Wchc underage drinking reduction initiative - the wilmington coalition for a healthy community (wchc) under its fiscal agent, the city of wilmington, illinois, will implement the wchc underage…

Wchc underage drinking reduction initiative - the wilmington coalition for a healthy community (wchc) under its fiscal agent, the city of wilmington, illinois, will implement the wchc underage drinking prevention initiative under the 2022 stop act grant. The project will serve youth ages 12-20 in wilmington school district 209-u with evidence-based and environmental programs designed to reduce underage drinking. The wchc initiative will focus on (1) improving and increasing messaging to youth and adults about the risks and dangers of alcohol use by youth, (2) increasing positive messaging about actual behavioral norms ("most kids DON't drink") and (3) promoting messages from adults that discourage youth from drinking, that discourage other adults from allowing or enabling youth to drink, and that encourage youth to seek out help if they or someone they know is experiencing problems related to alcohol. The wchc underage drinking prevention initiative seeks to reduce the percentage of wilmington 10TH and 12TH graders who report past 30-day use of alcohol, as measured by the illinois youth survey. Under objective 1, the wchc initiative seeks to reduce by 5 percentage points the percentage of wilmington school district 209-u 8TH graders who report past 30-day use of alcohol. Strategies for achieving this objective will focus on two important contributing factors for increases in underage drinking in this age group: teens' perceptions that drinking is not harmful and teens' perceptions that alcohol is easy to obtain. Under objective 2, the wchc initiative seeks to reduce by 6 percentage points the percentage of wilmington school district 209-u 10TH graders who report consuming alcohol in the past 30 days. Strategies for achieving objective 2 will include the use of a normative education campaign to correct students' inflated perceptions of how many youth are drinking, along with parent and community communications campaign to discourage acceptance and enabling of youth alcohol use.