COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES TO DECREASE ALCOHOL USE BY MINORS

John Underwood

Environmental strategies offer well-accepted prevention approaches that coalitions use to change the context (environment) in which substance use and abuse occur.

Environmental

• efforts aimed at changing or influencing community conditions, norms, standards, institutions, structures, systems and policies.

Ours is within the target population of athletes and athletics but involving parents coaches teachers, fans community… School policy, Restorative justice model Criminal investigation of underage drinking etc…

ADVANTAGES

Advantages of environmental strategiesEnvironmental strategies can produce quick winsand instill commitment toward long-term impact

on practices and policies within a community.But, they also require substantial commitment

from various sectors of the community to contribute to sustainable community change. Such

approaches potentially reach entire populationsand reduce collective risk. They create lasting

change in community norms and systems, producing widespread behavior change and, in

turn, reducing problems for entire communities.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

• Individual /Sociability/Social Context-Significance• Societal-Community• Peer-TEAM• Family Fan• School • Group membership• Pack Mentality

ALCOHOL—Organizational PoliciesRestrictions on alcohol advertisements (media)

Restrictions on alcohol use at work and work events (businesses)Restrictions on sponsorship of special events (communities, stadiums)

Police walkthroughs at alcohol outletsUndercover outlet compliance checks (law enforcement agencies)

Responsible beverage service policies (outlets)Mandatory checks of age identification (businesses)

Server training (businesses)Incentives for checking age identification (businesses)

Prohibition of alcohol on school grounds or at school events (schools)Enforcement of school policies(schools)

Prohibition of beer kegs on campus(colleges)Establishment of enforcement priorities against adults who illegally provide

alcohol to youthSobriety checkpoints (law enforcement agencies)

Media campaigns about enforcement efforts (media)Identification of source of alcohol consumed prior to driving-while-intoxicated arres ts

Environmental STATEGIES Youth Access to Alcohol

ALCOHOL—Organizational PoliciesRestrictions on alcohol advertisements (media)Restrictions on alcohol use at work and work

events (businesses)Restrictions on sponsorship of special events

(communities, stadiums)Police walkthroughs at alcohol outlets

Undercover outlet compliance checks (law enforcement agencies)

Responsible beverage service policies (outlets)Mandatory checks of age identification

(businesses)Server training (businesses)

Incentives for checking age identification (businesses)

Prohibition of alcohol on school grounds or at school events (schools)

Enforcement of school policies(schools)Prohibition of beer kegs on campus(colleges)

Establishment of enforcement priorities against adults who illegally provide

alcohol to youthSobriety checkpoints (law enforcement agencies)Media campaigns about enforcement efforts

(media)Identification of source of alcohol consumed prior

to driving-while-intoxicated arreststs

Alcohol, Culture and Environment Work Group

• Recommendations Implemented by Educators or Educational Institutions• • Wisconsin’s public and private schools, colleges and universities are the heart of Wisconsin’s communities and key to future economic growth. These recommendations

recognize the unique leadership role of educators. Broad-based community involvement in school efforts to reduce alcohol abuse by youth and young adults will create stronger, engaged communities and schools.

• • 1. Youth participation in co-curricular activities is a privilege not a right. Wisconsin educators and youth would benefit from the adoption and consistent enforcement of a

single statewide Code of Conduct for co-curricular activities. Each school district has the right to restrict participation in co-curricular activities for rule violations across conferences with the goal of a statewide, consistently enforced code.

• • 2. Violations of a student or athletic code of conduct should be entered into the student’s permanent record. Disciplinary actions should carry over between academic

sessions and observed by all public and private schools.• • 3. Schools are strongly encouraged to conduct the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to provide an accurate local measure of youth alcohol and other drug use.• • 4. Wisconsin school principals, athletic directors, and guidance counselors, should be required to attend Drug Impairment Training for Educational Professionals (DITEP)

every three years and become familiar with local referral networks. • • 5. Both public and private schools should implement long term evidence based practices and programs to prevent and reduce underage drinking. These efforts should be

renewed through scheduled booster sessions and reinforce the communities overall prevention goals. Schools should work with the community to ensure the necessary services are in place so that students in need of alcohol related services can be referred to the appropriate provider.

• • 6. Schools should provide parents with information on the hazards of underage drinking and alcohol initiation as part of parenting education sessions, helping parents

define their own guidelines for alcohol use and prevention of misuse.•

• 7. Wisconsin’s colleges, universities and the municipalities where they are located should take steps to create an environment that discourages underage and high risk drinking, including adopting the policies and practices endorsed by the Task Force on College Drinking of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. We further recommend that measurable standards documenting the implementation of the NIAAA recommendations be a measure of performance for campus leaders.

• •

• The framework of my program will be to use policy change as the focal point for community change. Code of conduct policies are reactive punishment based documents that do not function. Our codes are proactive character based with the goal of identifying youth at risk and getting them help or putting them through a process for change. NY State Athletic Association saw 95% of the NY school districts make changes toward our codes in a mandated workshop in 2005. New Mexico has followed. We tie our strategies to most of the environmental strategies listed above. It is actually now part of Wisconsin’s state action plan in prevention. See above Work Group info… I will also connect law enforcement environmental strategies to school environments which is often greatly lacking… We have developed many viable programs for local law enforcement and schools. Many of these have been shown for the past decade at OJJDP Dept of ED and all levels of sport.. JU

2121 things you can do to stop

underage drinking

: The minimum drinking age shall be enforced with absolute zero tolerance and should prohibit:• purchase or attempted purchase, possession, and consumption ofalcoholic beverages by persons under 21;• possession of and use of falsified or fraudulent identification topurchase or attempt to purchase alcoholic beverages;• provision of any alcohol to minors by adults, except to their ownchildren in their own residences; and• underage drinking in private clubs and establishments.Provisions for minor in attendance MIA

Any Alcohol related company or enterprise, advertising companies, and commercial media agent, should refrain from marketing practices (including product design, advertising, and promotional techniques), billboards or visible promotions that have substantial underage appeal and should take reasonable precautions in the time, place, and manner of placement and promotion to reduce youthful exposure to other alcohol advertising and marketing activity within your community.

