By Theresa Hegel
It’s not often that rural Upper Bucks is recognized nationally.
But that’s what happened when the U.S. government featured a local youth development group for its efforts to curb teen drinking and drug use.
“It’s huge,” said Lee Rush, an official with the Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Coalition.
Ken Shapiro, a representative from the White House’s National Drug Control Policy
who administers grant money, called the group’s effort “one of the most successful” in the country.
About 100 people — including school administrators, high school students and area police officers — were on hand Tuesday morning at the Michener Library in Quakertown to learn about the youth coalition’s anti-drinking efforts and to hear results of a survey taken by 3,000 students in Upper Bucks this academic year.
The foundation of the coalition’s campaign, gleaned from those results, is that two-thirds of Upper Bucks students don’t drink.
Hannah McWilliams, a Pennridge senior involved in making other adolescents aware of that statistic, said the campaign had a good message.
“When you drink, it can ruin your life,” she said. “I’ve seen so many of my friends waste their potential by partying.”
By working with the coalition, McWilliams hopes to reverse that trend.
In some ways, she and the dozens of other Upper Bucks teens involved have been successful.
The coalition surveyed students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades in the Quakertown, Palisades and Pennridge school districts, asking them about their alcohol, drug and tobacco use.
Since testing began in 2002, the percent of 10th-graders who drank alcohol in the previous month dropped from 43 percent to 29 percent — a 33 percent reduction. The number of eighth-graders who had consumed alcohol also dropped about 28 percent — to 13 percent — in that time.
However, the number of seniors who drank in the last 30 days has remained higher than 50 percent. The percentage that drank even increased slightly — to 54 percent — in 2007-08. That’s about 18 percent higher than the national average.
Rush said it’s hard to change behaviors once students reach 12th grade.
“They’ve already made some decisions,” he said.
Some students have been drinking for almost five years by then. According to statistics provided by the Upper Bucks coalition, the average age young people have their first taste of alcohol is about 13.
Ray Fox, head of the Quakertown branch of the youth coalition, said changing teens’ — and even parents’ — perception about alcohol is the key to reducing teen drinking.
He and other officials help high school students organize anti-drinking campaigns using marketing strategies.
Another important factor is getting the community involved, through town hall-style meetings like Tuesday’s library gathering.
According to Rush, the coalition’s efforts are not about merely discouraging teens from engaging in risky behaviors.
“We want to change the environment kids grow up in,” he said.
Theresa Hegel can be reached at (215) 538-6381 or thegel@phillyburbs.com.
This article originally appeared in The Intelligencer and was reproduced with permission from the author.
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