Social Host: “The Little Coalition That Could…”

1. Social Host: “The Little Coalition That Could…” One Community’s Success Story

2. What Is Social Host • Social Host refers to adults who knowingly or unknowingly host underage drinking parties on property that they own, lease or otherwise control. Through social host liability laws, adults can be held responsible for these parties, regardless of who furnishes the alcohol. (www.madd.org)

3. Who Is A Social Host? • Parent • Student • Landlord • Neighbor

4. Why Enact Social Host Policy ?

5. Why Enact Social Host Laws? • Teen parties are the primary setting for underage drinking for school and college students. (www.madd.org) • Challenge existing community social norms surrounding underage drinking. • Provides law enforcement with a tangible tool they can utilize to reduce high risk environments where underage binge drinking is occurring.

6. Benefits of a Social Host Ordinance • Social host ordinances support parental expectation for their children as well as school policies, and they provide young people with social support to abstain from alcohol. • Social host ordinances hold a person (of any age depending on how the ordinance is written) who allows underage drinking to be held criminally liable. • In most states currently, without a social host ordinance cannot do much more about underage drinking parties than disperse them. This is not and effective enforcement tool to address potentially lethal environments for our youth.

9. Urban population: 3,317Rural population: 4,748 Population: 8, 065 Demographics of Cazenovia Estimated median household income in 2008: $70,348 First ancestries reported:  Irish: 1252  German: 1124  English: 1094  Italian: 518  United States or American: 323  Polish: 282  Other groups: 270  Scotch-Irish: 252

10. “The Perfect Storm”

11. What Was She Thinking? • The drink orders were placed early in the week for Saturday night's party at the LoBrutto house on Rippleton Road. For malt-based alcoholic beverages like Smirnoff Ice, the teens paid $15 a head, while beer drinkers paid $5 to $10 each.

12. Monday, January 08, 2007 • The festivities began Dec. 9, rum, vodka and beer were flowing, according to statements the teens later gave to state police investigators. • By 3 a.m., teenagers were staggering around drunk, vomiting and passing out, according to the statements filed in Cazenovia Town Court. • Sworn statements from 23 high school students who were at the party, paint a frightening picture of teenagers bingeing on alcohol that they say was purchased by their friend's mother, who partied with them.

13. Updated 04/01/2008 Cazenovia holding town meetings to fight underage drinking

14. Tragedy Hits Close To HomeApril 28, 2008

15. Some University Presidents Shirk Responsibility to Protect Students from Dangers of Underage Drinking What are the college presidents doing? As of April 2008, 129 college presidents had signed onto the Amethyst Initiative, calling for a national discussion on lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. Those from Central New York include: Cazenovia College Colgate University Hamilton College Syracuse University

16. What Does The Statement Say? "Twenty-one is not working. A culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge-drinking' -- often conducted off-campus -- has developed. ... Adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military, but are told they are not mature enough to have a beer.“ August 2008

17. Cazenovia group 'Caz Action' targets underage drinkingSeptember 14, 2009 Law enforcement officials and concerned parents met in Cazenovia last week to learn more about communities that have implemented social host laws to curb underage drinking. Cazenovia Police Chief David Amico said a social host law could be "another great tool in our arsenal against underage drinkingif the school district and parents were on board and the law was tailored to the community.”

19. Cazenovia considers law to crack down on hosts of underage drinking parties “If you can reduce drinking, other negative social behaviors could be reined in as well,” said Kurt Wheeler, a social studies teacher at Cazenovia High School who also serves on the village board. “Inaction is not an option.”Wheeler said the proposed legislation will be good fodder for public discourse.“People are going to talk about things they’ve never talked about before,” he said. “It will be on the table. We want to design a law that’s good for our kids and good for our community.” “We can choose to do something about it, or we can choose to ignore it and brace for the next thing that’s going to rock our community,” said high school principal Eric Schnabl. By Alaina Potrikus / The Post-Standard October 31, 2009 “

20. The Social Host Players

21. LET THE BLOGS BEGIN Kids in college are going to drink. Whenever the government realizes that it is a futile, fruitless, stupid, and wasteful effort to stop it, everything will be much better. The best thing to do is to lower the drinking age and allow college age people to drink in public. When 18-20 year olds can drink in public, there are many more people out there to watch over them. The only reason that this pretentious community wants this law is because they want to keep a phony candy-land image to their tourists.

