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Life is Full of Shots Worth Taking Campaign

Life is Full of Shots Worth Taking Campaign
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Friday, October 25, 2013

The Leominster Community Action Team would like to invite you, our community members, to join us at our next meeting. We would love to see you there, and gain your support on our efforts.

Date: November 13, 2013
Time: 3pm
Place: Fidelity Bank: Community Room
           478 Mechanic Street
           Leominster MA. 01453


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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

LCAT was working on passing an ordinance with the Leominster License Commission regarding compliance checks run by the City of Leominster and the Leominster Police Department in partnership with LCAT on the establishments in the community that serve alcohol. This was in direct response to a violation that was handed out to a liquor license holder in Leominster, which was appealed to the ABCC and upheld. It was found that the City of Leominster had inadequate policy and procedures and needed to be rewritten. This prompted a year of work by the city, police and LCAT to create these new polices and procedures.  
The ordinance passed, with a few changes noted below in an exert from the License Commission meeting held on 9/23/2013:

1.       The updated rules and regulations for compliance checks were read into the record. Changes were made under preparation and post-activity by the Commissioners. Officer Woodward spoke regarding the appeal that led to this update and that ID’s should be carried into the premises. The Rules were changed to allow that within the City’s regulations. Officer Woodward is not in favor of the change to not show ID’s. Pat Wyman spoke about the percentage of failure when a store doesn’t ask for an ID as to what it is. Any one can ask for a license, no everyone can decide whether to serve or not. David Greco with LCAT spoke about recent compliance checks and servers misreading the ID’s. They would like them to learn to read them appropriately. Commissioner Tata agrees that an ID should be presented. Number six (6) on preparation was changed to “Youth volunteers will bring active personal ID’s that will be used and brought into the licensed establishments. License holders can choose to accept valid out of state licenses. It is under discretion of the license holder/server. As edits are minor, the Commissioners will make a motion to adopt the update rules and regulation for compliance checks with the following changes: Under preparation, #1 (Alcohol server training ie. TIPS)…, #6 Youth volunteers will bring active personal ID’s that will be used and brought into the licensed establishments, #8 A notice of compliance will be sent out annually and to all new license holders. Under Post-Activity: #3 Congratulatory letters will be mailed by the local license commission to those who pass the compliance checks. #4 All report documents will be copied for all agencies involved. A list of licensees who failed will be sent to the ABCC with total and types of licenses. A motion was made to approve the updated compliance check guidelines with the listed changed. Approved 2-0.

The actual rules and regulations are found at this website: http://www.leominster-ma.gov/images/images_licencing_dept/pdfs/rules-regulations.pdf 
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Monday, August 29, 2011

Leominster Community Action Team. In Action!

The Leominster Community Action Team would like to invite you, our community members, to join our team! We have recently rejuvinated the Community Action Team and have been involved in some very exciting activites in our community. We have been on the forefront of the recent "Life Is Full Of Shots Worth Taking" campaign. Which includes billboard on 117 near Hannifords. Commercials on TV through Comcast cable. Movie theater advertisements. Radio commercials on Jam'n 94.5 and WAAF 107.3. We have also been part of many community events promoting the Community Action Team and the campaign. The campaign is designed to target adolescents aged 12-20 with the intention to change the social norms that suggest that most kids in our community drink. When in all actuality more of our kids do not!
We as a Community Action Team have also been in partnership with the Leominster police department in efforts to raise awareness and help prevent underage drinking. As a coalition we have completed shoulder taps, cops in shops, and compliance checks with the police department. We have also been a part of the JR. Police academy recently held at Skyveiw Middle School.
The coalition has also been working with the D.A's office in order to raise awareness for social host liability. We have been in partnership with their office and local business owners in order to accomplish and develop new strategies.
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PSA

What is a Community Action Team?

