Prevention Event a Community Success

21 Reasons successfully put on our first annual Chalk it Up to Prevention event on October 8, 2010 in Monument Square. We had perfect weather, great company, interested media, and spectacular community involvement.

Thanks to many local artists, city council members, commissioner Shaughnessy, Mayor Mavodones, Day One, the Portland Police Department, and Ethos Marketing, we as a community were able to portray the many ways we can work together to prevent underage drinking.

Click here to see more highlights of the event!

Chalk it Up POSTPONED

It's not raining now, but the forecast calls for driving rain by lunchtime, so we've decided to postpone Chalk it Up to Prevention until next Friday, October 8.

We're choosing to look at the bright side of this development--we have another whole week to get more participants! Let us know if you're planning to join us next week.  We'll see you there!

Thursday morning links

Our own Jo Morrissey was featured yesterday on Good Day Maine talking about tomorrow's Chalk it Up to Prevention (wish hard with us to keep the rain away--and check our website after 9am on 10/1 if you're uncertain if the event will be held):

And the Brunswick Times-Record featured an excellent opinion piece about the risks of alcohol use by young people--and what we can do to prevent it:

• Involve all segments of the community — youths, parents, lawmakers, law enforcement, health care, schools and the media.
• Determine specific community norms that permit or encourage teen drinking and target our efforts toward changing those norms.
• Provide facts about the potential dangers of drinking — sugar-coating the realities is not effective, any more than over-dramatizing them.
• Provide youth-driven, safe, healthy and fun alternatives to drinking alcohol.
• Present clear NO-USE messages regarding underage drinking.
• Continue talking with (not at) our youth about the pressure to drink, offer skills to resist the pressure and have an open door for dialogue when the issue arises.
• Educate adults about the warning signs of alcohol use by youth, the effects of their own attitudes about alcohol use and where to go for help if needed. 
• Support law enforcement officials in enforcing the 21-year-old drinking age, in enforcing the laws that exist to deter adults from purchasing alcohol for minors, in adopting policies for detecting and terminating underage drinking parties and in strengthening compliance check programs in retail outlets.
• Utilize existing key resources to learn what has and has not worked. The realities of underage drinking have multiple layers and need a multi-layered approach.

Looking for more news? You can find lots more links to local, national, and international news about underage drinking and its prevention and enforcement at our Delicious page.

21 Reasons Survey

In order to serve you and our community better, we are asking you to provide us some feedback on our performance.

How do you think 21 Reasons is doing? Are there things you think could be improved upon? Are there things we should consider? Or, are there things we are doing very well and should keep up?

This is your chance to let us know your thoughts so that the staff of 21 Reasons may serve you and our community better. Please take a moment (about 10 minutes) to fill out our Annual Coalition Member Survey and let us know what you think.

The survey will be open until Friday, October 8th. We value your opinion