Look Who's Talking About Preventing Underage Drinking!

Defiant, rebellious, disobedient. They ignore all your good advice or do just the opposite of what you say. Teenagers! You can’t tell them anything. They think they know better than you. Tell them not to go near alcohol, and they turn right around and drink anyway. Right?

Wrong! Grown-ups and young people themselves sometimes buy into the pervasive negative stereotypes of today’s teens, overlooking the positive things youth are doing to improve their lives and ours. Right now, youth across the United States are involved in efforts to deliver help to the victims of Haiti’s earthquakes. Many are working to improve and preserve the natural environment, mentoring younger children, or engaging in recreational and learning activities where alcohol plays no part. Others have turned spring break into a time to perform valuable community service work to help neighbors in need instead of engaging in dangerous underage drinking.

This socially responsible generation is taking on underage drinking directly, too. Young people are contributing to declining rates of underage drinking through responsible decisionmaking on a personal level, postponing alcohol use until the legal drinking age of 21. What’s more, many adolescents are active in preventing underage drinking among their peers by speaking out about their positive choices and why they are making them. For example, teens in several States and Territories appear in widely used videos that promote effective underage drinking prevention. They are valuable role models and exert peer pressure of the positive kind.

In 2008, for example, hundreds of Town Hall Meetings (THMs) were organized and led by underage youth themselves, in communities all over the United States. What’s more, in the final report (PDF - 1.35 MB) of that year’s successful nationwide Town Hall initiative, local organizations hosting these events were favorably impressed with the quantity and quality of youth involvement. The quantity alone was significant: The average number of youth attending a meeting was 41 (vs. an average number of adult participants of 45,) according to the 2008 Evaluation Report (PDF - 1.96 MB). Three-quarters of all THMs that year included at least one youth speaker in their program.

In 2010, SAMHSA/CSAP and thousands of community-based organizations that have hosted past THMs on underage drinking are encouraging even greater youth participation in planning and conducting events that are by, for, and about them and their concerns.

Explore ways you can engage youth to make your THM more successful:

• Invite them to play active roles on your planning committee.
• Seek their advice on Town Hall program content based on observation and feedback from peers.
• Brainstorm with them about what other underage youth in your community need to hear and how to say it.
• Put them on your THM agenda as speakers and moderators. They can offer personal testimonial and valuable first-hand observations about underage drinking conditions in your community.
• Involve them in a dramatic presentation during your THM.
• Connect them with community leaders who need to understand their goals and their challenges and introduce them as active leaders and resources for their communities.

What you can ask youth to do:

• Recruit peers who can attract and address youthful participants.
• Help market your THM to other youth and grown-ups, particularly through their skills using new communication technologies and channels.
• Collect local underage drinking stories and images (photos of alcohol promotions, advertising, etc.; short videos celebrating positive youth activities or illustrating local prevention challenges).
• Follow the suggested checklists and tips to help you keep the focus of your THM on preventing underage drinking (see the Materials section for step-by-step guidelines for youth and adults hosting THMs).
• Demonstrate culturally responsive attitudes and actions.
• Reach out to younger siblings and other children who look to them for examples and guidance.
• Identify and report on circumstances within their environment that make it harder for them to avoid alcohol.

How to tap into youth resources in your community:

• Contact area chapters of youth programs such as Students Against Destructive Decisions.
• Get in touch with school guidance counselors and sports team coaches.
• Invite members of fraternities and sororities on nearby campuses to participate.
• Ask campus Student Health offices to recruit youth volunteers.
• Reach out to young military personnel and their families. They welcome opportunities to connect with communities near bases and military residential areas.

Involvement in THMs is beneficial to youth themselves. It allows them to:

• Serve their communities and bring about real change meaningful to their own lives and aspirations.
• Earn social service credits toward graduation.
• Celebrate their achievements, contributions, and healthy choices.
• Reinforce positive behavior among peers.
• Build resiliency to foster a sense of power to shape their destinies.
• Promote bonding with care-giving adults who can provide mentoring support and reinforce positive decisions and protective factors in their lives.

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