What has a year- long focus, touches the entire state, and gets people talking about alcohol use and nonuse?
The Because It Matters campaign, launched in Minnesota in May. Why this campaign?
Alcohol is part of the history, culture and daily life for much of the adult population. Many adults who choose to use alcohol do so legally and safely. They take responsibility for their decisions about alcohol use. However, we know there are many adults and young people who experience problems, some of them devastating, from their alcohol use. There is much confusion, a conflict in messages and a lack of community consensus or norms about what is appropriate behavior around alcohol use for adults.
A willingness of individuals, families and communities to talk about alcohol will increase awareness of the problems caused by alcohol and help create the healthier and safer communities we all want. Adults need to talk with each other about alcohol use and agree upon community norms for low-risk decisions about whether, when, where and how much alcohol is acceptable. Much progress has already been made, but there is still work to be done. What can you do to help?
By providing local communities with information and resources, we can effectively reach out and support new and continuing public service communications programs. The Because It Matters campaign addresses this complicated issue by creating a simple, easy-to-remember set of messages for decisions about adult alcohol use. This is the first step in this ongoing, sustainable campaign. Key messages are intended to engage adults in examining their own alcohol use decisions. Why? Because It Matters.
Because It Matters is the central theme that ties together a set of public awareness materials including press releases, small space ads, background documents and graphic images. Each element can be tailored to reflect your community"s specific needs. Use the materials as they are or customize your own communications. A set of requirements for campaign consistency is included in the kit.
Because It Matters focuses on five simple messages about alcohol use. These messages help adults, families and communities build shared standards for using or declining to use alcohol. What do the messages say?
We can:
In this issue of Impact! we've chosen to highlight six pieces of the twenty-piece kit. As communities consider the use of alcohol at summer festivals, as parents decide whether alcohol will be available at their child's graduation open house, as Christmas parties get planned, as communities consider conducting underage alcohol compliance checks, as the State Legislature considers lowering the blood alcohol content level to .08, as parents consider how they use or do not use alcohol and then how they talk to their children about alcohol, all of these are times or situations that can benefit from the information in this campaign.
This kit is intended for use by local community coalitions, task forces, faith communities and anyone who wants to join us in this exciting effort. To order a kit contact Dawn Olson at 800-247-1303, 612-427-5310 or email us at mprc-order@ miph.org.
You can also find the full kit and, in the future, additional materials to support this campaign at: http://www.miph.org/because.
Acknowledgements are in order for the small group of people and other named organizations who gave so willingly to this effort. They are: Minnesota Star of the North Prevention Coalition, Minnesota Prevention Resource Center, Community Prevention Coalition of Hennepin County, Dakota Partnership for Healthy Communities, Washington County Public Health Department, St. Louis County Department of Public Health & Long Term Medical Care, Lake County Health Department, Minnesota Department of Human Services, Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Institute of Public Health, Lou K. Dzierzak, LKD Communications.