LUK, Inc.’s Community Action Team (CAT) represents an initiative, funded by DPH Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, to help organize and mobilize select communities to reduce rates of underage drinking. CATs utilize a model known as Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA). Local data is used to inform activity selection. CATs look for trends in both school and police data. After identifying local trends, CATs plan activities from a menu of interventions with each option designed to decrease underage access to alcohol or to increase community awareness. Community teams monitor their actions by conducting surveys and/or examining the data for new trends. If/when selected activities don’t contribute to desired changes, CATs may adjust their respective action plans.
The CATs employ environmental strategies to prevent underage drinking. Environmental strategies focus on increasing community protective factors while deceasing risk factors that influence underage drinking.


Strategic Prevention Framework

Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a five step process (see below) developed by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to assist communities in building the infrastructure necessary for effective and sustainable prevention of substance use and abuse. Programs currently funded by BSAS in Massachusetts utilize this framework.


SPF: The Five Step Process
Step 1: Assessment
Step 2: Capacity Building
Step 3: Planning
Step 4: Implementation
Step 5: monitoring and evaluating


Key Principles of the SPF
· Follows a Public Health Approach
· Focuses on change for entire populations (collections of individuals who have one or more personal or environmental characteristic in common)
· Considers an entire range of factors that determine health
· Is outcome-based
· Follows a strategic planning process
· Uses data throughout the process to make informed decisions



CATs in Action

While each CAT is unique, they share common approaches, group maintenance functions, and responsibilities to BSAS.

Shared group maintenance functions:
· Agenda setting
· Meeting facilitation
· Minute-taking

Common responsibilities to BSAS to a shared set of activities (some examples include, but are not limited to):
· Compliance Check
· Shoulder Tap
· Social Host Liability Training
· Sticker Shock
· One-on-one Interviews

Compliance Check
A Compliance Check usually involves the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) or the local Police Department. The purpose of the compliance check is to make certain that establishments selling alcohol are checking identification and selling responsibly according to Massachusetts State Law requirements.
To complete a compliance check, preplanning is conducted around the partnership between CAT team members and out-of-area youth. The youth enter alcohol vending establishments and attempt to purchase alcohol. If the bar, restaurant or liquor store finalizes the transaction between the vendor and the youth under twenty-one years of age, the youth must walk with the item in hand and give it to the officials waiting outside the establishment. The youth reports the outcome of the transaction to the ABCC/officers and identify the establishment employee who served them. This person is informed by a ABCC/local Police Department representative that they have just committed a crime. A citation is immediately issued to the person and/or the establishment under the name of the license holder.

Shoulder Tap
A Shoulder Tap campaign involves youth (specifically anyone under twenty-one years of age) in association with liquor store owners and the local Police Department.
To perform a shoulder tap, the youth position themselves outside the entrance door of a liquor store establishment and ask customers hypothetically: “We are under the age of twenty-one and cannot buy alcohol ourselves. If we were to ask you to buy us alcohol would you?” Depending on the answer from the customer the youth themselves would issue the person either a “YES” card or a “NO” card, along with a short verbal explanation about why purchasing alcohol for youth is wrong and against Massachusetts State Law.

Social Host Liability Training
Social Host Liability Training is an activity usually accomplished in cooperation with the District Attorney or the local Police Department. The training includes reviewing the laws and regulations of regarding serving alcohol to minors on personal property and the liability that comes from alcohol being served on one’s own property without owner awareness. The District Attorney/local Police Department reviews the consequences of the Social Host Liability Laws.

Sticker Shock
A Sticker Shock campaign is an activity that involves adults and youth under age twenty-one entering stores to help raise awareness of underage drinking. With permission from the liquor store owners, youth and adult volunteers enter stores and apply stickers, specifically targeting cases of beer, and all alcohol beverages (excluding single bottles). The sticker must not obstruct the label. The stickers say things like “Hey You! It’s Illegal to Provide Alcohol to Anyone Under 21” and “Buyer Beware Don’t Provide Alcohol for Kids.”

One-on-One Interviews
One-on-One Interviews are an integral element of the CAT project. In a One-on-One Interview, a designated CAT member asks a series of questions to members of the community to get insight into the community at large. The questions are also designed to raise awareness and solicit feedback on project activities.