Town Hall Meetings Continue To Expand
What is your community doing about underage drinking? This spring and summer, nearly 1,800 communities are holding close to 2,000 town hall meetings where community leaders, parents, teens, educators, law enforcement, and others come together to discuss the problem.
Dozens of these gatherings are led by youth, and others include the participation of a governor’s spouse.
SAMHSA works with national, state, and local organizations to sponsor the town hall meetings to promote the U.S. Surgeon General’s National Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.
How big is the problem? SAMHSA data show that:
- More than 10 million young people age 12 to 20 are current alcohol drinkers.
- Approximately 17.4 percent of underage youth engaged in binge drinking during the past month.
- Alarmingly, 16.7 percent of youth age 18 to 20 have driven under the influence of alcohol in the past year.
At http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings, event organizers will find a countdown “widget,” an online application that displays specific event information and a countdown timer directly on an organization’s Web page or blog.
In addition, event organizers can connect with each other on an online discussion board to share ideas about what worked and
challenges they faced. These tools will help the meetings improve and grow.
For more information, visit http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings, where you’ll find a planning toolkit, how-to fact sheets, and customizable promotional materials so that you can plan your own town hall meeting.