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Anchorage Town Hall Meeting Shapes Alaska Underage Drinking Policies

Anchorage, Alaska

INTRODUCTION
Leaders of the 49th state take the problem of underage drinking seriously. The Alaska Department of Health & Social Services, Division of Behavioral Health, Prevention and Early Intervention Program supports and coordinates community-based prevention services and publishes reports and recommendations on the issue.

An October 2009 report (PDF | 1.12MB), prepared with help from Alaska’s Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, summed up the state’s concern: “A myriad of catastrophic health, social and economic problems resultant from underage drinking has impacted Alaska’s youth.”

Although Anchorage is not the state’s capital, it is Alaska’s largest city and home to 40 percent of the state’s population, or about 300,000 people. In Anchorage, the Prevention and Intervention Program of the Alaska chapter of Volunteers of America (VOA) is implementing Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), a program included in SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, or NREPP, to foster community support for prevention and help shape state policies to reduce youth alcohol access and illegal drinking.

In 2013, VOA held a Town Hall Meeting to discuss CMCA’s progress in reviewing Alaska’s Title 4 state statutes relating to underage drinking and access to alcohol. The next year, a SAMHSA-supported Town Hall Meeting, organized in partnership with the Dean of Students’ Office at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, provided an opportunity to report on CMCA’s work. The event was designed to gather community input on the statutes.

EVENT DESCRIPTION
“In Alaska, youth report that they start drinking at age 13. Anchorage youth report that they get their alcohol from ‘near-peers’, parents, and friends’ parents,” proclaimed the flyer for the May 19, 2014, Town Hall Meeting at Anchorage’s First Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Free childcare, hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken legs helped attract a large audience to hear an expert panel discuss the underage drinking problem in Anchorage.

Attendees shared their concerns, such as the reported rise in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder births among underage females. In addition, speakers discussed evidence-based strategies for preventing underage drinking. Participants were encouraged to share ideas on additional community-wide strategies to encourage Alaskan minors to reduce access to and avoid alcohol. In addition, VOA provided an update on its efforts to guide improvements in Alaska’s Title 4 state statutes and solicited community feedback.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS
The Town Hall Meeting helped shape recommendations to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Underage Drinking subcommittee, and the recommendations were incorporated into a VOA/CMCA resolution. The meeting provided significant stakeholder input to the subcommittee that was included in a November 2014 report, Alcohol Title 4 Review for the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (PDF | 708KB).

Subsequent underage drinking-related state policy changes that were recommended to the Alaska legislature included making alcohol consumption by minors a violation under state law, adding new penalties and sanctions for the sale of alcohol to minors, requiring statewide keg registration, and clarifying wording of required alcohol signage.

NEXT STEPS
VOA/CMCA will continue serving as a conduit for community concerns about underage drinking, state and local policies, and enforcement. Additional community forums will be held to obtain new input and increase support for evidence-based prevention targeting underage drinking. A 2016 SAMHSA Town Hall Meeting will report on the state legislature’s action on the 2014 recommendations and plan further action.

CONTACT
Ms. Charlie Daniels
cdaniels@voaak.org
(907) 301–2710


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