22. Desperate Housewife? ...sounds like Cazenovia’s desperate housewife wannabes have too much time on their hands again and need to save caz from turning into the rest of the county. Perhaps if the parents in that town didn't act like kids then maybe......

23. Wisteria Lane Park Street FANTASY My House: Reality

24. The Resistance I am against it unless the law includes a parental supervision clause.  Parents need to be held accountable as parents. Parents who just drop their kids off for a party are far more guilty of child abuse than  any so called social host, whatever that is. This whole idea is nonsense.  What I am seeing are some frustrated local grandstanders using kids as a way to better their own agendas. 

25. Liz Moran Cazenovia Town Supervisor Mrs. Clarke presented to the Town Board last night,she emphasised the need to adopt this local law for the safety of our children. While I agree that the entire community must work to re-define the social norm that makes underage drinking acceptable, I do not personally think that legislative action is the correct path. Since this was my final meeting as Town Supervisor, it will remain just a personal opinion. I have found Jims (Jim Jurista founder of Caz Pilot blog site) reasoning very persuasive.

26. Wow, this is nothing but a feel good photo op. Say your law was effective (which it won't be), kids are going to drink, it really is a given, now your pushing them out of Caz making sure they drive to the next party. Doesn't anyone pay attention? Trying to curb underage drinking, especially through scare tactics and threats of punishment don't work. Perhaps all this time could be spent of a mandatory alcohol and drug seminar(s) for the youth, and a little more tolerance- allowing the adults to have some small amount of control on something they can't stop

27. Article: CAZENOVIA TO CONSIDER SOCIAL HOST LAW; IT HOLDS PROPERTY OWNERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR UNDERAGE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION.(Local) Cazenovia village leaders draft area's first social host law to fight underage drinking By AlainaPotrikus / The Post-Standard December 13, 2009 Cazenovia Village Board split on underage drinking lawDoug Campbell 02/09/10 Public hearing in Cazenovia on social host law to combat underage drinking draws crowd By AlainaPotrikus / The Post-Standard February 01, 2010 Cazenovia group 'Caz Action' targets underage drinking By George Owens / The Post-Standard September 14, 2009 Cazenovia considers law to crack down on hosts of underage drinking parties By AlainaPotrikus / The Post-Standard October 31, 2009

31. Key Learning Points • Engage Local Law Enforcement

32. Key Learning Points contd. • Know your community • Who are your key leaders? • District Attorney • Local Magistrates • School Officials • Faith Based Community • Parents • Youth • Local Politicians • MEDIA • Other Local Coalition Leaders

33. Collect Data • Data will help you present your case • Data provides evidence that social host will benefit your community • Utilize local data such as: • Focus Groups • Student Surveys • Adult Surveys • Law Enforcement Data • Medical Center Data

34. Necessary Conditions What You Must Have! • Individuals willing to speak publicly about the ordinance • Connections to decision makers and willingness to use their relationships • Support from key local organizations • INDIVIDUALS WILLING TO PUBLICLY CONFRONT COMMUNITY DENIAL (Michael Sparks CADCA Mid-Year training 2009)

35. What To Expect? • Policy work is very difficult and can be extremely demanding on your volunteers • Assess your coalition and be sure it is stable and secure enough to follow the process through to the end • Even if the ordinance does not pass you will still have created dialogue about underage drinking in your community which is a victory in and of itself!

36. Remember your voice matters Relationships Matter: Everything else is secondary Make personal connections Build long-term relationships Be a resource Be understanding and respectful Don’t burn bridges Integrity is the key Always say thank you, thank you, thank you! You Are An Advocate!

38. “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risk and cost of comfortable inaction." John F. Kennedy

39. Resources on Social Host • SocialHost.orgInformation and resources from the San Diego County Alcohol Policy Panel • www.madd.org • www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.gov • www.socialhostliability.org • Up streaming Alcohol Policy www.alcoholpolicy.org

40. Contact Information Melissa Clarke Community Organization Specialist CAZ ACTION mclarke@bridges-mccasa.org 315- 697-3947 Robert S. Pezzolesi, MPH New York Center for Alcohol Policy Solutions http://alcoholpolicy.org 677 S. Salina St. Syracuse, NY 13202 315-263-9522 Judi Vining Coalition Coordinator Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking at Long Beach Medical jvining@lbmc.org 516-897-1250