At-Risk Youth Prevention Initiative: Prevention Underage Drinking

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

The Preventing Underage Drinking project seeks to foster community conditions that will prevent and reduce underage alcohol use and its related harms among Connecticut students ages 11-17. Specifically, the partnership will: (1) enhance training and technical assistance for community coalitions in Congressional Districts 1 and 5, including a major statewide conference for police, so that they can put in place a comprehensive approach to preventing underage drinking among young people age 11-17; (2) assist coalitions evaluate the impact of their prevention strategies; (3) use news media and the Web to raise public (parent) awareness regarding action steps they can implement to prevent underage drinking; and (4) implement across the state a student presentation, aimed at the middle-school grades, that will help schools complement environmental prevention strategies already in place in their communities. Sample short-term and intermediate outcomes for the Preventing Underage Drinking project include increased coalition capacity to implement environmental prevention strategies and to conduct high-quality evaluation; increased media coverage of parent messages regarding underage drinking; increased capacity of youth and school staff to deliver an evidence-based presentation; and increased feelings of preparation among youth ages 11-14 in terms of making positive decisions about underage drinking. Assessment will include pre/post testing, reports, and training records. NCA/NCF