What Civic Groups Can Do

Civic groups, such as Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, and VFWs, can play an important and visible role in reducing underage drinking, not only within their own institutions but also in the wider community.

For example, civic organizations can adopt policies to prevent underage drinking at organization-sponsored events and they can initiate and participate in community-wide efforts to prevent underage alcohol use. Historically, most civic groups address underage alcohol problems by promoting educational and/or treatment strategies. For example, such groups often conduct workshops in which community members discuss alcohol, learn tips for approaching students who may have a problem with alcohol, and explore ways of being a good role model.

While these efforts are good tools for educating parents and other community members, they should be supplemented with strategies that will effectively reduce youth access to alcohol and change other factors in the community that contribute to underage drinking (i.e., lack of positive social opportunities, etc.). Civic groups, because of their broad membership and visibility in a community, could potentially make a significant impact in underage drinking by promoting and/or supporting access-reducing initiatives.

• Adopt policies and practices to prevent underage alcohol use at civic club functions, fundraisers, and events. Many civic groups serve alcohol at their restaurant, bar, or meeting place. If they allow youth on the premises, they should adopt internal policies and practices to ensure that youth are unable to obtain alcohol. A comprehensive policy should mandate that:
  
  
  • Alcohol is served only in a designated location, which is inaccessible to young people.
  • The alcohol supply is continuously monitored.
  • Servers/sellers attend training sessions to learn laws and legal consequences for providing alcohol to underage youth and learn skills for recognizing and refusing sales to underage youth.
    
    
• Implement community service activities in collaboration with civic organizations. Community service is common among many civic organizations. Group members could organize their volunteer network to participate in teenage drinking prevention projects, such as monitoring off-sale alcohol establishments to ensure that youth are not obtaining alcohol in parking lots, or forming a speakers' bureau to educate community members on compliance checks and other access-related solutions to teenage drinking.
  
  
• Work with alcohol merchants in the community to prevent alcohol sales to youth. Membership in civic organizations often includes a wide range of business leaders in the community and may include owners and managers of alcohol establishments. Through their own membership, civic groups can influence the business practices of alcohol establishments and can reach out to others in the community. For example, a civic organization could sponsor a responsible beverage service training program for merchants and/or could provide them with signs and posters that alert customers of establishments' procedures for checking age identification and penalties for providing alcohol to minors (see responsible beverage service training and checking age identification policies).
  
  
• Participate in the planning of community festivals and other events. Underage youth commonly obtain alcohol at community festivals, carnivals and other events. Because members of civic organizations are often involved in planning these activities, they have an opportunity to ensure that proper practices and policies are adopted at the event to prevent youth access to alcohol. These policies can include:
  
  
  • Establishing non-drinking areas for families and youth.
  • Establishing drinking areas where underage youth are not allowed. Prohibit people from leaving these areas with alcoholic beverages.
  • Require server training for alcohol servers/sellers and event coordinators.
  • Prevent patrons from leaving the event with alcohol.
  • Ban alcohol consumption in parking lots and monitor them for underage drinking.
  • Hire adequate security to monitor alcohol consumption
    (for additional examples of policies see alcohol restrictions at community events policy).
    

• Donate money and/or sponsor fundraisers for prevention organizations. Many civic groups adopt an issue or cause that they support through volunteer and funding assistance. Projects that can reduce youth access to alcohol, such as compliance checks, can require resources for police time, communication, and other purposes. Donations from civic groups can help fund these and other access-reducing initiatives.
  
  
• Encourage compliance checks. Compliance checks are an effective method for identifying alcohol merchants that illegally sell alcohol to youth. In many communities, police are mandated to conduct compliance checks, but in others, there is no organization who is responsible for conducting them. In these communities, civic organizations could play a leadership role in initiating and conducting the checks to identify non-compliant merchants and ultimately to reduce youth access to alcohol (see compliance checks policy).
  
  
• Educate city council members on policy-level solutions to keep alcohol away from teens. Local municipalities can enact many policies to prevent youth access to alcohol and underage drinking. City councils and county boards are more likely to consider and pursue local legislation when they believe there is widespread support for it. Civic group members can meet one-on-one with council members to educate them about policy options, invite them to a community forum, or attend/testify at city council meetings.
  
  
• Recruit community support for the passage of local ordinances to reduce youth access to alcohol through public speaking and media advocacy activities. Civic organizations such as Rotary Clubs and VFWs often have newsletters and other means of communicating with their membership and the community. Through these media, they can raise awareness about access-related issues and can gain support for initiatives to reduce teen drinking.

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