Mt. Vernon Register-News

January 31, 2010

Our View: Educating youth on underage drinking


The Mission Possible Coalition will be hosting a town hall meeting on March 23 at the Rolland Lewis Community Building at Veterans Park on the issue of underage drinking.

“The focus of the town hall will be improving the well-being of youth in our community and will address underage drinking,” coalition SPF Project Coordinator Celeste Robinson said. “Community members are invited to attend and receive information, ask questions and offer comments and suggestions.”

One of the goals of the Mission Possible Coalition is to educate youth on the dangers of underage drinking, and to encourage positive activities that will not lead to situations where bad choices such as underage drinking can happen.

Additionally, the coalition is working to spread the message that, “Most Don’t.” Most youth don’t drink, that is.

According to information from the 2008-09 Illinois Youth Survey, in which students from Jefferson County participated, most students don’t drink alcohol despite the public perception they do. The result of the survey? The social norms campaign to spread the word that Most Don’t.

As a community, let’s find out the facts. Let’s find out what we can do to make sure our youth don’t use alcohol. We can do that by attending and participating in the town hall meeting.

We should let our voices be heard and send the message to youth: Most Don’t and we don’t want you to start.