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Western > News > Past Events > USED GRAA Town Hall Meetings |
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| Western Region USED GRAA Town Hall Meeting Presentations Arizona California Montana Utah Washington Wyoming Luz Social Services, AZ Students at this site developed a survey to decide who they wanted on the panel. A half day of school was selected for the day of the meeting, pizza was served, students prepared all of the advertising and flyers for the meeting, and 58% of the kids showed up for the voluntary event. This happened to be at the same time high school students across the United States were walking out of classes in recognition of Immigration issues. For this meeting students were the moderators for the chief of police, a DUI victim who is paraplegic, and a couple of others from the community. The rest of the program include the showing of the Smashed video, followed by questions, and a demonstration by law enforcement of simulation goggles for DUI training for police officers. A concurrent Social Norms Marketing campaign is underway with MADD as partner. Sembrando Salud students competed for a prize to develop a logo for their prevention program. Napa Valley, CA The Governor’s Prevention Advisory Council created a website to access all materials for prevention professionals. There will be a state wide debrief of what worked, it is hoped this will be as successful as tobacco control strategies. Three town hall meetings were held in the Napa Valley locale. Collaborators included the Governor’s office, County Office of Education, and Health and Human Services. The meeting strategy was to use UAD facts to set the tone, tie in with tobacco education, and replicate that successful health education model. The agenda covered what is happening with the California Highway Patrol, treatment, brain research, and the student perspective. The audience was divided into an area of interest and asked to think outside the box on the question of ‘what else should we be doing?’ Each group was asked to contribute two ideas back to the large group. The video, ‘This Place’ was shown, and participants were asked evaluate what’s most valuable and what they want to do; this was the call to action piece. Refreshments were served at the end of the meeting and handouts were available. A second meeting in another community had a different focus, brain research; a third meeting was similar to the first but smaller. Poway, CA These sites are near one another and worked together. They used the theme of “Detoxing our Community.” The meeting included a panel of speakers and the authors of the book, “Detoxing the Perfect Family.” The four local Drug Free Communities had existing ties with the media and this was extended to the NBC affiliate in San Diego to air PSAs with a promotion for the town hall meetings at the end. The meetings were structured to present the data in a compelling but non-threatening way. The grantee staff worked very hard to get the press releases positioned at the front of the line in a busy news environment. Lessons learned included a careful look at other competing events such as the local sports teams. Next steps involve student focus groups to build a strategy for next year. MADD was an incredible partner, very experienced in using the media. Future plans are to increase the number of people in the resource room at the meetings, take the program to the schools before proms, and give parents hands on tools to communicate with their teens. San Diego Unified School District, CA This site held “Community Conversations” to address underage drinking. Two events were held including representatives from MADD. In this community parents don’t get out much in the evenings, there are multiple barriers, such as child care, transportation, and economics. To increase the utility of the meetings, one will be video taped and available to show parents throughout the year. The meeting started with the video “This Place.” A group of students performed a skit demonstrating refusal skills, and then participants broke into small groups for discussion of issues, solutions, and setting a next meeting. One of the best pieces was the honesty of students who revealed the ingenious ways youth access alcohol. The timing of the meeting was intentional, before spring break, because of the proximity to the Mexico border where teens cross to drink where age restrictions are not as likely to be enforced. The next event will be in June, around graduation and looking forward to entering college. There were multiple translators at the meeting to accommodate the audience; food and childcare were provided as well. Media coverage is paramount to the success of the event. Tulare County Office of Education, CA The meeting in this community included elected officials at the local and state level, parents and educators. Good relationships among stakeholders contributed to the success of the event. The grantee has close ties with the California Friday Night Live organization, and collaborated with them. The California Wellness Foundation funded a film on Alcopops, featuring youth as the investigators on this issue. The film demonstrates youth involvement in media advocacy to change policy impacting underage drinking. The punch line in the film is to ask for adult action (the voting public); to reclassify the beverages called “alcopops,” which are heavily marketed to young people, as liquor, rather than beer. The message from this site is to put young people out front as messengers, and to feature them as capable, concerned and competent. Santa Barbara, CA This site has the coalition, Fighting Back, as a partner. There are many subcommittees and task forces active in the community. The town hall meeting was put together by the parks and recreation, media task force, and others. They used the Ad Council PSAs to advertise the upcoming meetings and the California Healthy Kids Survey data to demonstrate the need to address UAD locally. About half of the 230 in attendance were youth. The panel included an ER doctor, a judge, Reconnecting Youth participants, Friday Night Live