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\u201cPage Alliance for Community Action Program (PACA) serves Page County, Virginia,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s Director Megan Gordon<\/strong>. \u201cWe are made up of four towns: Shenandoah, Stanley, Luray\u00a0and Rileyville.\u00a0We’re a rural community nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, most known for the Luray Caverns, scenic views and abundance of cabins.\u00a0We have a population of around 24,000 people, and our coalition was formed in 2006.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur coalition is facing many of the same issues that other rural communities face,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cWe are working every day to reduce underage drinking.\u00a0Youth tobacco use in the form of smokeless tobacco and vaping are also both target areas for our coalition, and we continue to focus on opioid use prevention strategies.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are most proud of our sticker shock campaigns led by the coalition\u2019s youth in conjunction with compliance checks for alcohol and tobacco and party patrols led by our sheriff’s department,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cWe determined a need to decrease retail availability of tobacco products along with social availability of alcohol to youth.\u00a0Through surveys and focus groups youth reported alcohol was being provided by older friends, siblings and other family members\u00a0and tobacco products were easy to purchase.\u00a0The sticker shock campaign is used to raise awareness for our youth, community and retailers that purchasing alcohol for minors is illegal and can result in fines and\/or jail time. PACA\u2019s youth, along with an adult supervisor, visit participating retailers to place stickers on multipack containers of alcohol.\u00a0Prior to the youth visiting the stores, an officer from the sheriff’s department and the coalition director visited the stores to talk to them about the campaign and the importance of checking IDs.\u00a0The sticker shock campaigns are run during times of the year when youth alcohol consumption may be higher, including homecoming, prom, graduation, back to school and the start of summer.\u00a0During that time the sheriff’s office also conducts increased party patrols to ensure social hosting isn’t occurring.\u00a0Compliance checks for tobacco and alcohol are conducted quarterly to ensure retailers are not selling those products to youth.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen an increase in the number of retailers passing compliance checks, due in large part to the continued education and presence in their stores,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cOur most recent check for tobacco resulted in a 100% pass rate and our most recent check for alcohol resulted in a 93% pass rate.\u00a0Youth reporting ease of availability of both tobacco and alcohol products has decreased significantly since the start of the campaigns.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to continue to have conversations with retailers,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cTheir staff turnover rate is high and ownership of the establishments changes frequently.\u00a0We have found that we made significant improvement when we increased the frequency of our campaigns.\u00a0It is also important to involve your youth as much as possible in all aspects of the campaigns.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cPage Alliance for Community Action Program (PACA) serves Page County, Virginia,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s Director Megan Gordon. \u201cWe are made<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13523,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17242","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n