Background | CMCA in Adams County | Implementation Essentials | Program Materials | Recognition | Contact Information

Background

Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) is a community-organizing program designed to reduce adolescent (13 to 20 years old) access to alcohol by changing community policies and practices. Initiated in 1991, CMCA has proven that limiting the access to alcohol to people under the legal drinking age effectively not only directly reduces teen drinking, but also communicates a clear message to the community that under age drinking is inappropriate and unacceptable.

CMCA employs a range of social organizing techniques to address legal, institutional, social, and health issues in order to reduce youth alcohol use by eliminating illegal alcohol sales to youth by retailers and obstructing the provision of alcohol to youth by adults.

How Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol Works in Adams County

CMCA involves motivating community members to seek and achieve changed in local public policies and in the practices of community institutions that can affect youth’s access to alcohol.  In Adams County, Collaborating For Youth mobilizes change on alcohol (and other drugs) through:

• County-wide Events: Project Sticker Shock and medication disposal Take Backs
• Media Campaigns: Parents Who Host Lose the Most
• Social Norms Campaigns: Think Again!,  Better Things To Do,  Re-Think It!,  83% and  Most of Us

CMCA offers resource materials to help communities organize these efforts, for example:

• Civic Groups can adopt policies to prevent underage drinking at organization-sponsored events and initiate and participate in community-wide efforts to prevent underage alcohol use.
• Faith organizations can provide a link between prevention organizations, youth, parents, and the community. They can also offer education, develop internal policies to prevent teens from accessing alcohol at their events, and participate in efforts to keep alcohol away from youth.
• Schools can teach alcohol refusal skills and create and enforce policies restricting alcohol use and access, both on school property and in the surrounding  community.
• Community Groups can voluntarily control the availability and use of alcohol at public events such as music concerts, street fairs, and sporting events.  
• Law Enforcement can mandate compliance checks or encourage voluntary compliance checks by law enforcement or licensing authorities. Police can also encourage and support the use of administrative penalties for failure to comply with State or local laws relating to the sale of alcohol to minors. 
• Liquor Licensing Agencies can offer and promote mandatory or voluntary programs that train managers, owners, servers, and sellers at alcohol outlets hot to avoid selling underage youth and intoxicated patrons.
• Advertising Outlets can be influenced to remove alcohol advertising.

Implementation Essentials

CMCA is a community-based program that can be implemented by a range of groups, from all-volunteer grassroots activists to nonprofit organizations or public agencies of any size.  In order for a community to implement a CMCA successfully, the coordinating entity must have the ability to:

• Assess community norms, public and institutional policies, and resources.
• Identify, from inception, a small group of passionate and committed citizens to lead efforts to advocate for change.
• Develop and implement an action plan.
• Build a mass support base.
• Maintain an organization and institutionalize changes.
• Evaluate changes on an ongoing basis.
• Manage widely variable program costs.

Program Materials

Free materials on reducing youth access to alcohol are available to assist in the implementation of CMCA, including a series of papers written by alcohol epidemiology experts. Available materials include:

1. Alcohol Compliance Checks: A procedure Manual for Enforcing Alcohol Age-of Sale Laws. This user-friendly manual is designed for public officials, law enforcement officers, and community groups; it is a practical guide for developing and implementing a compliance check system for establishments that sell and serve alcohol.
2. Model Ordinances. This material provides information on and samples.

Recognition

Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol is recognized as a Model Program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact Information

For more information about Communities Mobilzing for Change on Alcohol, contact the Univeristy of Minnesota Alcohol Epidemiology Department at: http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/cmca/index.shtml