This week’s guest blogger is Allison Bardon, Director of the Madison Chatham Coalition, whose mission is to prevent and reduce youth substance use through education, collaboration and community-wide change.

Allison is sharing what their Teen Task Force has been doing to raise awareness of alcohol abuse. I commend these teens for being peer leaders and sharing this important information with their school community.

I also wanted to remind you of the next Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series Webinar at 1 p.m., Thursday, January 27; “An Hour With Sam Quinones Author of ‘Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic’."  To register, click here.

___________________________________________________

Madison Chatham Coalition Teen Task Force Launches Alcohol Prevention Campaign
 in Partnership with Chatham High School

By Allison Bardon

The Teen Task Force, the youth prevention arm of the Madison Chatham Coalition, has been very busy this past month! The teens launched their first prevention initiative of the school year at Chatham High School and were able to see all of their hard work and planning come to fruition at the Homecoming Dance on Monday, November 1.
 

After deciding that Homecoming was a great platform for sharing alcohol prevention messaging, the eight Teen Task Force members got to work on narrowing several options down. They discussed their ideas at weekly Task Force meetings before landing on one. The Coalition would provide a Hershey's Bar favor to students in attendance at the dance. The bars would have one of four different alcohol stats and facts. The teens wanted a few different facts in an effort to stimulate conversation amongst students. They researched four facts that they thought were the most impactful and helped to design the wrapper.

Teens got to work on wrapping 500 candy bars and decorating the baskets that would hold the bars and be displayed at the dance. Needless to say, all of the candy bars were distributed, even after the dance was rescheduled from Saturday to Monday due to inclement weather.

Teen Task Force Members Assembling and Wrapping the Chocolate Bars

Assembled Bars for Distribution with Wrapper

Teen Task Force members Elyse Wheatley and Siena Wong, both juniors at Chatham High School said, “This initiative was important for the community to curb drinking and drug use on Homecoming night. We feel that the initiative promoted awareness about drugs and alcohol and helped students consider their options when making drug and alcohol-related decisions. The dance was originally scheduled for Halloween Eve, which would already be a large weekend for substance use, and with the dance, it likely would've been bigger. It was really good to see everyone picking up chocolate bars and looking at the information on them. It felt like we made an impact on the students and hopefully, it encouraged them to make healthy decisions after the dance.”

The Madison Chatham Coalition is so proud of these teens for their hard work on this initiative. Job well done!

For more information about the Teen Task Force, please contact:
Allison Bardon
Director, Madison Chatham Coalition
abardon@madisonymca.org

Notice: This article reflects the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ). This information should not be construed as legal advice from the author or PDFNJ. Please consult your own attorney before making any legal decisions