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Teens and Alcohol Presentation
Hosted by:
New Hope Solebury School District, Trinity Episcopal Church
Please briefly describe your Communities Talk activity.
The New Hope Solebury Cares, a local non-profit organization, held a webinar on teens and alcohol use. During the event, we shared an informational presentation with attendees to discuss patterns of alcohol use among teenagers. We also discussed the common locations where teenage alcohol use happens, what common alcoholic beverages are consumed, and the consumption and distribution laws in the community. The highlight of the presentation was the conversation with the teen participants about the dangers of underage drinking. While we gave people the option to attend in person as well, all attendees participated online through our webinar.
How does alcohol and other drug misuse affect your community?
Underage drinking in New Hope is mostly conducted in private homes, making it very difficult to monitor and take preventative actions. Alcohol is socially accepted in the area, which has a great impact on the number of teenagers who use or abuse alcohol. Additionally, teenagers are exposed to a wide variety of substances in school. This makes it a great need in this community for webinars such as this one to educate parents and role models in the community on alcohol use among teenagers.
What goal(s) did you hope to accomplish with your Communities Talk activity?
- Reduce prevalence of underage drinking and other substances in community
- 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)
What challenge(s) did you face in planning your activity this year?
- Inexperience hosting Communities Talk activities
- Adapting to conducting a virtual activity
How did you overcome these challenges?
Watching other webinars allowed our team to learn how to conduct an online presentation. Practicing our technical set-up and presentation also helped us get ready for our event.
What are your next steps?
- Expand our coalition with new partnerships in the community
Which Communities Talk resources (or other SAMHSA resources) were most helpful for your activity?
- Prevention-related webinars
- Communities Talk website
Who did you involve in your activity planning, and who did your activity impact?
Additional New Hope Solebury Cares staff were involved in planning the event. The school librarian at New Hope Solebury High School also supported us by giving us a space to practice presenting the event, as well as a place to host our webinar. The target audience included parents, role models to youth in the community, and other leaders from a range of sectors in the community.
Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the planning or execution of your activities?
No, it did not affect my presentation.
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