Bonneville Communities That Care Coalition's Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act Grants submission. - The Bonneville Communities That Care Coalition (BCTC) is composed of four cities motivated to reduce underage drinking by reducing negative factors in our community and increasing positive influences. We do this by first starting with a thorough assessment of community needs and strengths, followed by using prevention strategies, programs, and policies to reduce risk and increase protection for our youth. The four cities, Washington Terrace, South Ogden, Uintah, and Riverdale, are united and mobilized with 12 community sectors to organize our efforts to be the most effective we possibly can in this critical work to prevent problems before they happen. We are a community in the southern part of Weber County, Utah and share two zipcodes 84403 and 84405. Together, our cities make up the Bonneville “cone” due to the fact that it is made up of seven elementary schools and two junior high schools that funnel into one high school, Bonneville High. According to the United States 2016 Census Population Estimate, the Bonneville Cone's total population is 35,341. Of that figure, 29% of the population is under the age of 18, demonstrating that our population is relatively young. Fifty-eight percent (58%) fall in the age range of 19-64, and 13% is 65 and older. The average of total persons living below poverty level is 8% and the median annual household income is $51,571. This region is designated as urban.
We use the SPF coalition model and the Communities That Care (CTC) model. These models lay the foundation for all our coalition work. Three strategies and we have chosen to focus on for the STOP grant include: 1) Increase capacity of our youth workgroup to identify and address environmental issues that impact underage drinking; 2) Increase the number of compliance checks done by law enforcement; and, 3) Increase public awareness of the problem of underage drinking.
Our efforts are aimed at the entire community with emphasis on underage youth. With a cooperative effort and following proven prevention methods, we will reduce underage drinking. Through increasing compliance monitoring, increasing youth’s knowledge of underage drinking facts (including most kids don’t!) and increasing the public’s knowledge of and connections to specific media campaigns, we will reach the majority of our population along with other nearby communities. We have had great success in media coverage at past press conferences. For each annual media event we do, we reach an average of 55,000 people, including our community and nearby neighbors. Because our outreach includes decreasing alcohol availability to underage youth, we will impact the neighboring communities as well, as we know many come to our cities to purchase alcohol.
For the next 5 years, we will provide at least 100,000 people with the knowledge and skills they need to reduce underage drinking and increase our community health.
