Webinar: MADD Alcohol Prevention Strategies for the Holidays

We hosted a webinar, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Alcohol Prevention Strategies for the Holidays, on December 13. The webinar included a robust presentation and spectrum of resources to help communities work together to strive for zero deaths, zero injuries, and zero families affected by impaired driving.

Our speakers from MADD shared data on impaired driving fatalities, MADD’s campaign efforts, materials and reports, and ways for communities to get involved and prevent youth access to alcohol. Speakers also shared program details and the curricula available in English and Spanish through MADD’s Power of Youth, Power of Parents, and Power of Community initiatives.

Special guest speakers from MADD included their Senior Director of Field Operations, the National Program Manager, the National Law Enforcement Initiatives Manager, and a peer advocate at Washington State. We shared resources, including statistics on underage drinking and marijuana use, the MADD Cannabis Report, the MADD Rx Medication & Poly-Drugged Driving flipbook, and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) Environmental Prevention Strategies.

Although we see many grants for prevention of other substances, we wanted to make sure we provided resources and a forum specifically focused on underage drinking and alcohol use, as people regularly inquire about these issues in our community.

• Reduce prevalence of underage drinking and other substances in community
• Create an ongoing conversation about underage drinking and substance use prevention in the community
• Foster collaboration between community stakeholders for continued underage drinking and substance use prevention activities
• Create new resources/materials (e.g., publications, handouts, factsheets, videos, graphics) to support prevention of underage drinking and misuse of other substances
• Awareness and enforcement of social host laws) to support prevention of underage drinking
• Encourage community and local businesses to implement measures to prevent underage drinking (e.g., restricting or decreasing sales of alcohol at community events; conducting responsible beverage service training)

• Needed additional resources to conduct activity

We had a slight staffing change midway through the planning, but fortunately, other staff members stepped up to help us get the work done despite the interruption

• StopAlcoholAbuse.gov What’s New email newsletter
• Communities Talk website

We included regional youth substance use prevention providers from King County, as well as behavioral health system staff, in our planning and implementation (they were also the audience for our event). Our coalition staff also shared resources with their coalitions to help make sure these materials reach each sector of the community.

No, the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the planning or execution of our activities.