Assess the Community

Although the parents were sure that alcohol in general, and underage drinking parties specifically, was the most important youth substance use problem in their community, they realized that their decision-making process might have been a bit subjective. Therefore, they decided to conduct an assessment of their community to objectively determine the scope and severity of the problem, as well as locate the current resources available to address the problem. This information would help them make informed decisions about the specific alcohol-related problems, as well as help them decide the best way to approach the issue. Given that about half of the parents did not work outside the home, these parents volunteered to contribute more time to obtaining information about the problem of underage drinking. The parents were active in various facets of community life, and they were able to use these connections to meet with community leaders to discuss the problem and obtain background information.

The parent group discussed what information might help them assess their community. They decided that the first information they would get is data on alcohol- and drug-related youth incidents. Four parents scheduled a meeting with their chief of police, and they requested the past 3 years of alcohol and drug youth-related incidents. The police reports revealed what they had already suspected. Officers were spending a good portion of their Friday and Saturday night shifts breaking up underage drinking parties and arresting people for driving under the influence. The chief also told them that their department used to conduct compliance checks (a.k.a. alcohol stings) in the past, but the grant had run out, and they no longer had the funding to conduct them on a regular basis. As for illicit drug use, the police reports revealed that there were some arrests for drug-related offenses, but the numbers were much smaller than the alcohol-related incidents.

Although the parents knew they had the support of the high school principal, they were interested in learning more about what some of the teachers and other school officials knew about the problem. They met with local school representatives to see what types of problems they had encountered during the school year. By conducting key informant interviews, the parents learned that the teachers overheard students talking about big parties almost every weekend. It appeared that in their middle-upper-class neighborhood, there was a party being held almost every weekend in someone’s house while parents were away.

From the Internet, one mom obtained 1999 data from their youth risk behavior surveys (www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/yrbs/index.htm) regarding alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use in Danyaville. The survey information revealed that approximately 60 percent of the high school students in their community reported drinking within the past month, compared to 50 percent nationwide and 53 percent Statewide. On the positive side, use of illicit drugs did not appear as prevalent, with only 30 percent of the students reporting having used marijuana during their lifetime, compared to 47 percent nationwide.

About halfway through the community assessment, the parents realized that they were overwhelmed by the amount of information they had collected, and they decided to approach some of the local university professors to see if anyone was interested in helping them out. The local university is relatively small, about 3,500 students, and at first inspection, the parents were not able to find any professors who specialized in alcohol-, tobacco-, and illicit drug-related problems. However, they managed to find one graduate student who was interested in mapping issues, and he agreed to provide them with a Geographical Information Systems map of the city with the location of alcohol outlets, schools, and other locations where youth may congregate. In conjunction with the map, the parents completed some of their own research by going to each alcohol outlet and using an alcohol outlet observation form to document the types of alcohol being sold in their community and the prices.

Finally, a group of three parents got together and reviewed their local and State laws and ordinances that relate to alcohol availability. To initiate the review, they used a publication from the Alcohol Epidemiology Program at the University of Minnesota (http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/tools/default.html) to obtain an understanding of what types of laws related to alcohol availability exist in general and which laws had been enacted in their State. Specifically, they researched the blood alcohol content (BAC) laws in their State (.10 general BAC and .02 youth BAC) and the penalties for violating the BAC limits. They found out that in their State, there were no laws on keg registration or server training. They also contacted Statewide Alcohol Beverage Control officials to find out how compliance checks must be conducted (such as, is there a prohibition against using minors, or can they be used as long as they don’t actually make any purchases?).

Once the parents had compiled all of this information, they began to form a good understanding of the alcohol-related problems in their community. They gained some understanding of the tobacco and illicit drug problems as well, but they decided that if they wanted to tackle those issues in the future, more research would be needed.

The parents then began to discuss if they should become their own non-profit organization or join with one of the resources that already existed in the community. Although a small community, Danyaville was proud of its one non-profit agency, the Danyaville Community Resource Center (DCRC), which provided many of the after-school activities for the youth, as well as family counseling and parenting classes. Bill Harden was good friends with the executive director of the center, and the two of them met to discuss possible collaboration. The executive director suggested that for the time being, the Danyaville Parents Advocating Prevention list the group as part of the DCRC. This way, they could move ahead with their plans and not get bogged down in the logistics of forming a non-profit. Since all of the parents had been volunteering their time until this point, they agreed that this would be the best avenue for their group.