News release from IPFW:
Town Hall Series Addresses Underage Drinking
(May 5, 2014) – Twenty-two percent of them say they drank alcohol in the last month. Over 15 percent say they “binge drank” at some point. Their drinking and driving accounted for 12 percent of all traffic fatalities. And some of them are only 12 years old.
Underage drinking kills children, harms the community, and robs northeast Indiana of its future. To address this problem, the first in a series of Town Hall Meetings will take place Tuesday, May 6, at 7 p.m. at the Public Safety Academy at Ivy Tech South (7602 Patriot Crossing).
These meetings are focused on developing solutions that can be put into action by parents, students, educators, and the general public. The events in Fort Wayne are the result of a collaboration between faculty and students at IPFW and New Tech Academy, and the Drug and Alcohol Consortium of Allen County.
“The serious problem of underage drinking can only be reduced through a strong collaboration between students, parents, and the community at large,” said Jeannie DiClementi, associate professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).
Of the approximately 826,000 12-20 year-olds in the state of Indiana:
- 188,000 have used alcohol in the past month
- 130,000 of them reporting binge alcohol use
- drivers between 15-20 years old with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of at least 0.01 account for 12 percent of all traffic fatalities
All members of the community are invited. The community can also follow the progress on Twitter at @NoDrinkBefore21 and hashtag #TownHall.
The Town Hall Meetings on Underage Drinking series is sponsored and funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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