Too Smart To Start

Strategy Brief

The SAGA Coalition is pleased to partner with the Coalition For A Drug Free Greater Cincinnati to bring the Too Smart To Start program to the Greater Anderson Community. Too Smart to Start is a national public education initiative that provides professionals and community volunteers with materials and strategies to help them conduct an underage alcohol use prevention initiative.

The target audiences for this initiative are 9-to-13-year olds and their parents/caregivers. The campaign's goals are the following:

1. To increase the number of conversations that parents/caregivers and their 9-to-13-year olds have about the harms of underage alcohol use
2. To increase the percentage of 9-to-13-year olds and their parents/caregivers who see underage alcohol use as harmful 
3. To increase public disapproval of underage alcohol  use

Same as the Parents Who Host Page, these should be the topic buttons to the right:
Why is underage alcohol use prevention important?

• Alcohol is the number one drug-of-choice for seventh through twelfth grade students in the Greater Anderson Community. (2006 Student Drug Use Survey)
• The average age for first use of any alcohol is 12 years old. (2006 Student Drug Use Survey)                     
• Of people who begin drinking before age 14, 47 percent become dependent at some point, compared with 9 percent of those who begin drinking at age 21.
• The human brain develops through age 20 and damage from alcohol on the developing brain can be long-term and irreversible.
• Alcohol impacts brain function and behavior differently during adolescence than during adulthood.
• Specialized brain imaging studies have shown that teens and young adults, who drank heavily over long periods of time, showed shrinkage of an area of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning.
• In America , approximately six teenagers die daily form non-driving alcohol-related causes, including falls, suicide, drowning and homicide.
• Of youth (aged 15-20) involved in fatal traffic crashes in 2000, 30.1% died in crashes with alcohol-impaired drivers.
• High alcohol consumption during adolescence is associated with lower GPS's, lower academic achievement and lower wage potential.

Tips for Parents

Tips for parents taken from “What Should I Tell My Child About Drinking?” – created by NCADD (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence). To obtain the complete pamphlet visit NCADD online at www.ncadd.org

• As the parent of a pre-teen, you have a special opportunity. Your child is in the “in-between” age – old enough to understand many adult subjects, but still young enough to accept your guidance. This is a time when you can openly discuss the dangers of drinking with your child and prepare him or her to resist the pressure to drink that will come in the near future – if they are not being pressured already.
• Sometime, just listening to your child shows more concern than trying to give too much advice, being critical or treating the issue too lightly.

•  Provide your kids with a age appropriate, factual information about alcohol.
•  Discuss with them how drinking:
•  Interferes with their brain development
•  Can interfere with getting good grades in school
•  Can negatively affect athletic performance •  Can cause accidents when driving, bicycling, swimming
•  Can increase violent behavior
•  Can intensify feelings of loneliness and isolation

• Be a good role model

•  Remember that your how drinking behavior heavily influences how well your child will observe the house hold rules you establish.
•  It's ok to drink in front of your child, but be aware that your child will observe how and when you drink.
•  Always provide nonalcoholic drinks at parties in your home for guests who prefer them.
•  Never ask your children to get you a beer or to serve alcoholic beverages to guests.
•  Show that drinking is not the focus of activity.
•  Discourage drunken behavior by anyone in your home.
•  Make sure that alcohol-impaired guests in your home don't drive themselves home.

Health effects of underage drinking

Copy page from Parents Who Host


Host a Too Smart To Start Presentation

To host a Too Smart To Start presentation for parents in your home, school, church, business or neighborhood, call the SAGA Coalition at 513-233-9004.