What's New
Fourth of July Holiday: Be Safe. Don’t Drink and Drive.
The Fourth of July is a time for outdoor parties, picnics, and other festivities. Alcohol often is served during these events, increasing the risk and negative consequences of drinking and driving. With adults helping to prevent underage drinking, the holidays can be happy and safer for everyone. But sometimes more is needed. Introducing laws can also help combat underage drinking.
A new study, The Impact of Underage Drinking Laws on Alcohol-Related Fatal Crashes of Young Drivers, has identified four types of underage drinking laws that lead to reductions in underage drinking and driving fatal crashes: possession, purchase, use and lose, and zero tolerance. The study was partially funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. According to the abstract from Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, “These findings point to the importance of key underage drinking and traffic safety laws in efforts to reduce underage drinking-driver crashes.”
School is out: Time for summer safety
School is out! The days of homework, tests, and getting up early are coming to an end. Long summer days are approaching, and now it’s time for youth to sleep in and hang out with friends. While summer vacation can be healthy for youth, too much free time can lead to boredom and risky activities such as alcohol use. Compared with other months, June and July have high rates for youth’s first-time use of alcohol.
Keeping youth busy in alcohol-free activities such as sports or summer camps is key to ensuring they stay healthy and have a safe summer. Please visit the following links for resources and tips on ways parents and community leaders can create alcohol-free activities for youth:
Summer Activities for Youth
The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking: A Guide to Action for Families
Parental Monitoring
TSTS Newsroom and Widget: Save Time, Stay Informed, Share
|
The In the News newsroom, now featured on the Too Smart To Start (TSTS) home page, keeps individuals and organizations informed with the latest news on underage drinking. Sponsored by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), the newsroom is updated regularly with local, State, and national articles published by online sources. Sources include the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and its key partners, mainstream media, government agencies, and other reputable producers of news content. The newsroom features an archive for retrieval of past articles and a searchable database to make finding articles easier.
Also available is a widget that displays the newsroom content directly on your organization’s Web site. There’s no cost and very little time required to copy the widget and share up-to-date news on underage drinking.
|
11th National UDETC Leadership Conference
OJJDP’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC) has announced that registration is open for the 2009 National Leadership Conference, a premier event on research-based underage drinking prevention. To be held August 12–14 in Dallas, TX, the conference will offer interactive workshops, plenary sessions, and networking opportunities.
UDETC is supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice for Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking.
Many Youth Are Getting Prevention Messages From Parents
A new National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report illuminates the important role of parents in underage drinking prevention, especially with the decline in messages received through media. The proportion of adolescents exposed to drug or alcohol use prevention messages through print and broadcast media declined from 83.2 percent in 2002 to 77.9 percent in 2007. In 2007, 59.6 percent of the youth talked with at least one parent about the dangers of substance use, compared with 58.1 percent in 2002. Adolescents ages 12 to 17 years who had conversations with parents about the dangers were less likely to have used alcohol in the past month than those who did not.
Helpful resources for parents:
2009 Reach Out Now Materials Available Online
|
|
The 2009 Reach Out Now materials, developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in collaboration with Scholastic Inc., are available online to view and download. Reach Out Now provides school-based underage alcohol use prevention materials for fifth- and sixth-grade students, their families, and their teachers. These underage drinking prevention classroom materials feature lessons and worksheets, an interactive wall poster, bonus skill-building activity worksheets, and family activity pages. |
Reach Out Now/Reach Out Now Teach-Ins
The Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is sponsoring the Reach Out Now (RON) underage drinking prevention initiative in communities across the Nation. CSAP has collaborated with Scholastic Inc. to develop and disseminate effective school-based underage alcohol use prevention materials to participating fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms across the Nation in March.
In addition, CSAP is supporting and encouraging community-based organizations (CBOs) to collaborate with schools in conducting Reach Out Now Teach-Ins. CBOs are responsible for inviting prominent community leaders such as mayors and local celebrities to deliver classroom presentations. They also conduct media outreach, thereby increasing community awareness of the underage drinking issue.
Teach-In leaders use a specially designed lesson plan that is interactive and engaging. Experience has shown that Teach-Ins led by community leaders encourage broader use of RON materials by youth, teachers, and parents.
Learn more about the national Teach-In and see samples of the Reach Out Now materials.
Underage Drinking Prevention Town Hall Meetings
State/Territory Profiles Now Available
Last year, every State, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories participated in Town Hall Meetings (THMs) to help prevent and reduce underage drinking. Altogether, more than 1,600 community-based organizations (CBOs) held a THM as part of this national effort. Meeting summaries for individual States and Territories are now available.
Posted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the profiles are based on feedback from 86 percent of the CBOs. Tables, charts, and graphs present information on participation by youth and adults, number of meetings, communities where meetings were held, and highlights of events. Major actions resulting from the efforts of local communities include discussions and follow-up meetings as well as plans for legislation, THMs and future events, and other activities.
Key Resources for Families
A Family Guide To Keeping Youth Mentally & Drug Free
The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking: What It Means to You: A Guide for Families.
Available to order or download (PDF - 899 KB)
MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Talk to your child about Alcohol (PDF - 774 KB)
New Business Audience Added
Check out the new Business category in the red audience sections above! Businesses can have a strong influence over youth in preventing underage drinking in their communities. Click here to see how.
New Data Show Drinking Age Laws Saved 4,441 Lives Over 5 Years
Minimum 21-year-old drinking age laws prevented an estimated 4,441 drunken driving deaths in the last five years alone, according to a new report released Nov. 6. NHTSA Acting Administrator David Kelly, who presented the report at a symposium on the subject led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) said, “Turning our back on these laws would be a deadly mistake. Minimum drinking age laws are among the most effective measures ever used to reduce drunken driving deaths among America's young people.”Read the Report (PDF 366KB)
An Examination of the Criticisms of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age 21 Laws in the U.S. from a Traffic-Safety Perspective (PDF 244KB)
|
