The New Tradition Coalition of Lawrence was one of the lucky recipients and the only new grantee in the state.  The coalition will receive approximately $110,000 the first year and $125,000 annually years two through five. The money will be used in several ways, including to provide part-time funding for prevention specialists at Lawrence’s high schools after school district funds were cut due to the state’s budget crisis. The coalition will also provide marketing campaigns aimed at parents who host parties with underage drinking.

The Drug Free Communities program is directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The DFC program provides grants of up to $625,000 over five years to community coalitions that facilitate citizen participation in local youth drug prevention efforts including prescription drug diversion and prevention initiatives and underage drinking programs. Coalitions are comprised of community leaders, parents, youth, teachers, religious and fraternal organizations, health care and business professionals, law enforcement and the media.

Below is a list of four specific strategies that will be implemented In Lawrence with the grant funds:

1)  Reducing Access/ Increasing Barriers to Alcohol by minors

a)  Enhanced party patrols

This grant would provide extra law enforcement during three specific times of year that have a high incidence of underage drinking (examples- University back to school week, high school graduation, prom season) to enforce underage drinking laws, including our modified Social Hosting Ordinance. 

b)  Sticker Shock

The Sticker Shock Project is a youth led activity designed to reach adults who might purchase alcohol legally and provide it to minors. Stickers are placed on products by youth.  They inform and warn about the penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors are placed on all multi-packs of beer, alco-pops, and other alcohol products that might appeal to underage drinkers.  By getting youth involved in the prevention of the sale of alcohol to their peers, they are less likely to use alcohol or ask others to purchase alcohol for them. 

The impact of the stickers is increased by media coverage of the event and by the signs that are displayed by participating retailers. The project represents a partnership between youth, retailers, concerned parents and community members, prevention professionals, and law enforcement with the goal of educating potential furnishers, raising public awareness about underage drinking, and strengthening the deterrent effect of the law against providing alcohol to minors.

c)  Merchant Education

The Coalition will support the annual Alcohol Compliance & Education Training.   The City of Lawrence, in partnership with the Kansas Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and The Regional Prevention Center of East Central Kansas offers the workshop for alcohol retailers in Lawrence. Speakers include ABC Enforcement Agents, Lawrence City Prosecutor, Lawrence Police Officers and a representative of The Regional Prevention Center. This training is offered to every alcohol licensee in the city and provides information on fake ID detection, local liquor ordinances/laws and responsible beverage service. This pro-active training is recognized as positive step owners and operators can take to reduce the occurrences of underage drinking and other alcohol violations at their establishments.

2) Provide Information- Social Marketing Campaign

The Coalition will implement the Parents Who Host, Lose The Most: Don’t be a party to teenage drinking public awareness campaign.  It was developed by Drug-Free Action Alliance in 2000 and started in Ohio. Since the campaign began it has been requested for replication in 48 states and Canada.  

The campaign objectives are to educate parents about the health and safety risks of serving alcohol at teen house parties and to increase awareness of, and compliance with, the local laws and school policies regarding underage drinking.  The campaign takes place on a local level and runs throughout the year, but focuses heavily during prom and graduation season. These are two times of the year which are shown to have increased alcohol usage among high school students. The coalition will target parents with students that are juniors or seniors. Often parents are unaware about the legal and health consequences associated with underage drinking.

3)  Changing Consequences- Social Norm Campaign to address Marijuana Use

A social norms campaign is one approach that successfully markets healthy normative behaviors. This approach focuses on the positive choices students make and corrects misperceptions which may in fact enable negative behaviors. 

Researchers have established that students tend to grossly overestimate the number of their peers who engage in illegal substance abuse. This misperception is believed to influence students to use substances more heavily by changing their perceptions of normative expectations (social norms). In other words, students may feel pressured to smoke or drink because they believe that "everyone else is doing it."

The basic idea behind a social norms marketing campaign is to turn this dynamic around by using school-based media to inform students about the true levels of substance use/consumption among their peers. Many times, the actual levels of consumption among high school students are much lower than students perceive them to be. Having accurate information about substance use is hypothesized to lead to changes in perceptions of community norms and, in turn, may lead to fewer students engaging in the negative.

We will use actual student-generated data collected by the Coalition Coordinator and Prevention Specialist at Lawrence High School and Free State High School. Students will then be invited to be a part of a focus group* to review the data and assist in creating new messages. Those messages, in turn, will be tested by students for believability and interpretation. Finally, various marketing strategies will be employed to disseminate the social norms messages.

4) Modify/Change Policies

The Coalition will examine current school policies and local laws and ordinances regarding substance use.  After reviewing them, they will provide recommendations for improving policies, as needed, to school board members, city/county commissioners or other officials responsible for making and setting policies regarding substance use.