
STOP Act Grant
Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking (STOP)
Goals:
- Strengthen collaboration and intergovernmental cooperation among the communities of Zion, Winthrop Harbor and Beach Park to implement strategies for the prevention and reduction of underage drinking.
- Enhance community participation and information regarding youth alcohol use that demonstrates a long term commitment to reducing alcohol use among youth.
Here are the 4 strategies:
- Augment alcohol compliance checks to assure a consistent and unified format.
- Establish protocol for all communities to follow: create a procedure, identify how many times per year; establish a reporting format, publicity requirements, and youth training.
- STOP Act will pay each municipality to do compliance checks 3x each year.
- CHC will keep track of the data and look for trend lines and evaluate process.
- Mandate server/seller training in Zion, Winthrop Harbor, and Beach Park.
- CHC will work with municipalities to create uniform ordinances that require training for all sellers and servers of alcohol products.
- Ordinances will specify how soon after a hire does an individual need to go through training and require re-training every? # of years (i.e.: every 5 years individuals must be trained.)
- Identify social source of alcohol for youth and implement interventions to reduce use.
- Conduct numerous focus groups at different locations to obtain reliable information on sources of alcohol for youth.
- Review and organize data.
- Share data with key community stakeholders.
- Strategize with key stakeholders and youth on action steps to reduce access to social sources.
- Take action steps with CHC and youth to reduce access to social sources.
- Evaluate effectiveness of those action steps and make changes as necessary.
- Educate and engage the tri-community members on local laws and statistics regarding alcohol
- Support the existing activities of the Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force.
- Educate the parents Z-BTHS on Social Norms Marketing Campaign.
- Research existing laws and ordinances regarding tobacco and alcohol use and evaluate how to strengthen ordinances to reduce access and availability
- Work closely with the Tri-community law enforcement and alcohol servers and sellers as well as the Liquor Control Commissioners and city/village clerks in each community.
- Create a resource guide outlining local laws, ordinances, and data on underage drinking prevention.
- Resource guides will be distributed to all 8th and 10th grade parents via Z-BTHS.
- Healthy YOUth students will develop a local media campaign advertising the Resource Guide through school newsletters, billboards, faith-based organizations, and the library.
