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Alcohol Server Knowledge Training

Hosted by: Knox Substance Abuse Action Team

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How does alcohol and other drug misuse affect your community?

Members of our community recently mourned the loss of a young man due to a car accident involving underage drinking. His brother was fortunate to live through the crash; however, it was months before he could walk again. Today, the location of the crash serves as a reminder to friends, classmates, and community members that it could have been prevented if the youth had not had access to alcohol.

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What challenge(s) did you face in planning your activity this year?

  • Lack of interest from the community
  • Lack of awareness of our event or organization
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How did you overcome these challenges?

Our biggest challenge was a lack of awareness. Fortunately, youth members stepped up and created a new strategic plan about disseminating information around the PSA. Their plan includes a future sticker campaign, as well as billboard and radio ad placements to target more community members during high-drinking events such as homecoming, graduation, and prom.

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What are your next steps?

  • Create a public education campaign to raise awareness and/or change behaviors around underage drinking (i.e., create PSAs and other promotional materials)
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Which Communities Talk resources (or other SAMHSA resources) were most helpful for your activity?

  • StopAlcoholAbuse.gov website
  • Communities Talk social media content (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)
  • Our youth led prevention team created a video to inform parents to Be a Parent, Not a Friend reminding them of the legal consequences of providing alcohol to underage youth.
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How did a Communities Talk event help you address those issues?

  • Educated youth and parents
  • Created an opportunity to share resources and practices with other community stakeholders
  • Raised awareness of substance abuse and/or underage drinking issues in our community
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How did your event make an impact on underage drinking in your community?

We presented our public service announcement (PSA), “Be a Parent, Not a Friend,” to the community and held a panel discussion after the showing. Each committee of our coalition informed participants about our current prevention efforts. Additionally, we had a productive conversation with participants about new initiatives specific to alcohol, e-cigarettes, and marijuana that we want to work toward as a coalition and a community. At the end of our event, we provided everyone with a KSAAT Community Resource Toolkit to take home.

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