OJJDP moved forward quickly to administer the Combating Underage Drinking (CUD) program, a new multifaceted program created by Congress. OJJDP's FY 1998 appropriation for this program included funding for block grants to each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia, discretionary programs, and training and technical assistance. The CUD block grants program is discussed in chapter 5; discretionary and training and technical assistance activities are highlighted here.
OJJDP awarded 10 States and Puerto Rico discretionary CUD funds in FY 1998 to help communities develop comprehensive approaches to the problem of underage drinking, with an emphasis on increasing law enforcement activity. California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin each received up to $400,000 to address underage drinking at the local level. The communities include urban, suburban, and rural areas; colleges; and Hispanic and Asian populations. The States are implementing strategic plans based on community needs assessments, increasing enforcement of underage drinking laws, developing youth leadership and involvement in prevention and public awareness efforts, and hiring project coordinators for communitywide task forces. Puerto Rico received $25,000 to develop a pilot program with similar objectives.
OJJDP awarded a discretionary grant to Students Against Destructive Decisions, Marlboro, MA, to develop a youth-adult partnership to work with alcohol distributors and law enforcement officials and to implement the Not on Your Life program in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, and New York. This program seeks to ensure compliance with State underage drinking laws. Native American Connections, Inc., of Phoenix, AZ, received $400,000 to develop and demonstrate a model program on four tribal reservations to curtail the illegal sale of alcohol to American Indian youth and develop youth leadership in combating alcohol abuse by American Indian youth. An advisory committee of American Indians is assisting with the selection process for the four initial sites. OJJDP also will award funds to additional sites in the future.
Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, received a grant to evaluate how States and local communities are using their block and discretionary grants and to evaluate the impact of the program's first 2 years in a sample of communities.
OJJDP awarded four grants to support training and technical assistance for combating underage drinking in FY 1998. The National Association of Governors' Highway Safety Representatives of Washington, DC, is helping to prepare States to implement underage drinking prevention initiatives. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) of Bethesda, MD, is helping program grantees focus their efforts on prevention, intervention, and enforcement issues related to retail and social availability of alcohol to minors, possession of alcohol by minors, and drinking and driving by minors. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) of Irving, TX, received a grant to introduce youth leadership and program participation models to States and local communities. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) of Washington, DC, is identifying state-of-the-art law enforcement techniques related to underage drinking and is producing underage drinking enforcement resource materials for police executives.
To further help States combat underage drinking and enforce underage drinking laws, OJJDP developed and distributed Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program: A Compendium of Resources. The Compendium includes information about the prevalence of and trends in underage drinking and its relationship to driving fatalities; contact information for Federal, State, and local agencies and national and private organizations; descriptions of initiatives, programs, strategies, and materials that address underage drinking; and an annotated bibliography. The Compendium is available online from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (see "How To Access Information From JJC").
| Previous | Contents | Next |
 | ||
| OJJDP Annual Report 1998 | October 1999 | |