safe storage of alcohol in the home.

Registering now gives you the chance to win tickets for an upcoming Xavier Women's Basketball game!

Writing a successful Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant has become increasingly challenging especially with the continued high numbers of applicants. For the 2010 grant cycle, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) estimates that 150 grants will be awarded, including both Year 1 and Year 6 grants combined.  However, there are some basic steps that coalitions can take to increase the likelihood that their application will be sent to peer review and receive a favorable score. Below are some guidelines to developing a successful DFC application.

A community-based prevention system, such as that found in coalitions, can reduce adolescent alcohol and other drug use according to a study in the September 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The old saying, “it takes a community…” is very applicable to the prevention of teen substance abuse. Many sectors of the community, parents, educators, police, judges, social workers, ministers and faith-based organizations, medical personnel, media and other business professionals, etc., should be involved in this effort. Why? They all have varying influence on the lives of young people. They all have different levels of expertise to contribute. They all bring different perspectives for analyzing problems and implementing effective practices. Prevention specialists need and require the help of the community – the environment.

This Spring, which we all hope arrives sooner rather than later, the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati will release the latest local data from the Pride Student Drug Use Survey. Sponsored by CDFGC every two years, the data serves as the driver for youth drug and alcohol prevention programs at all levels, across the region. This year will be the sixth cycle of the survey.

The survey represents a significant investment of CDFGC resources, financial and otherwise.  However, the CDFGC’s Board of Trustees makes this strategic choice to invest because it is a vital tool in our efforts to keep youth safe from the dangers of alcohol and other drug abuse.

The Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati is dedicated to data-driven decision making to support effective substance abuse prevention. Assessing the scope of the problem is necessary to gain a clear, unbiased understanding of the issues. The survey results help paint the picture of youth substance abuse patterns, including what influences those key, sometimes life changing, decisions.  The findings help direct our efforts to where we can be the most effective, honing our resources to address key influences, rather than guessing and hoping our work is on target. 

In addition to collecting information about youth drug and alcohol use rates, other indicators, such as attitudes, perceptions, and information about other related behaviors are collected. With all of these critical pieces, the survey data presents a detailed picture of youth substance abuse in the region and its consequences.

Analysis of the data trends allows the Coalition to complete a comprehensive community assessment of youth alcohol and drug use,inform the community and key leaders, plan more strategically, leverage funding, monitor progress and evaluate the effectiveness of prevention strategies. The richness of the data has allowed the Coalition to conduct and share in-depth analysis and research of the findings, resulting in stronger, more sustainable changes to the community’s youth substance abuse problem.

CDFGC staff and resident data crunchers will be spending the next weeks readying the data for its 2010 debut.  Certainly, we hope that we continue to see a decline in youth drug and alcohol use and evidence of a continued strengthening of our community’s willingness to protect our kids.  That said, please stay tuned for the release of the newest data trends this Spring, tentatively slated for early April.  Thank you for your support!

Our last article provided an introduction to social hosting and underage drinking. It is not uncommon that children and adolescents are drinking – they report doing so in multiple surveys. Alcohol is the number one substance of abuse by young people. Youth see a large number of alcohol ads during football bowl games and sporting events. Monitoring their exposure to alcohol advertising and alcohol availability in the home is important because most kids are drinking at home or at a friend's house.

Social host liability laws prohibit furnishing alcoholic beverages to underage persons and target the location in which underage drinking takes place. Social host liability laws hold non-commercial individuals responsible for underage drinking events on property they own, lease, or otherwise control. Not allowing your kids to drink and ensuring that their friends parents do likewise makes you a strong advocate against underage drinking.

How ready a community is to address a particular issue is an important tool for anyone concerned with health and community development. A community can’t be convinced to approach an issue until it realizes that the issue exists, and furthermore, that it affects the community. A community can’t be forced into action it is not ready for, or that goes against what most of its members believe. And in order for community coalitions to be successful, a community must have the support and commitment of its members and the needed resources to implement an effective prevention effort.

Once you’ve determined your community's level of readiness for prevention, you can use some of the strategies below to improve your community's readiness:

Parents have found their voice in Anderson Twp! Shortly before Christmas, over 450 parents and teens came together to actually talk about underage drinking in their community. Underage drinking is not a new problem to this community, or any other neighborhood around town. The difference this time was that parents were acknowledging the big elephant in the living room. This is a huge step necessary to bring about change in a community's tolerance of this problem.

The beauty of the dialog that happened on the evening of December 15 is that no blame was laid. Parents walked away with a feeling of empowerment, a feeling that the silent majority had been heard. We know that, on average, most kids don't drink. We also know that kids will make mistakes and, sometimes, poor decisions. But we are the parents! And it is our job to keep our kids as safe and healthy as we possibly can. No other person has the right to take that parental responsibility away from us. After all, "There's Nothing Cute About Underage Drinking."

I think our mission statement says it all: 'To promote drug-free environments for youth by enhancing partnerships to educate, advocate and support locally-based community mobilization."

To me, this important mission means real collaboration on the broadest scale, across all aspects of community life. No longer can any person imagine that drug use does not affect his or her life. Poor school performance, poor health, anti-social behavior, and delinquency all add up to increased poverty, increased crime, higher healthcare costs, and, ultimately lost lives, all of which take a toll on every member of our community.

So, what can we do about this? Fixing it is a tall order. But, by addressing the root causes of the problem, we've got a fighting chance. The Coalition's efforts are focused on changing how the community looks at youth drug and alcohol use. Our prevention work increases those factors that provide kids with protection and works to decrease the risk factors that encourage use. We work closely with all sectors of the community-parents, schools, media, businesses, churches, and many others--to be sure that a consistent, anti-use message is heard across the region and that influential adults have the tools they need to reinforce this message.

Won't you be a part of this message? There remains much work to do. As 2009 draws to a close, please make a year-end, tax deductible contribution to the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati. It's easy-click here to contribute online, call us at 513-751-8000, or fill out this pledge card and return to us prior to December 31, 2009. Thank you for your support of healthy, drug-free communities and youth!

Students are home for the holidays, a period when much alcohol is flowing. And parents, this is a great time to have a conversation with your teen regarding the minimum legal drinking age and your expectations. If they are in college, they have likely been exposed to a risky college drinking environment. Even middle and high school students see lots of provocative alcohol advertising. So, let them know that you endorse social host laws* and you want them to respect the law and not engage in risky behavior such as teen drinking. In addition, set a good example with respect to your own personal alcohol consumption during the holiday period.

Data from the Pride Student Drug Use Survey, conducted by the Coalition, shows that parents have a great influence in their kids' lives – parents who talk with them about alcohol and drugs influence youth choices about whether to engage in risky behavior.