Butte Youth Now Fights Underage Drinking in College Town

In a community that is home to the nation´s number one party school, it´s a constant struggle to keep alcohol away from young people. Not only is it widely available, it´s also widely accepted as a right of passage. However, the Butte Youth Now coalition is striving to change through youth mobilization, community education, social norms campaigns, policy changes and enforcement efforts.

Butte County is a diverse rural community in Northern California, not far from the state capital. Nearly half of the population is under 18 and California State University, Chico State University and Butte Community College are all located within the county—a combination that can be a recipe for disaster.

“Our university is just a couple of blocks from a high school, so, high school kids are very close to the college environment and high school students often attend college parties,” explained Jeremy Wilson, coalition coordinator of Butte Youth Now, which was named CADCA’s 2008 Got Outcomes! Coalition of the Year winners. “Growing up in a party atmosphere sets a norm in the community and influences what underage youth think about alcohol”

A survey that the group conducted showed that youth had easy access to drugs and alcohol. For example, alcohol was often provided by parents or youth would steal it from local alcohol outlets, and college parties provided the perfect venue for obtaining and using drugs and alcohol. Compounding the problem was that the media often promoted drinking and many parents accepted youth drinking as a right of passage.

To tackle this, Butte Youth Now launched their Parents Committed campaign, which educated parents about the physical and social effects of underage drinking and of the ways they can help prevent underage drinking in their homes. They also had parents sign a pledge agreeing to not provide alcohol to their child or anyone under 21. The group also placed door hangers on houses surrounding college campuses that reminded students of the legal consequences of providing alcohol to minors. To ensure retail stores and bars and restaurants were checking IDs when selling alcohol, the coalition conducted merchant trainings and partnered with California Beverage Control on decoy operations.

Wilson said part of the community’s challenge is the high number of alcohol outlets in downtown Chico. “We’re above the state average for the number of alcohol outlets so when youth walk through the downtown area, they’re getting a pro-use message everywhere they turn,” he noted.

While alcohol use was identified as the group’s number one problem, local data also showed that methamphetamine (meth) abuse was on the rise among young people. To address this, Butte Youth Now developed a series of public service announcements educating young people and parents about the dangers of meth use. In addition, because many of the meth houses in the county are located in rural farming areas, adult and youth coalition members launched efforts to train farm owners about how to identify meth houses, how to prevent theft from their properties and about the dangerous impact that meth ingredients have on the environment and their soil.

“Farmers were telling us that they’d find all of these hazardous products dumped on their property, so we partnered with the Butte County Farm Bureau to educate farmers about meth houses, how to protect their property and the toxic materials used to make meth,” Wilson said, adding that they also trained landlords on how to identify drug activity.

While still in the works, many of the group’s efforts are starting to show positive results. For example, after receiving training from the coalition on underage drinking, several alcohol merchants in the area said they will implement alcohol policies in their establishments. In addition, youth disapproval of underage drinking increased from 56 percent in 2005 to 61 percent in 2007.

Wilson said key to the organization’s success is involving youth at every level –from designing strategies to educating parents. “Our young people are the ones who design and implement our social norms campaigns; they’re the ones going out and working with merchants, reaching out to parents and providing education in the community,” he noted. “It’s because of the commitment of youth and adult coalition members that we’re starting to achieve success.”