Having completed a previous Community Action Alcohol Project in a district of Rifredi, Florence in 1997, the Integrated Alcohol Centre at the Health Agency in Florence, was asked by the education unit of the agency to prepare a new initiative in the neighbourhood of Florence. A project was proposed to the municipality of Scandicci, with 50,000 inhabitants, south-west of Florence, following a request from the central district of that town. The project was endorsed in 1998 and fully formalised in 1999. A Project Promoting Group, meant to support the project development, was appointed in 1999 including 3 out of 6 local Municipality Districts, the Municipality of Scandicci, the Florence Health Agency Education Unit, the greater Florence School System and the Alcohol Centre. Other institutes were collaborating, including the Epidemiology Unit of the Florence Health Agency, and the Leonardo Medical Cooperative, embracing a number of GPs in Scandicci and Florence. The role of the Alcohol Centre professionals was: a) to facilitate community interactions, b) to evaluate the baseline, process and outcome phases and c) to be available as experts on the issues of alcohol and food. The project approach was an intersectoral and multi-component one. Positive, and not negative messages were intended to be spread within the community. The aim was to promote responsible drinking and to prevent alcohol related problems in the sectors of health, school, and possibly traffic, that according, to the local health authorities, were the prominent alcohol related problems in that area.