representatives, and the moderator was a local radio personality familiar to the students. Following the panel, questions from the audience filled the second hour of the meeting. There was a resource room and a TV station taped the event. Evaluations revealed the following: participants want to join a task force; there is a need for an ordinance on parents who serve alcohol to kids in their homes, hold a teach-in for 5th & 6th graders - 32 people volunteered for this! Imperial County, CA This site has been working with partners over the past year on a social host ordinance at the county level. After the town hall meeting there was an editorial in the local press supporting it with a $1,000 fine attached. Reflecting on the progress over the past 20 years, the comprehensive approach seems to be yielding results with the help of the federal government. Many preparations were needed leading up to the March 28th town hall meeting, including translators, and producing written materials in Spanish, along with cultural considerations. The format was a facilitated discussion of the questions: How do you rank UAD? What are you willing to do? The school superintendent closed the meeting. The follow up activities include a teach-in for 5th graders, media coverage, follow up meetings in each community (two were held and two are pending), parents did follow up phone calls. Sanger, CA This site collaborated with MADD, law enforcement, and elected officials on 3/28 with 45 parents coming out on the ‘monsoon night’ of the decade! In spite of the weather the meeting went well and set the stage for a solid follow up for next year. This site was very pleased that the partners showed up as a first step to solid collaboration on UAD. Missoula, MT This site has been collaborating with a local TV station since last fall. The KPAX channel 8 funded the production of video clips of students in Project Success telling their stories, it is called, “On the Edge.” The film will be used on May 4th at their Town Hall meeting. Elected officials, tribal agencies, and community members will discuss how they are affected as a community by underage drinking. The agenda will move toward a call to action, there will be sign up sheets for adults to volunteer before they leave the meeting.
This site hosted a general meeting followed by four breakout sessions. They were able to get two lap top computers to give away as a drawing card. The undercurrent in the community is alcohol abuse among the basketball players. An ER nurse covered drinking and driving from the medical perspective, there was information for parents on how to talk to your kids, and a tech specialist discussed “my space.” Attendance was about 150 parents.
This site is an all Indian school where the tribal members are a minority on the reservation. Many community residents had never been inside the high school building. For the town hall meeting they were invited to share a meal, as they entered they were divided into groups for a discussion. Each group was given 5 facts on underage drinking, overall the students could answer the questions and the adults could not. A follow up meeting was held on 4/18 with more new participants, the invitation to send a friend was very successful. Helena, MT This town hall meeting was held in October 2005, in conjunction with the Citizen Council, which was organized around concerns over methamphetamine use. A second meeting is scheduled in May 2006 to focus on underage drinking, and they intend to establish a pattern of one meeting in the fall, one in the spring. The format will include a panel representing law enforcement, elected officials, education, treatment, and the judiciary among others. The agenda will aim to increase awareness, demonstrate the impact, and give hope that there are answers. This last piece will show how prevention efforts on several levels are addressing community concerns. Ute Tribal Schools, UT This community is affected by the current oil boom nearby. Many issues around methamphetamine, alcohol and mental health are of concern. The PNA survey reveals alcohol as the top priority. There have been 3 meetings and one more is scheduled, with good collaboration among stakeholders. The four neighboring counties all feed one judicial system. Advertising has been running on the Vernal TV station and will continue for the next two weeks. The area encompasses a 100 mile radius. Omak, WA This site’s meeting featured a panel of students who had previous law violations around UAD and their appearance was part of their restitution to the community. The youth panel suggested prevention education needs to start at 5th or 6th grade. This community experiences a lot of student mobility, consequently the prevention efforts need to have a comprehensive geographic reach. Results included a meeting with the Juvenile Court Judge. Whidbey Island, WA This site integrated town hall meetings with Alcohol Awareness month. A group of 30 kids developed a service learning project, investigating the serving of alcoholic beverages on the ferry, which is the main transportation to the island. On National Service Learning Day, adults came in to teach media literacy at the middle school level. The Red Ribbon campaign was adapted this year, offering students the voluntary choice to wear a ribbon if they knew anyone lost as a result of drinking alcohol. This was done very gently since this site experienced several deaths recently due to drinking and driving. Students in woodshop classes created a large sculpture which enabled students to sign no use pledges, autograph it, and display the work in front of the school. Park County, WY This site held a town hall meeting in connection with the Wyoming First Lady’s Initiative (WFLI), in January 2005, 170 people attended. The context of this community is diverse and geographically spread out. There was a statewide town hall meeting in April 2006 with a call-in format. It was broadcast on public television. Accomplishments include passing a social host law and keg registration, and a youth group was formed. There is a local panel of speakers for “prevention 101.” |
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