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General Assembly will be held this November in Atlanta--a much more accessible location for Area 8 than last year's, which was in California (pictured above). Take advantage of this opportunity! To find out more about the training, networking, dialogue, and development provided by this conference, contact a colleague who has attended, e-mail your state coordinator or SAC, or visit the BACCHUS website to discover why this is THE conference for peer education! Then find the funds! Check out fundraising ideas in the last newsletter, promote traffic safety to earn one of the All-State grants discussed above in "Sign for Safety!" |
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Hello Area 8!
This is your newsletter! Let me know what you want to see. This spring has been busy, so tell me how your spring programming proceeded. Share your successes with Area 8! Later in this newsletter, we look at one incredible program created by an Area 8 affiliate, Jacksonville State University, this past fall. The JSU Peer Educators were awarded Area 8 Oustanding Program at our conference in February.
This conference created a great atmosphere in which we could hear other peer educator's ideas, share our own, find out more about what it means to be a peer educator with BACCHUS, and of course, have fun. The Area 8 conference was held in conjunction with the Area 9 conference at the University of Florida, Tallahassee. We hope that next year Area 8 can have its very own conference. I challenge you to begin thinking about contributing by planning an awesome year of peer education so you can bring your best to the table.
Now is a great time to reflect upon this past year as well as plan ahead. As you consider what worked this year, find your strengths and weaknesses. Did your peer education group get along? Perhaps plan a day retreat for next fall, or even a retreat/celebration this month for all your efforts. Was it hard to stay motivated? Make meetings more fun--order in Chinese or do a goofy icebreaker. Were your efforts less successful than you hoped? Keep trying, and use BACCHUS and Area 8 as a resource to modify and expand your programs.
As always, e-mail me or your state coordinators with questions. Have a fantastic April!
Tara Daniel
Area 8 SAC |
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Sign for Safety
According to Paul J. Wooley's article in The Washington Post, a yearbook filled with the photos of people killed in traffic accidents in one year would total 3,500 pages, squeezing in 12 pictures per page.
Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for people age 3 to 33. That's why National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) is promoting May as National Youth Traffic Safety Month. In order to get states to sign onto this call for putting youth traffic safety on the agenda, BACCHUS worked wtih NOYS to launch www.signforsafety.org. This website allows people across the nation to sign a petition supporting National Youth Traffic Safety Month that will be sent to each of the governor's offices in all 50 states.
Get your campus involved in this nationwide initiative! Students can visit the website and sign the petition in a manner of minutes. Moreover, in support of the National Youth Traffic Safety Month, All-State is offering fifty $1,000 grants to youth organizations for well-developed projects promoting traffic safety among your peers. NOYS even provides a toolkit with great hints. Incorporate Sign for Safety into your project!
How peer educators can promote Sign for Safety across their campuses:
- blackboard blitz (writing the website on blackboards and dry-erase boards across your campus)
- tabling with brochures and a laptop open to signforsafety.org (or, use an old fashioned paper petition and let everyone know you're logging their names online)
- PSAs on your campus radiostation (simply contact area8sac@bacchusnetwork.org to get written and audio PSAs)
- join the facebook global group "Sign for Safety" and invite all of your friends
- an all-campus e-mail with the link
Wouldn't it be amazing to be a part of having your governor proclaim May National Youth Traffic Safety Month? The petition is available through April 23, so get going!
Learn more about the All-State Grants! |
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A Multifaceted Approach
to Prevention
The Jacksonville State University Peer Educators won Area 8's Outstanding Program of the Year award for their Alcohol Awareness 2006 campaign. Their comprehensive approach to awareness and education reflects a high level of effort that really incorporated the city and campus community. JSU peer educators partnered with a funeral home, the JSU police, a JSU sorority, and a community business to make their program an event that couldn't be ignored.
 The basics of Alcohol Awareness 2006 resemble many National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week campaigns, but this was only the beginning. The JSU Peer Educators tabled with give-aways and pamphlets. They obtained a wrecked car to draw attention to their program, and the campus was filled with signs about being safe. As if that were not enough, police cars ran their sirens while the display of a hearse drove the message home.
The more active aspects of this campaign contributed to making this multifaceted approach to prevention a success. Grim-reapers silently roamed campus, passing out information. Students were asked to sign pledges to be safe and responsible regarding alcohol and driving. Congratulations, JSU Peer Educators! |
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A Student's Perspective
Madoline Markham, president of the Coalition Helping Educate and Empower Rhodes Students (CHEERS), was awarded Outstanding Peer Educator at the area conference. Her dedication to the Rhodes College affiliate and enthusiasm for peer education merited this recognition.
What made you want to become a peer educator?
I heard about our campus' program at a student organization fair on campus my freshman year, and it peaked my interest. I wanted to serve my peers and work to make them more educated to make healthy decisions.
What was the best experience you ever had in relation to your peer education group?
seeing my peers on campus excited to learn something from our peer education group
What has been the most frustrating part/experience of being a peer educator?
feeling like people on campus are not receptive to our message
What excites you about being a peer educator right now?
planning for new and exciting things next year
What do you hope to achieve as a peer educator?
influencing my peers to make decisions that will positively impact their lives, no matter if that impact is something I am able to see or not
What is the most important thing peer educators can do personally or on their campuses?
Live as an example- talk with your peers about making positive decisions and show them by way of example. |
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From the Headlines:
Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking
March 15, 2007
On Tuesday, March 6 the Surgeon General released a Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.
According to Acting Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu, "Alcohol remains the most heavily abused substance by America's youth. We can no longer ignore what alcohol is doing to our children. This Call to Action is exactly that - a call to every American to join with the Surgeon General in a national effort to address underage drinking early, continuously, and in context of human development. Underage drinking is everybody's problem - and its solution is everyone's responsibility."
Consistent with other Surgeon General Calls to Action, this science-based document seeks to stimulate action in all sectors of society to solve a major public health problem. It is supported by specific action steps to achieve the goals of the Call to Action at the national, state, and community levels.
Alcohol is the drug of choice among American adolescents, used by more young people than tobacco or illicit drugs. Although there has been a significant decline in tobacco and illicit drug use among teens, underage drinking has remained at consistently high levels. Young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol problems later in life than those who begin drinking at age 21 or older. New research indicates that alcohol may harm the developing adolescent brain. There are approximately 11 million underage drinkers in the United States. Nearly 7.2 million (18.8 percent) are considered binge drinkers and more than 2 million (6 percent) are classified as heavy drinkers. By age 18, more than 70 percent of teens have had a drink. As they get older, the chance that young people will use alcohol grows. Over 11 percent of 12-year-old children (6th graders) say that they have used alcohol at least once. By age 13, that number doubles. By age 14 (8th grade), 41 percent of children have had at least one drink, and nearly 20 percent say they have been drunk at least once.
The Call to Action calls upon every member of society to recognize the severity of the underage drinking problem in the United States and work to prevent and reduce alcohol use by children and adolescents to protect them from the negative effects of underage drinking.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2007.
Thanks for reading!
E-mail me with any questions or concerns about this newsletter or peer education!
Sincerely,
Tara Daniel Area 8 SAC
The BACCHUS Network |
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