QUICK FACTS FROM AEP RESEARCH

Reducing Youth Drinking:
Community Organizing

Can communities do anything to reduce underage drinking?

Even communities that have no previous experience in trying to reduce underage drinking can make positive changes.

Tips for organizing communities:

• Allow adequate time to mobilize citizens and influence local policy
• Make sure organizers know the issue and the community as thoroughly as possible
• Recruit supporters one-by-one
• Present the underage drinking issue in ways that appeal to each sector of the community, for example:
  • as a family issue for parents
  • as a crime issue for police
  • as a productivity issue for employers

• Build a large and broad base of support
• Encourage and allow the community to take ownership of the process
• Don't delay action -- action will attract new participants
• Celebrate victories, however small

Examples of types of actions taken by communities:

• Instructed bars and liquor stores to call the police when youth tried to buy alcohol
• Arranged police visits to bars and liquor stores to test whether underage youth were able to buy alcohol.
• Set up media coverage about problems that result from youth drinking.
• Increased community awareness of problems relating to youth drinking

Examples of policies that communities have advocated for:

• Prohibition of beer kegs at university events
• Establishing training for staff at bars, restaurants and liquor stores about how to check ID's and refuse sales of alcohol to underage youth.
• Establishing new policies at local motels to discourage underage drinking parties.

For more information order publication number:

11.6.112
Wagenaar AC, Gehan JP, Jones-Webb R, Toomey TL, Forster JL, Wolfson M, et al. Communities mobilizing for change on alcohol: Lessons and results from a 15-community randomized trial. Journal of Community Psychology 1999 May;27(3):315-26.

Community organizing efforts have been shown to:

• Reduce the proportion of 18- to 20-year-olds who report:
  • trying to buy alcohol
  • giving alcohol to younger teens
  • drinking alcohol in the past month (1)

• Reduce DWI arrests among 18- to 20-year-olds (2)
• Increase checking of age IDs at bars and restaurants (1)

For more information order publications:

(1) 11.6.110
Wagenaar AC, Murray DM, Gehan JP, Wolfson M, Forster JL, Toomey TL, et al. Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol: Outcomes from a randomized community trial. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2000 Jan;61(1):85-94.

(2) 11.6.114:
Wagenaar AC, Murray DM, Toomey TL. Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA): Effects of a randomized trial on arrests and traffic crashes. Addiction 2000 Feb;95(2):209-217.


Can neighborhood associations help in community organizing efforts?

Based on a survey from 84 neighborhood associations in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota:

• Associations had connections to many neighborhood residents, who are important constituents to get involved in any organizing effort.
• The associations were involved in frequent and diverse types of political activities, with associations in poorer and larger neighborhoods being more politically active than those in smaller and wealthier neighborhoods.

For more information order publication number:

11.6.126
Lenk KM, Toomey TL, Wagenaar AC, Bosma LM, Vessey J. Can neighborhood associations be allies in health policy efforts? Political activity among neighborhood associations. Journal of Community Psychology 2002; 30(1): 57-68.