In order to support school and family efforts to promote healthy attitudes
and behaviors among young people, the larger community must understand the nature
and severity of drug- and violence-related problems and be mobilized for action.
Media and public education campaigns, as well as targeted policy changes, can
increase community awareness about specific problems facing local youth, garner
community support for prevention efforts, reinforce school-based programs, and
alter community norms.
Spread the word through press releases and news stories.
Working with the media can help you raise community awareness and bring community
members on board for prevention activities. There are many ways to connect with
the media. For example, your planning team might solicit news coverage of an event
or offer ideas for feature stories. You might also write a press release to notify
reporters and editors of an upcoming event or recent development. To increase
the chances of getting press releases and news stories published or aired, your
team should cultivate relationships with reporters and editors.
Possible Subjects for Your Press Release or
Story
- An introduction to your prevention initiative
- Recent events
- Upcoming events
- Organizational changes
- Awards, prizes, grants, or publications connected to your initiative
- Volunteer recruitment drives
- Successes and achievements!
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Develop public service announcements. Public service announcements
(PSAs) are educational messages designed to focus public attention on serious
issues like drug and violence prevention. A variety of mediums can be used to
communicate these messages, including television, radio, print, the World Wide
Web, billboards, buses, and subways. Your planning team might consider developing
PSAs that address issues specific to your community as part of your prevention
initiative.
Have you seen this one?
In 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy launched the National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, a large-scale campaign to educate and empower
youth to reject illicit drugs. PSAs connected to this campaign depict young people
talking about their "anti-drugs": The people and things that stand between
them and drugs. |
Bring community policies and practices in line with your message. Establishing
and enforcing community policies that limit the availability of harmful substances
and weapons represents another critical prevention strategy. Schools can partner
with local and state government, public agencies (e.g., social service departments),
and private organizations (e.g., HMOs, convenience stores) to effect policy changes.
Although your community may need to create some new policies, many sound policies
are probably already in place; the challenge will be to promote their consistent
enforcement.
Promising Drug and Violence Prevention Policies
- Increase the price of alcohol or tobacco through excise taxes.
- Set the legal blood alcohol content limit to .01 or .02 for young people.
- Restrict the use of tobacco in public places and private workplaces.
- Impose severe penalties for carrying concealed handguns without a permit.
- Restrict the number of firearms dealers.
- Restrict alcohol and tobacco advertisers from targeting youth.
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"Some of us have found a good niche within
our districts through new state mandates according to the new legislated Project
SAVE policy. Components of this policy include that each district create a violence
prevention plan, crisis response, and Code of Conduct through committees that
include a representation of staff, community members, parents, and youth."
Debi Kosyla Edwards, MSC, Suffolk County,
New York |
Subcommittees or work groups can be created to focus on selected aspects of
a prevention plan. For example, a team of teachers, parents, administrators, students,
and others from the school or community might target partnerships for prevention
and education reform. They could take the lead on such tasks as assessing current
partnership practices throughout your district and revising or writing new plans
and policies for family and community involvement.
Click
here for some preliminary questions that your subcommittee or work group might
want to ask family and community members. |
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Click on the icon for more about building these subcommittees.
(Click here to read these comments.) |