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Live, Love, Dance
Hosted by:
Lake County Youth Services
How does alcohol and other drug misuse affect your community?
Lake County Youth Services believes that our children in the community are our future. We have been able to reach many youth (ages 13–19) through our program The Landing, a faith-based program designed to teach youth to acknowledge, address, and find solutions for the problems young people face today, including alcohol and substance misuse. Although we have many programs in place, our event was unique because it connected to youth through a fun activity—a dance. The event provided a sober environment with guest speakers to discuss underage drinking and the consequences of alcohol for teens. We recognize that underage drinking is a serious problem in our community, and we are pleased that because of our event, local youth are now able to identify the triggers associated with underage drinking.
What challenge(s) did you face in planning your activity this year?
- Particularly severe or resistant substance use issues in our community
- Inexperience hosting Communities Talk activities
How did you overcome these challenges?
We didn’t experience many challenges when hosting our event. Our team worked together to make this event possible for the youth in our community. Since alcohol is a drug that impacts the whole community, we hope to have another event in the future that builds off this one and gets a larger part of the community involved.
What are your next steps?
- Host follow-up meetings or activities
Which Communities Talk resources (or other SAMHSA resources) were most helpful for your activity?
- Prevention videos, such as College Drinking: Prevention Perspectives
- Communities Talk website
- Communities Talk planning guides
How did a Communities Talk event help you address those issues?
- Educated youth and parents
How did your event make an impact on underage drinking in your community?
Our event changed local youth’s perspective of alcohol use. It taught them the importance of saying “no” to underage drinking and highlighted the negative impacts it can have on their lives if they choose to participate.
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