Project Name: SUP Medway Underage Drinking Prevention
Project Goals and Objectives
The goal of this project is to more effectively prevent alcohol use in Medway adolescents with a serious mental illness, of a traditionally underserved race, and who are economically disadvantaged.
Population to be Served
This project targets middle and high-school-age adolescents. Specifically, those with a serious mental illness, of a traditionally underserved race (Black, Hispanic/Latino, two or more races), and who are economically disadvantaged. By designing an effective model for adolescent alcohol use youth prevention, this project will impact 1,300 Medway adolescents annually and 5,200 over the lifetime of the grant.
Strategies and Interventions
With STOP Grant funding, the SUP Medway coalition plans to enhance equity and address disproportionate alcohol use and outcomes by tailoring interventions to meet the specific needs of historically underserved groups. SUP Medway’s current initiatives targeting the reduction of underage drinking include the Friday Night Done Right program, the Why Try curriculum, and the Building Bright Brains campaign. Friday Night Done Right is a drop-in program the Coalition is initiating to provide a safe, drug-free space for youth as an alternative to unsupervised spaces where alcohol and other drugs may be available to youth. The Why Try program is an evidence-based curriculum tailored for youth with existing risk factors to help them develop resiliency and social and emotional learning. SUP Medway’s Building Bright Brains initiative is an educational campaign aimed at helping youth and adults understand the impact of alcohol use on the developing brain with long-term outcome goals of changing social norms around underage drinking.
Measurable Outcomes
We plan to measure the effectiveness of the projects described above in several different ways. Here are the main objectives for each project:
Friday Night Done Right: By September 2025, free drop-in events will be offered weekly for at least nine months out of each year as measured by the SUP Medway coalition events calendar.
Why Try: By June 2025, participants in the Why Try program will improve their “resistance to peer pressure” score by at least 5% as measured by comparing pre-and post-test results.
Brain Campaign: By June 2027, 75% of adolescents with mental illness who participate in the online module will score an 80% or higher on the post-test quiz.
Language Accessibility: By May 2026, at least 80% of SUP Medway coalition campaign materials and program marketing materials will be available in Spanish and Portuguese.