What’s New

Preventing and Reducing Underage Drinking—Virtually!

06/01/2020

Following social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local public health officials can make prevention work challenging. One way to reach your audience with prevention messages is by hosting a virtual Communities Talk event using free video conference platforms like Zoom, ezTalks Meetings, or Skype. These platforms allow you to interact with people in your community while still following social distancing best practices. You can also use social media to reach your community by hosting a Twitter chat or using Facebook Live.

It’s important to point out that going virtual doesn’t only mean hosting virtual meetings. You can expand the reach of your prevention messaging by using different virtual techniques. To help you plan, we’ve included some ideas for you below. If you have found other ways to reach your community virtually we encourage you to contact us and share what worked for you.

• Develop an "Underage Drinking Prevention Tip of the Day" or "Underage Drinking Prevention Question of the Day" and share it on social media.
  Encourage supporters to share their perspectives on the tip or question and facilitate a dialogue about underage drinking prevention as it relates to the specific questions or statement. Underage Drinking: Myths vs Facts has answers to misconceptions youth have about underage drinking and is a good place to start for potential questions or tips. You can also use the polling features in Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Stories to engage your followers with a quiz.
• Ask local musicians to livestream a performance that includes a public service announcement on underage drinking and alcohol misuse prevention.
  While the music will draw your audience in, messages and information about underage drinking and alcohol misuse prevention will leave them more informed and inspired to take action.