Stateways

StateWays Nov/Dec 2015

StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions

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StateWays ■ www.stateways.com ■ November/December 2015 24 BEST PRACTICES AWARDS responsibility. The rollout coincided with the back-to-school timeframe, stressing that parents need to take the time to talk to their children about underage drinking before it's too late. The budget for this year's campaign also increased to $3.1 million, which includes the addition of sever- al new staff positions solely dedicated to support- ing this initiative. These staff are working to raise awareness and collaborate with coalitions across the state that have dealt with underage drinking on local levels. Once the current ad campaign comes to an end, another research study will take place to measure its effectiveness and help inform how the next iteration of Talk it Out will be set up. Gardner says the state will continue investing in the program, which he hopes will ultimately result in a reduc- tion of the money North Carolina spends on incidents related to underage drinking. Most importantly, Garner hopes the program will save lives. "We'll truly be successful when we lose NO lives in this state due to underage drinking," he says. "We have our work cut out for us. This is a problem that you can't talk away, and you can't treat it away, and the state needs to be willing to continue investing money and resources." College campuses are a focal point for all states combating drinking and promot- ing responsible drink- ing initiatives. The P e n n s y l v a n i a Liquor Control Board (PLCB) de- cided to enhance its outreach efforts in this area by focusing on forg- ing connections with students, which led to the development of the Resident Assistant Training Program in 2014. The concept of the pro- gram is to empower student resident assistants (RAs), giving them information about alcohol use and abuse that can assist them as they work to maintain the health and safety of their fellow students in campus residence halls. "At nearly all universities, fresh- men usually need to stay on campus in dorms with an RA," says Jerry Waters, Director of Regulatory Affairs with the PLCB. "We saw an opportunity to reach out directly to the RAs, instead of just the people who work with students. This helps ensure that we're giving students the tools they need to handle drinking-related situations." Under the direction of Bethany Gardner, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol Education, the PLCB created a one-hour interactive training program designed to be an add-on to the training already provided by colleges to students who are hired to be RAs. PLCB staff members conduct the training sessions and customize the program for each institution they visit, based on the college's drink- ing incident statistics and individual priorities. All presentations contain information about alcohol's impact on adolescent brain development, the consequences WINNER CONTROL STATE BEST PRACTICES AWARDS BEST RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION PROGRAM (TIE) TRAINING RESIDENT ASSISTANTS By Melissa Niksic

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