Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Grant (S.T.O.P.) - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Grant
Abstract
Northern Ohio Recovery Association
East Cleveland youth are almost twice as likely to try alcohol before age 13 compared to their cohorts throughout Ohio. Project Bridges of HOPE goals are to delay the onset of drinking and reduce and prevent underage drinking through a comprehensive out-of-school time plan with prevention/intervention activities; local legislative amendments and enforcement efforts; and initiatives to mobilize parent and community support.
Project Bridges will work with at-risk African American youth, age 12 through 20, residing in East Cleveland expanding to Glenville area. Compared to the rest of Ohio, East Cleveland youth are more likely to be impoverished: the number of persons living in poverty is 2.6 times greater in East Cleveland than statewide. A recent report by Case Western Reserve University triangulating adolescent surveillance data revealed that while the proportion of high school seniors who have never had a drink of alcohol has increased, nearly 15% of students report that they have had 5 or more drinks of alcohol in a row on one or more days in the past month. The reduction of binge drinking among adolescents is a priority in East Cleveland. Additionally, 62% of East Cleveland students have between 0 and 3 protective factors particularly among Black and Hispanic students. Students who possess low protective factors are significantly more likely to have ever used cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs. Since 2007, the Bridges of HOPE coalition’s mission has been to facilitate the development of protective factors leading to the reduction and prevention of underage drinking.
Based on CADCA’s Seven Strategies for Community Change, Project Bridges’ objectives include: 1) Engaging youth and parents in community events that provide alcohol prevention messages; Providing opportunities to interact with positive role models. 2) Learning from youth, parents and the larger community what underage drinking issues are and what should be done to resolve them, 3) Providing youth with opportunities to develop more structured time and to interact with resisting peers, 4) Limiting the availability of alcohol to minors through legislative and enforcement activities, 5) Developing a media campaign to market and advertise the coalition’s activities, recruiting new members and promoting prevention messages, 6) Collaborating with community organizations to provide out-of-school and summer activities for youth age 12 -20, 7) Establishing and strengthening collaboration among communities, private nonprofit agencies, and federal, state, local governments to support the efforts of East Cleveland Bridges of HOPE coalition to prevent and reduce underage drinking. Project Bridges will serve up to 100 youth in annual prevention/intervention programming for a total of 400 throughout the life of the project.
