 | |||
| Faith Murphy & Abby Rider |
On Monday, February 25th the Alliance of Coalitions for
Change (AC4C), a state-wide collaboration to effect positive change in
substance abuse, met with the state legislators to discuss their concerns about
underage drinking in Iowa.
Van Buren County YLC members made the trip to the capitol
for Day on the Hill. Attending the event were Carson Schuck, Meredith Miller,
Abby Rider, Faith Murphy and Cierstyn Welcher. While there they met with Curt
Hanson and discussed with him the dangers of underage drinking and how we work
to prevent it in our community. “Only The Facts” about underage drinking were
provided to Representative Hanson, which was the theme for the day.
Multiple prevention strategies are occurring throughout the
state of Iowa,
resulting in significant decreases in underage drinking. Van Buren County is seeing a reduction in
youth alcohol use, but major problems still remain: Iowa
still ranks in the top 10 states for underage (age 12-20) binge drinking.
The 2010 Iowa Youth Survey showed 24% of Iowa 11th graders reporting binge drinking
in the past 30 days. This is down from
27% in 2008. This remains more than one
out of every five 11th graders in Iowa
that report engaging in binge drinking in the past month.
We have done some great work across the state and locally
over the last 10 years but now is not the time to reduce our efforts, we need
to keep working to ensure that youth access to alcohol is at a minimum.
A press conference was held during the event and two of the
Van Buren County YLC members, Faith Murphy and Abby Rider, spoke about what we
are doing as a group to make our community a safer environment for our youth. Please view the video below. Also here is a link to a news article on the KCCI news station's website: http://www.kcci.com/news/politics/Study-Iowa-in-top-10-for-underage-drinking/-/9356970/19073526/-/jqkhlg/-/index.html.
For more information on the Day on the Hill or YLC
activities you may contact the coalition office at 319-293-6412
No comments:
Post a Comment