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Franklin County Project Success
Franklin County, New York

Franklin County, located in rural upstate New York, has some of the highest percentages of underage drinking in the country. Among high school students in the area, lifetime, 30-day, and binge drinking alcohol use is well above national averages. To address this problem, school, prevention and community service leaders from across the county applied for, and received, a Grant to Reduce Alcohol Abuse (GRAA) from the U.S. Department of Education to implement a multifaceted initiative called “Franklin County Project Success.”

One of the main goals of the initiative is to change community norms around underage drinking, particularly the social acceptance of underage alcohol use. According to Beth Lawyer, Coordinator of North Star Prevention Programs and the GRAA Grant project, “People in Franklin County are often described as having a strong ‘North Country’ self reliance, making them less likely to seek help for problems, and reluctant to change long standing cultural attitudes . . . Many still consider teen alcohol use and binge drinking a normal rite of passage.” Project Success knew that changing these attitudes would be key to the success of their prevention efforts. They also recognized the importance of working at the school, community and county-levels to effect systemic change, rather than focusing solely on individual change.

During the first year of the grant, the county experienced two incidents involving youth and alcohol—one of which involved a student’s death. These incidents catalyzed communities throughout the county into action. One town’s prevention coalition swelled from 10 members to 50, while a parent advisory board meeting in another grew from 15 parents to 150. According to Lawyer: “These tragic incidents heightened awareness of the problem. Community members strengthened their involvement in, and support of, local underage drinking prevention programs. The community realized that [underage drinking] was an issue they could no longer deny, and had to address.”

At the county level, Project Success convened a countywide Underage Drinking Prevention Taskforce, chaired by the county District Attorney and New York State Police Captain. The involvement of these two individuals has proven invaluable. “We cannot emphasize how important it has been to have the District Attorney and law enforcement involved,” explained Lawyer. “They provide leadership, partnership, and emphasize the importance of [addressing this problem] collectively at the county level. It has been great seeing this level of collaboration across so many sectors working with schools and prevention services.”

The Taskforce offers key players from across the county regular opportunities to discuss, in depth, some of the factors contributing to Franklin County’s underage drinking problem, including social acceptance, availability, and parental attitudes. By the end of the project’s first fiscal year, the Taskforce had developed an action plan for moving forward. They initiated Parents Who Host, Lose the Most, a countywide campaign to inform parents about the health, safety and legal ramifications of serving alcohol to youth, and subsidized billboards and posters drawing attention to this campaign. Stepped up compliance checks and server-seller trainings were also implemented.

The GRAA Project also supports full-time Prevention Specialists located in each high school. These staff members implement two model programs –
Project TND and Project SUCCESS— that include education, assessment, referral, individual and group work, and parent and family outreach components. In this arena, changing school norms and ensuring that these rural youth have immediate access to screening and referral to appropriate services is critical.

As Project Success moves into its second year, its focus will be on full implementation of grant project strategies, as well as engaging the media as true prevention partners. Toward this end, Project Success and the media will work with a communications trainer from Massachusetts to learn how to write and deliver effective prevention messages and stories.

As the grant ends its first year, Lawyer is pleased and optimistic. “You have to celebrate every small step forward as a major accomplishment . . . People need to feel empowered and know they can do something meaningful to address underage drinking . . . All the smaller successes really add up . . . This grant has been an invaluable opportunity for Franklin County, and we feel confident that our project will motivate students, parents, and the community to finally do something about this problem.”