Salt Lake City, UT — To highlight April’s designation as Alcohol Awareness Month, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff joined The Century to announce a statewide initiative to fight underage drinking in Utah. The feature of the initiative is a new, innovative program developed by The Century Council in partnership with Nickelodeon — Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix — which recognizes that the key to stopping underage drinking is communication early and often between parents and children, and provides both kids and parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of underage drinking, in a format and language designed specifically for them.
At the launch event at Hunter Junior High School in West Valley
City, Attorney General Shurtleff, Co-Chair of the Youth Access to
Alcohol Task Force of the National Association of Attorneys General,
was joined by Ralph Blackman, president of The Century Council; Lori
Gardner, president of the Utah Middle School Association and principal
of Hunter Junior High School; Ken Wynn, Director of the Utah Department
of Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC); and Lieutenant Tony Garcia of
the Utah Highway Patrol Investigations Alcohol Enforcement Unit.
Following today’s launch, Attorney General Shurtleff and The Century
Council will distribute Ask, Listen, Learn materials to middle school
principals across the state. Additionally, television stations across
Utah will broadcast a Public Service Announcement featuring Attorney
General Shurtleff discussing the Ask, Listen, Learn program and the
need to talk to teens about the dangers of underage drinking. For the
month of April, the Utah ABC has placed a Billboard on Northbound I-15
Freeway at 9th South in Salt Lake City to remind parents about the
importance of talking with their kids about the dangers of underage
drinking.
“According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most kids try
alcohol for their first time at the age of 12. This means we have a
clear window of time to delay that first drink. I believe that Ask,
Listen, Learn is an effective tool to reduce underage drinking and
start healthy conversations between parents and their children,” said
Attorney General Shurtleff.
“While alcohol consumption among our nation’s youth continues to
decline, underage drinking remains unacceptably high. According to the
2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 10.9 million
Americans between the ages of 12-20 report current alcohol use. While
the prevalence of current alcohol use increased with increasing age,
the alarming fact is first use of alcohol typically begins around age
12. By 16, 29 percent report current use of alcohol,” said Blackman.
Whether or not they realize it, parents are the leading influence on
kids’ decision not to drink alcohol. According to the 2003 Omnibuzz
survey conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited, 65 percent of
adolescents identify parents as the leading influence in their decision
not to drink.
“Among 12-17 year olds in Utah, 10.2% reported past month alcohol
consumption in 2002. Though we do not want any of our underage youth to
consume alcohol, not to mention that it is illegal, the good news is
the figure represents a decrease of 4% from the previous survey in 2000
and we must work together to continue this downward trend and keep kids
safe and alcohol-free,” said Wynn.
Lori Gardner added, “when parents are significantly involved with their
children’s lives, especially during the middle school years, the use of
alcohol is delayed. Since it is also clear from research that parents
are still the most influential people to a child in middle school
relative to health behaviors, parents remain our best hope for assuring
that young people stay alcohol-free.”
The Century Council is grateful to the American School Counselor
Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals,
the National Latino Children’s Institute, the National Middle School
Association and U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration for providing scientific input for use in creating Ask
Listen Learn.
Ask, Listen, Learn is unique in that it gives both kids and parents the
tools to initiate the conversation about alcohol. The program includes:
• A parent’s booklet, detailing how to begin the conversation, sustain
the conversation and make an impact on kids. It presents effective
questions, data, conversation starters and answers to typical
objections kids raise.
• A kid’s booklet, with interactive games, trivia cards with questions
and answers explaining the facts about alcohol (over 7 million trading
cards are expected to circulate), addressing issues including how to
avoid peer pressure, and creative ways to say no. It also includes an
Action Against Alcohol Agreement that both kids and parents can sign.
• Asklistenlearn.com, produced by Nickelodeon, is a website for kids
with information on the dangers of underage drinking including monthly
polls, information interactive games and videos, as well as more
information on how to say no.
• Asklistenlearnparents.com, produced by Nickelodeon, is a website for
parents with additional information on how to have the conversation and
links to additional national and local resources related to underage
drinking.
Coming in the future
Recognizing the important role that teachers, counselors and
administrators play as role models and purveyors of information, The
Council will also begin work on a teacher-focused component to the
program for distribution nationwide. Also, in an effort to provide
Spanish speaking parents and kids with culturally sensitive resources
to help them fight underage drinking, The Century Council will develop
program components in Spanish.
The Century Council
Launched in 1991, The Century Council’s mission is to promote
responsible decision-making regarding drinking or non-drinking of
beverage alcohol and to discourage all forms of irresponsible
consumption through education, communications, research, law
enforcement, and other programs. Recognizing over thirteen years of
progress, America’s leading distillers have promoted The Council’s
mission by investing more than $130 million in its programs to fight
drunk driving and underage drinking. For more information about Ask,
Listen, Learn™ or The Century Council, or to order a copy of the
program free-of-charge, please visit www.asklistenlearnparents.com or
www.centurycouncil.org.
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon, which is celebrating its landmark 25th anniversary this
year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a
diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does.
The company includes television programming and production in the
United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online,
recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S.
television network is seen in 88 million households and has been the
number-one-rated basic cable network for more than eight consecutive
years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are
trademarks of Viacom International Inc.
