MEDIA RELEASE

Five Mountains Hawaii, a 501(c)3 nonprofit in Waimea, has been contracted by the County of Hawaii, to implement a public awareness and coalition building campaign to prevent underage drinking.

The $100,000 contract is part of the Hawaii Strategic Prevention Framework-State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG).

“Five Mountains Hawaii is grateful for the support of Hawaii County and the SPF-SIG program, and we are excited to have the chance to expand this important messaging,” Five Mountains Hawaii Executive Director Robin Mullin said. “Our goal is to change or at least challenge the ‘perceived norms’ that tend to glamorize underage drinking. Using several broad strategies, we hope to increase awareness, provide information and build capacity of our youth leaders.”

Five Mountains Hawaii, its contractors and youth members are building a branded public awareness media campaign with two branches, one for youth, one for parents/caregivers.

Several Hawaii Island youth groups are participants in the SPF-SIG program, and were on the creative team which named the campaigns: “Be Akamai NO Try” for youth and “Models Not Bottles” for adults.

The campaigns launched with two new websites, social media, a communications workshop, and print, online and broadcast advertising, including radio/television commercials created by our youth.

Other elements include a tee-shirt promotion and island-wide information resource centers.

Free town hall meetings and screenings of an original documentary film “Perils and Pearls in Paradise” are scheduled July 23 in Kona, July 27 in Hilo and Aug. 3 in Waimea.

“The good news is, about 75 percent of students (grades 6-12) in Hawaii County reported that their parents think it’s very wrong to drink,” Mullin said. “The not-so-good news is that parents were also ranked the highest source of exposure to alcohol for all 6th – 12th graders.”

Mullin said the statistics in use were drawn from County of Hawaii: Epidemiological Profile of Alcohol Related Behaviors Among Youth, Spring 2007; current revision May 2010, prepared by: SPF-SIG Epidemiological Team.

“We will be working hard to improve that and other statistics, as measures of underage drinking prevention,” Mullin said.

This project is an equal opportunity program funded through the County of Hawaii Mayor’s Office, Hawaii Department of Health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – Center for Substance Abuse Prevention: Strategic Prevention Framework – State Incentive Grant SPO 13944.

— Find out more:
www.FiveMountains.org
www.ModelsNotBottles.org