Group hopes to prevent underage drinking

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A new program aimed at preventing underage and binge drinking will have its initial planning meeting today, said Jen Ross, who will be the project director for the new federally funded Mitchell Underage Drinking Coalition.

Ross was formerly community prevention networker for Dakota Counseling Institute. DCI will be the fiscal agent for the new coalition.

Ross said the first planning meeting for the new coalition will be held at 11:30 a.m. today at Café Teresa, 312 N. Main St.

Subsequent meetings will be the third Tuesday of every month at a location to be announced.

Ross hopes to recruit 25 members for the coalition, she said.

The program targets the 2,385 persons ages 18 to 25 in the Mitchell area.

Ross said statistics from the state

Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse show that 75 percent of those young people have participated in binge drinking in the past 30 days. About 22 percent of the young adults in that same age group saw nothing wrong with binge drinking behavior, she said.

Binge drinking is generally defined as drinking a large amount of alcohol in a brief period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated. Such heavy drinking can become a personal health as well as public safety issue, she said.

Mitchell is among 26 South Dakota communities divvying up $1.4 million in federal alcohol prevention grant money. Mitchell’s $50,000 grant will build community partnerships that focus on alcohol abuse prevention in youth and young adults. Ross, who wrote the grant in July, said the difficult and time-consuming grant application process paid off for Mitchell. She received notice in August that it was approved.

“I was thrilled to death,” she said. Funding began on the program Oct. 1.

The four-year program will be in two phases. The $50,000 grant will pay for the eightmonth Phase One part of the program, which has a goal of building a sustainable coalition of committed community members. One a direction is charted, a second grant application will be submitted to fund the program, Ross said.

Phase Two will facilitate the program and develop alcohol education programs for the Mitchell community, she said.

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