You should strengthen the compliance check programs in retail outlets, using media campaigns and license revocation to increase deterrence.• You should undertake regular and comprehensivecompliance check programs, including notification of retailersconcerning the program and follow-up communication to themabout the outcome (sale/no sale) for their outlet.• Enforcement agencies should issue citations for violations of underagesales laws, with substantial fines and temporary suspension oflicense for first offenses and increasingly stronger penalties thereafter,leading to permanent revocation of license after three offenses.• Communities and states should implement media campaigns in conjunction with compliance check programs detailing the program, itspurpose, and outcomes.

You should require outlets to achieve designated rates of retailer compliance with youth access prohibitions as a condition of receiving relevant block grant funding, similar to the Synar Amendment’s requirements for youth tobacco sales.

You should require all sellers and servers of alcohol to complete state-approved training as a condition of employment.Law enforcement should conduct AET trainings to all outlets and servers detailing civil and criminal ramifications.

You should enact or strengthen dram shop liability statutes to authorize negligence-based civil actions against commercial providers of alcohol for serving or selling alcohol to a minor who subsequently causes injury to others, while allowing a defense for sellers who have demonstrated compliance with responsible business practices.

Communities that allow Internet sales and home deliveryof alcohol should regulate these activities to reduce the likelihood ofsales to underage purchasers. You should:• require all packages for delivery containing alcohol to be clearlylabeled as such;• require persons who deliver alcohol to record the recipient’s ageidentification information from a valid government-issued document(such as a driver license or ID card); and• require recipients of home delivery of alcohol to sign a statementverifying receipt of alcohol and attesting that he or she is of legal ageto purchase alcohol.

You should implement enforcement programs to deter adults from purchasing alcohol for minors.Your community should:• routinely undertake shoulder tap or other prevention programs targetingadults who purchase alcohol for minors, using warnings, rather than citations, for the first offense;• enact and enforce laws to hold retailers responsible, as a condition of licensing, for allowing minors to loiter and solicit adults to purchase alcohol for them on outlet property; and use nuisance and loitering ordinances as a means of discouraging youth from congregating outside of alcohol outlets in order to solicit adults to purchase alcohol.

Your community should establish and implement a system requiring registration of beer kegs that records information on the identity of purchasers.

You should facilitate enforcement of zero tolerance laws in order to increase their deterrent effect. You should:• modify existing laws to allow passive breath testing, social host ordinances streamlined administrative procedures, and administrative penalties and• implement a media campaign to increase young peoples’ awarenessof reduced BAC limits, legal ramifications and of enforcement efforts.

•implement a media campaigns to increase adults’ awarenessof civil and criminal penalties for underage drinking violations and of enforcement efforts.

You should enforce graduated driver licensing laws.

You should routinely implement sobriety checkpoints.

Local police, working with community leaders, should adopt and announce policies for detecting and terminating underage drinking parties, including:

Establishing Social host ordinances• routinely responding to complaints from the public about noisy teenageparties and entering the premises when there is probable cause tosuspect underage drinking is taking place;• routinely checking, as a part of regular weekend patrols, open areaswhere teenage drinking parties are known to occur; and• routinely citing underage drinkers and, if possible, the person whosupplied the alcohol when underage drinking is observed at parties.

Establish 1-866 -UNDER21 HOTLINEMulti Jurisdictional approach for coverage and investigation

No call goes uninvestigated Response immediately

You should strengthen efforts to prevent and detect use of false identification by minors to make alcohol purchases.You should:• prohibit the production, sale, distribution, possession, and use of false identification for attempted alcohol purchase;•electronically scan driver licenses and state identification cards • allow retailers to confiscate apparently false identification for lawenforcement inspection; and• implement administrative penalties (e.g., immediate confiscation ofa driver’s license and issuance of a citation resulting in a substantialfine) for attempted use of false identification by minors for alcoholpurchases.

You should establish administrative procedures and both criminal and non-criminal penalties, such as fines or community service, for alcohol infractions by minors. Restorative justice model should act as framework…

Establish a youth-focused local media campaign relating to underage drinking.

Utilize only evidence- based education interventions, with priority given both to those that incorporate elements known to be effective and those that are part of comprehensive community programs.

Utilize a comprehensive educational program K-12 in community schools

Insure the availability of effective clinical services for treating alcohol abuse among underage populations and for following up on treatment.

You should establish policies that facilitate diagnosing andreferring underage alcohol abusers and those who are alcohol dependent for clinical treatment.

Community leaders should assess the underage drinking problem in their communities and consider effective approaches— such as community organizing, coalition building, and the strategic use of the mass media—to reduce drinking among underage youth.

Establish a School- based alcohol /drug task force

Public and private funders should support community mobilization to reduce underage drinking.

Federal funding for reducing and preventing underage drinking should be solicited and national programs dedicated to community-level approaches to reducing underage drinking, which supports communities in addressing substance abuse with targeted evidence-based prevention strategies should be employed.

Community should attend UDETC OJJDP NLC yearly.

You should designate a lead agency and individual, (AET) to coordinate and spearhead its activities and programs to reduce and prevent underage drinking.