2010 Town Hall Meeting FAQs

Underage drinking continues to be a leading public health problem in the United States. Alcohol use threatens the safe and healthy development of more young people than any other substance—even more than tobacco and illicit drugs! On an average day in 2006, 7,970 teens drank alcohol for the first time, a much higher number than begin smoking or trying illicit drugs. Alcohol use among children and adolescents starts early and increases rapidly with age. As part of a national effort to help communities in their efforts to stop underage drinking, a series of Town Hall Meetings (THMs) will take place across America during the week of March 21, 2010. This nationwide initiative will bolster efforts to meet goals from The Surgeon General's Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking (PDF) and is supported by the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD).

THMs are part of a national effort to increase understanding and awareness of underage drinking and its consequences, and to encourage individuals, families, and communities to address the problem. They are designed to alert and empower the community as well as generate interest from the media. THMs will give local communities the opportunity to come together to learn more about the new research on underage drinking and its impact on both individuals and the community, and to discuss how their community can implement the recommendations outlined in The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.

THMs are being sponsored by ICCPUD, which consists of the Administration for Children and Families, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Labor Working Partners for an Alcohol- and Drug-Free Workplace Programs, Federal Trade Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of the Assistant HHS Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Office of the Surgeon General, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Since underage drinking is a critical health and safety issue, it is important to involve representatives from the entire community, including parents, youth, education, substance abuse prevention, other health entities, justice/law enforcement, highway safety, alcohol control, local government, and business.

In 2010, SAMHSA hopes to see greater numbers of THMs targeting ethnic/racial communities (including Spanish-language and bilingual Town Hall events), more youth-led events, THMs jointly hosted by existing and potential partners such as college campus and community (“town-and-gown”) prevention groups, and similar collaborations between military bases and community underage drinking prevention groups.

The Community Briefing Prevention Toolkit: Town Hall Meetings and a collateral DVD training on how to conduct a THM—available in both English and Spanish—are among a growing list of free materials available online in the Town Halls section of http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov. (For 2010, the toolkit is being updated to refer to the most recent data on underage drinking.) In an effort to meet the 2010 THM goals, an expanded and redesigned version of the THM section will appear on the Web portal soon. Past and present THM participating community groups will be alerted by email as these changes are available.

Resources will be continually added to the Web site. Coming soon will be a collection of short videos that several States have produced about underage drinking to help THM planners see what people around the Nation are saying and doing about the issue.

A series of training webinars will be offered for organizations participating in the 2010 THM. Email announcements will facilitate easy, free, online registration and these programs will be archived for subsequent independent viewing in the Town Halls area of the Web portal.
If further assistance is needed, individual requests will receive personalized technical assistance via telephone at 240–747–4980 and/or by email at info@stopalcoholabuse.net.

Nearly everyone—more than 1,600 local organizations—who held a 2008 THM on underage drinking prevention reported satisfaction and positive outcomes; almost all are likely to sign up again in 2010. Printed copies of 2008 Town Hall Meetings: Mobilizing Communities to Prevention and Reduce Underage Drinking – Final Report; and 2008 Town Hall Meetings: Mobilizing Communities to Prevention and Reduce Underage Drinking – Evaluation Report can be requested from the SAMHSA Health Information Network at http://www.samhsa.gov/shin/. Both are available electronically in the Town Halls section at http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov.