Raising Community Awareness of Alcohol Norms Through Community Events and Media Campaigns: South Tucson Prevention Coalition Phase 2

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the relevance of community norms for alcohol use when targeting prevention of adolescent alcohol use. During Phase 2, South Tucson Prevention Coalition (STPC) worked to raise community awareness of alcohol norms through biannual community-wide events and through a bilingual radio media campaign. This chapter also provides more insight into the way in which the coalition members utilized the Community Readiness Model for Change to help identify community norms and to match intervention strategies in order to target current community norms. Shifting community alcohol norms was one step to increase the community readiness for community transformation prevention strategies. Through the chronological presentation and analysis for coalition report summaries and public press releases, we analyze the important function of external funding, training of coalition members, and the way in which activities built on each other to reach a higher level of readiness that lead to community transformational resilience. We also demonstrate the importance of transparent communication, positive communication, and mission-oriented communication between the coalition, the community, and the local government.