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Community Action and Alcohol Problems: The Demonstration Project as an Unstable Mixture (From Research, Action, and the Community: Experiences in the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, P 1-25, 1990, Norman Giesbrecht, Peter Conley, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-128273)

NCJ Number
128274
Author(s)
R Room
Date Published
1990
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper focuses on evaluated community action programs to reduce the rate of alcohol problems.
Abstract
Problems of alcohol at the community level differ in some ways from those at the national level. Alcohol-related traffic casualties, crime and family violence are often high on the agenda of community health and social agencies. Minor public disorders are frequently the focus on complaints about drinking-related problems at the local neighborhood level. Community-level actions to reduce alcohol problems have a lengthy history, but it was not until the 1960's that self-conscious ideologies of community organization, action, and development became prominent. Three evaluated community action projects covering the period from 1976 to 1982 are described. World Health Organization study of community response to alcohol-related problems; California prevention demonstration program; and Federal prevention demonstration grants for community action. It is shown that evaluated community action projects involve an inherently unstable mix of several frames of reference and agendas, notably those of community members, change agents, and researchers/evaluators. Bringing an evaluated community action project to fruition, therefore, is difficult and time-consuming, particularly in the field of alcohol problems where strong preferences, moral concerns, and economic interests are at stake. Norms of scholarship and publication need to be shifted so that negative outcome findings are seen as important and interesting as positive findings. 42 references