Virginia ABC awards Richmond a Community Coalition grant | News

In an effort to prevent underage drinking and access to alcohol, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) has awarded eight Community Coalition grants totaling more than $65,500 for alcohol education and enforcement initiatives throughout the commonwealth.

Funded by a federal grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the grants were awarded to organizations that demonstrated a creative plan to promote zero tolerance for underage drinking, reach large numbers of people through its programs, gain broad-based community support and ensure effectiveness and accountability.  The following eight organizations are the 2011-2012 Community Coalition grant recipients:

Regional Drug Free Alliance, Richmond ($5,000)
Activities include:

• Create video for community prevention website with voices of youth speaking out against underage drinking. Goal is to register 10,000 adults and 5,000 youth. Financial contributions to sustain local coalitions will be an option on the website. 

Buchanan County Youth, Inc.; Grundy ($8,500)
Activities include:

• This new coalition plans to increase membership and create a youth advisory group; develop student prevention messages to market on websites, billboards and in local newspapers; exhibit display boards in high schools; and implement Project Sticker Shock in 20 stores.

HEY! (Helping Engage Youth) Coalition, Piedmont Community Services; Martinsville ($10,000)
Activities include:

• Plan and host a one-day conference with law enforcement, health professionals, school administrators and parents to address law and policy enforcement on underage drinking.
• Develop and implement a media campaign on social hosting that includes public service announcements (PSAs) and billboards. 

City of Waynesboro; Waynesboro ($9,008)
Activities include:

• Develop and implement “Parents Who Host Lose the Most” campaign, disseminated through pizza deliveries, dry cleaners and florists.
• Institute “Law Enforcement Party Patrols” to be marketed on radio, facebook, websites and other news outlets.

Prevention Council of Roanoke County; Roanoke ($8,850)
Activities include:

• Establish partnership with children’s theater and school system to present student-performed play, Wrecked, which portrays issues related to alcoholism in families and underage drinking. Sixteen performances are planned to reach all 2,400 freshman in Roanoke County and 650 community members. Plan includes one-hour follow-up sessions in schools with all ninth-grade students.

SATIRA (Substance Abuse Taskforce in Rural Appalachia); Tazewell ($8,000)
Activities include:

• Support and fund underage alcohol sale compliance checks; implement Project Sticker Shock; and participate in YADAPP (Youth Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Project).

South County Youth Network, Inc.; Alexandria ($7,250)
Activities include:

• Increase membership; hold six alcohol and drug-free events including “Stompout” and Friday night movies; develop and implement prevention trainings for the coalition; and organize three efforts to influence policy.

Warren County Community Health Coalition; Front Royal ($9,100)
Activities include:

• Support and fund underage alcohol sale compliance checks.
• Develop multi-media outreach, including Facebook, radio, television, newspaper and two billboard public service announcements that target youth and parent perception.