Through the work of The Alamance Community Coalition to Prevent Substance Misuse, reduce youth access to alcohol and promote community risk factors that lead to underage drinking. - Project Name: Preventing Underage Alcohol Use in East Burlington, Alamance County, NC
By working through a community coalition model, the purpose of this project is to decrease access to alcohol by youth and to increase protective factors and reduce risk factors that contribute to underage alcohol use in the East Burlington community of Alamance County, North Carolina which has approximately 37,000 residents. This community is comprised of residents who are predominately people of color and who experience a disproportionate amount of crime, overdoses, poverty, and lack of resources such as access to health care, educational attainment, prosocial resources and struggles around language barriers. In this community, Latino residents followed by African Americans are the majority of the population, vastly different from other parts of Burlington and Alamance County.
Project goals and objectives for this project are:
Goal 1: Increase the capacity of local law enforcement through the Alamance Alcohol Law Enforcement Response Team, to provide alcohol enforcement operations.
• Conduct AALERT meetings to plan and assess alcohol operations.
• Plan and implement local law enforcement operations and training.
Goal 2: Increase collaboration with local on and off premise alcohol retailers to reduce sales of alcohol to underage youth.
• Conduct Alcohol Purchase Surveys with off premise retailers in the community.
• NC Alcohol Law Enforcement will provide Be a Responsible Seller (BARS) training targeting on and off premise retailers.
Goal 3: Increase the engagement of parents using the Talk It Up. Lock It Up! TM Campaign to reduce alcohol access to youth in the home.
• Provide education to community about campaign involvement with parents/adults.
• Conduct Talk It Up. Lock It Up! TM adult education and pledge events in the community and provide locks to secure alcohol on refrigerators or cabinets.
Goal 4: Provide evidence-based Youth Prevention Education to youth in the community.
• Implement evidence-based youth prevention programs that address alcohol and other substance misuse.
• Assess interest and commitment from the school system and community groups to be trained to implement the curriculum Too Good for Drugs.
Goal 5: Increase the number of children and youth in East Burlington engaging in tutoring, mentoring and similar prosocial activities.
• Expand project partnerships with new groups in East Burlington that share mutual goals.
• Increase youth engagement in Alamance County Youth Advocacy Club efforts that
support youth planned and led strategies to reduce underage alcohol.
• Develop and disseminate public service announcements on the prevention of underage
alcohol use, other substance misuse, or related topics.
