Courtney secures $50k grant for NECASA, Villager Newspapers

Courtney secures $50k grant for NECASA

Matt Sanderson

Villager Newspapers

9/26/08

DAYVILLE — Congressman Joseph Courtney (D-Conn., 2nd District) secured a $50,000 grant last week for the Northeast Communities Against Substance Abuse (NECASA) in order to reduce youth access to alcohol in the northeast region of Connecticut. NECASA has said it will use the funds to place advertisements on television and radio programs to get the message out to parents and adolescents.

Along with the social marketing campaign, the agency will use the funds to start a workplace campaign in mid-November, to bring their message to parents at work and tell them how they can communicate with their kids about the subject. They will also have a presentation for the workers.

Bob Brex, executive director of NECASA, said the grant is called the Sober Truth on the Prevention Act of underage drinking, or S.T.O.P. Act. Brex said their surveys from 2006-’07 indicate that all the access for children grades eight through 10 is at home.

“It’s either they’re getting it from their parents, they’re taking it from their parents or they’re taking it from a friend’s house,” said Brex. “We have to do more to stop that access. Parents and guardians have to understand that the longer you stop a teenager from starting to drink, the less likely they are to have an eventual problem. I am extremely appreciative of this grant, that it will allow us to do so much more to educate our parents on this serious problem.”

The grant goes into effect Oct. 1, he said, adding that sometime in November is when area residents should start seeing and hearing the advertisements. “The biggest thing we try to do is reduce the numbers,” he said of those kids using alcohol. “If parents disapprove, the less likely it is they will use.”

The 2006-’07 surveys conducted polled 1,323 students age 12 to 17 (grades 8, 9 and 10). More than half (51 percent) of those surveyed were eighth-graders, 26.2 percent were ninth-graders and 22.9 percent were 10th-graders.

According to the survey results, more than half of the respondents reported having a drink at some point in their lives. It stated that nearly twothirds of the 10th-graders (62.6 percent) responded positively to that. A total of 22.9 percent of all those polled said they had drunk enough to feel high or drunk before; four-fifths of those answers came from people ages 12 through 15. Almost one-fifth (18.9 percent) stated they drank at least one drink in the last 30 days. Among the 10th-graders, almost one-third (31.1 percent) reported having had at least one drink during the past 30 days, and 81.6 percent of those 10th graders polled said they had a drink in the past 30 days and drank more than one drink per occasion.

The survey reported that 12.8 percent of all 10th-grade respondents stated they had more than five drinks per occasion in the last month.

“The biggest one here is over 15 percent said they obtain alcohol from parents with permission and about 8 percent said they did it without permission,” said Brex.

Along with the S.T.O.P Act grant, Brex said NECASA will do another needs-assessment analysis this year to compare its 2004 numbers to their 2008 numbers.

“NECASA’s work is so important to our communities and I congratulate its employees for proactively applying for and securing this grant,” said Courtney. “Keeping Connecticut’s children safe and healthy are critical missions that I share with NECASA, so I will continue to support their worthy efforts in every way possible.”

Courtney said he applauds NECASA because this grant was obtained the right way, through the Department of Health and Human Services, than through the Congressional earmarking practice, which has gotten a lot of attention in the 2008 campaign season.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” he said. “These grants are hard to get. It’s very competitive.” For more information on NECASA’s services, call 779-9253 or reach the agency on the Web at www.necasaonline.org.