ButteYouthNow

What is BYN all about?

The Butte Youth Now Coalition (BYN) was initiated in response to the history of a county that has been a victim of underage and high risk drinking. The community’s response to alcohol related issues has taken an economic drain on city and county resources. Over the past three years Butte County Department of Behavioral Health has surveyed youth county wide. The results are in: young people are growing up in an environment filled with messages promoting alcohol use, that maintains social norms condoning underage drinking, and one that provides youth with relatively easy access to alcohol. Youth in Butte County have been mobilized to respond to the survey results through Friday Night Live and Club Live chapters across the county. They have sought to change the environments that foster pro-use messages and make alcohol easily accessible. Community leaders have also responded by recommending policy and ongoing community change efforts.  Butte Youth Now was formed to help organize and support the efforts of the youth and community leader mobilization.

The coalition seeks out proven prevention techniques to address the alcohol problem, employing Environmental Prevention as its key strategy. Environmental Prevention is defined as changing the setting and messages that both directly or indirectly make alcohol easy, appealing, attractive, and socially acceptable. The coalition uses the following four areas to organize and targets its efforts: norms, media messages, policy and enforcement, access/availability.

List of Members and Agencies

• Butte County Office of Education
• Butte County Sheriff’s Office
• Chico Unified School District
• Chico Police Department
• Chico Fire Department
• Faith Community
• KPAY News Radio
• Channel 12/24 Action News
• Biggs Unified School District
• Gridley GUARDIANS Coalition
• Oroville Cares Coalition
• Dan Herbert
• Jodi Drysdale
• Laura Page
• Chico State CADEC
• Chico State Greek Life
• City of Chico
• Butte County Department of Behavioral Health
• Butte County Friday Night Live
• Butte County Club Live

Meeting Information

Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month.

Meetings are typically held from 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm.
For more information contact Amanda Montgomery or Ryan Gulbrandsen at 530.891.2891.

May 29th Meeting:  5/29/13 from 3:30pm - 5:00pm in the ASD Conference Room.

Prevention of underage drinking information

Alcohol Policy Issues
Fact sheets, policy statements, and other information related to several important topics in alcohol policy.

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies – Fact Sheet

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/388/iom_fact_sheet.pdf

Facts about Alcohol and Adolescent Health

http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/NIAAASponsoredPrograms/AlcoholAdolescentHealth.htm

Minimum Legal Drinking Age

http://www.nasadad.org/resource.php?base_id=1498

Butte Youth Now: Key initiatives

The ATHLETE COMMITTED campaign is about providing support to athletes, coaches and parents. This campaign urges athletes to renew their commitment to excellence! This is a commitment of personal responsibilty, shared expectations and collective responsibility - To never lose their focus and never compromise on their values.

The biggest reason athletes do not reach their full potential is because they give up what they want most for what they want at the moment.

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The Butte Youth Now Coalition and Club Live have partnered to develop and implement the MERCHANT COMMITTED Education Program for off-sale and on-sale alcoholic beverage retailers (markets, stores, gas stations, bars, restaurants, and special event venues). The goal of this program is to reduce underage drinking and youth access to alcohol by increasing alcoholic beverage establishment compliance.

Merchant Committed invites young people to participate in educating local merchants which facilitates a sense of community involvement for those young people and allows them to contribute towards efforts to stop underage drinking.

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The PARENT COMMITTED campaign is about providing support to parents and families with teenagers. This campaign urges parents to renew their commitment as a parent and support their child through their journey into adulthood—when they are discovering and defining who they are. The greatest influence on a young person’s decision to drink alcohol is the world they live in. The number one protective factor against youth alcohol abuse is a strong parent-child relationship—a PARENT COMMITTED.

It is time to stop accepting teen drinking as a rite of passage and to understand the threat it poses to healthy development. Parents play a vital role in replacing pro-alcohol messages with clear messages urging young people not to drink!

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Most people are aware that alcohol consumption can lead to individual and community problems. Local, state, and federal laws recognize these potential dangers by regulating the way that alcohol is marketed, sold, and served. Existing state laws prohibit sale of alcohol to minors or to individuals who are obviously intoxicated. However, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is limited in its capacity to enforce these laws. And, unlike many communities in the state of California, the City of Chico does not give permits for alcohol outlets that enable the city to set conditions of operation. This limits their ability to manage risks. The Chico Police Department has partnered with Butte County Behavioral Health and the Butte Youth Now Coalition to design and implement the proposed Alcohol Compliance & Education (ACE) Ordinance.  This ordinance will provide a valuable new tool to reduce alcohol-related problems occurring in the City of Chico.
 

In the City of Chico the majority of all calls received by Chico police dispatchers involve alcohol. These calls for service impair the police department’s capacity to address other serious crimes.  As the Police Department accounts for 1/2 of the City’s General Fund budget, and alcohol-related arrests account for approximately 35% of the Police Department’s arrests, the cost of alcohol related incidents and arrests to taxpayers in the City is profound.
In the City of Chico in 2010:

• 492 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
   
• 1330 people were arrested for being drunk in public.
   
• 198 minors were cited for possession of alcohol.
   
• 55 domestic violence arrests that involved alcohol.
   
• Local rates of underage drinking are higher than those for the state of California or the nation as a whole.
   
• High school students surveyed report that it is ‘fairly easy” or “very easy” to buy alcohol from stores.
   
• High school students report that they get alcohol from someone going into the store to buy it for them (36%), they are able to buy it from the store (6%) or they take it from a store without paying for it (4%).
   
• 57% of high school students report that sales clerks and cashiers ask young people who buy alcoholic beverages for their ID sometimes or not at all.

Historically, all across the country, communities have approached the problems related to alcohol on an individual level by implementing counseling, treatment, and other individual interventions. These programs have been effective at addressing the needs of individuals, but have been limited in their ability to impact the environments where high risk behaviors occur.

Butte County Behavioral Health Prevention Unit and Butte Youth Now Coalition recognized an opportunity to help communities develop policies and practices suited to the broader community health needs. In 2004 the Butte County was awarded a Drug Free Communities Grant from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to prevent and reduce problems related to high-risk drinking among youth and young adults. Partnership members formed a local community coalition—Butte Youth Now. Coalition members include business owners, residents, law enforcement, elected officials, community members, schools, nonprofits, and other public and private organizations.

This group has worked closely with Chico Police Department to draft the ACE Ordinance to address issues related to alcohol sales, binge drinking, and related problems as well as provide valuable education and compliance to local alcohol licensees.

Please view the complete Issue Briefing by  Clicking Here