The Reducing Ottawa Area Drunk Driving Taskforce (ROADD), a subcommittee of the Ottawa Substance Abuse Prevention (OSAP) is applying for the Sober Truth on Underage Drinking (STOP ACT) funding to support efforts to prevent underage alcohol use in Ottawa County, MI. The goal of the project is to reduce the percentage of youth ages 13-18 reporting it would be easy or somewhat easy to get alcohol by 10% by 2025. There are four objective ROADD has set in order to achieve this goal:
1. Reduce the percentage of Ottawa County 12th grade students who report being given alcohol by their parent or parents of a friend by 5% by October 2025
2. To reduce the percentage of 12th grade students reporting being given alcohol by a legal aged person or attending a party where alcohol was available by 5% by October 2025.
3. To increase the percentage of retailers who are able to pass compliance checks to 90% in Ottawa County
4. Decrease the percentage of adults ages 21-24 reporting underage drinking happens because stores don’t check ID 5% by October 2025.
Ottawa County is located on the west side of the state of Michigan along its coast. OSAP has a 17 year history of preventing youth substance abuse in Ottawa County, and has been a model of collaboration for that time. The collaborative works together strategically, and these efforts has seen a reduction in youth marijuana use and underage alcohol use. ROADD itself, is specifically focused on addressing underage alcohol use and will work OSAP Coalition to develop a five year strategic plan and annual action plan during the project period. ROADD will implement retailer education and engagement, social norming campaigns, direct parent education strategies and enforcement activities including Party Patrols. Parent education will include in person presentations and virtual presentations. Impact and effectiveness of strategies will be measured through three community surveys; the Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey, the Behavior Risk Factor Survey and the Adult Attitudes on Addiction Survey along with individual activity evaluation measures. The collection of assessment and evaluation data will allow the ROADD coalition to effectively plan and implement activities to prevent underage drinking. The target populations of the proposed project include youth ages 13-18, parents, young adults ages 18-24 and alcohol retailers. The demographics of people served will mirror those of the county in general. The Ottawa County Population is roughly 50% male and 50% female; approximately 83% Caucasian, 2% African American or Black, 9% Hispanic, 2% multi-racial, 3% Asian and 1% other. All together the project will reach 100,000 impressions, 150 parents, 200 businesses and 2,500 young adults annually and 400,000 impressions, 600 parents, 200 businesses and 10,000 young adults over the course of the project.