Welcome to the Fitchburg Community Action Team! We've been working together over the past months to reinvigorate our mission and better support the Fitchburg Community. Together, we've seen many successes including a large social norm campaign (Life is Full of Shots Worth Taking) which debuted in May and runs through November with billboards (located on Water Street, Fitchburg), Comcast commercials, radio spots on JAMN 94.5 and WAAF, and spots in local movie theatres. Along with our social norm campaign, FCAT has been present at several community events such as the Fitchburg High School Pre-Prom activity. While collaborating with Fitchburg High School, the FCAT and North Central Prevention Consortium were able to prevent any FHS students from being involved in drunk driving during prom and graduation weekends. A great success for the Fitchburg Community!
Activities are ongoing through the year including compliance checks (a mandated activity by the Alcohol and Beverage Control Commission that ensures ID'ing in liquor establishments), Shoulder Taps (a non-punitive survey which helps to educate adults on the dangers of purchasing for underage youth) and Sticker Shocks (a youth led activity which places stickers on large volume cases of alcohol to educate adults and youth alike). FCAT continues to partner with District Attorney Joseph D. Early's office to educate parents, school administrators, and community members regarding Social Host Liability laws, drunk driving laws and underage drinking prevention.
Upcoming events include attending school open houses to provide parents information and a Halloween activity for Fitchburg's youth and families along with ongoing compliance checks, shoulder taps and sticker shocks.
Together, the Fitchburg Community members are supporting our youth. Together, we can reduce underage drinking and make the strongest community possible.
Fitchburg Community Action Team (FCAT)
WHAT IS A CAT? CAT stands for community action team. Together we make up a community and as such have it within our power to create and change our culture as we see fit. As a CAT we can make the positive changes to help out community for the better and make underage drinking history. Our goal is to work with the community to change the perceptions and policies around underage drinking in order to promote responsible choices by youth and adults alike.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Next Meeting
Hello; Just a reminder that our next meeting for the...
Fitchburg Community Action Team (FCAT)
Monthly Meeting will be held at Fitchburg High School
June 14th 2011 3:30- 4:30 PM
If you live, work, worship, study, or play in Fitchburg and would like to help make our community a healthier place for our youth, please join us!
Hope to see you all there!
Fitchburg Community Action Team (FCAT)
Monthly Meeting will be held at Fitchburg High School
June 14th 2011 3:30- 4:30 PM
If you live, work, worship, study, or play in Fitchburg and would like to help make our community a healthier place for our youth, please join us!
Hope to see you all there!
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What is a Community Action Team?
LUK, Inc.’s Community Action Team (CAT) represents an initiative, funded by DPH Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, to help organize and mobilize select communities to reduce rates of underage drinking. CATs utilize a model known as Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA). Local data is used to inform activity selection. CATs look for trends in both school and police data. After identifying local trends, CATs plan activities from a menu of interventions with each option designed to decrease underage access to alcohol or to increase community awareness. Community teams monitor their actions by conducting surveys and/or examining the data for new trends. If/when selected activities don’t contribute to desired changes, CATs may adjust their respective action plans.The CATs employ environmental strategies to prevent underage drinking. Environmental strategies focus on increasing community protective factors while deceasing risk factors that influence underage drinking.
Strategic Prevention Framework
Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a five step process (see below) developed by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to assist communities in building the infrastructure necessary for effective and sustainable prevention of substance use and abuse. Programs currently funded by BSAS in Massachusetts utilize this framework.SPF: The Five Step ProcessStep 1: AssessmentStep 2: Capacity BuildingStep 3: PlanningStep 4: ImplementationStep 5: monitoring and evaluatingKey Principles of the SPF· Follows a Public Health Approach· Focuses on change for entire populations (collections of individuals who have one or more personal or environmental characteristic in common)· Considers an entire range of factors that determine health· Is outcome-based· Follows a strategic planning process· Uses data throughout the process to make informed decisions.
Fitchburg PSA
CATs In Action
While each CAT is unique, they share common approaches, group maintenance functions, and responsibilities to BSAS. Shared group maintenance functions:
Agenda setting
Meeting facilitation
Minute-taking
Common responsibilities to BSAS to a shared set of activities (some examples include, but are not limited to):
Compliance Check
Shoulder Tap
Social Host Liability Training
Sticker Shock
One-on-one Interviews
Compliance Check
A Compliance Check usually involves the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) or the local Police Department. The purpose of the compliance check is to make certain that establishments selling alcohol are checking identification and selling responsibly according to Massachusetts State Law requirements. To complete a compliance check, preplanning is conducted around the partnership between CAT team members and out-of-area youth. The youth enter alcohol vending establishments and attempt to purchase alcohol. If the bar, restaurant or liquor store finalizes the transaction between the vendor and the youth under twenty-one years of age, the youth must walk with the item in hand and give it to the officials waiting outside the establishment. The youth reports the outcome of the transaction to the ABCC/officers and identify the establishment employee who served them. This person is informed by a ABCC/local Police Department representative that they have just committed a crime. A citation is immediately issued to the person and/or the establishment under the name of the license holder.
Shoulder Tap
A Shoulder Tap campaign involves youth (specifically anyone under twenty-one years of age) in association with liquor store owners and the local Police Department.To perform a shoulder tap, the youth position themselves outside the entrance door of a liquor store establishment and ask customers hypothetically: “We are under the age of twenty-one and cannot buy alcohol ourselves. If we were to ask you to buy us alcohol would you?” Depending on the answer from the customer the youth themselves would issue the person either a “YES” card or a “NO” card, along with a short verbal explanation about why purchasing alcohol for youth is wrong and against Massachusetts State Law
Social Host Liability Training
Social Host Liability Training is an activity usually accomplished in cooperation with the District Attorney or the local Police Department. The training includes reviewing the laws and regulations of regarding serving alcohol to minors on personal property and the liability that comes from alcohol being served on one’s own property without owner awareness. The District Attorney/local Police Department reviews the consequences of the Social Host Liability Laws.
Sticker Shock
A Sticker Shock campaign is an activity that involves adults and youth under age twenty-one entering stores to help raise awareness of underage drinking. With permission from the liquor store owners, youth and adult volunteers enter stores and apply stickers, specifically targeting cases of beer, and all alcohol beverages (excluding single bottles). The sticker must not obstruct the label. The stickers say things like “Hey You! It’s Illegal to Provide Alcohol to Anyone Under 21” and “Buyer Beware Don’t Provide Alcohol for Kids.”
One-on-One Interviews
One-on-One Interviews are an integral element of the CAT project. In a One-on-One Interview, a designated CAT member asks a series of questions to members of the community to get insight into the community at large. The questions are also designed to raise awareness and solicit feedback on project activities.
Agenda setting
Meeting facilitation
Minute-taking
Common responsibilities to BSAS to a shared set of activities (some examples include, but are not limited to):
Compliance Check
Shoulder Tap
Social Host Liability Training
Sticker Shock
One-on-one Interviews
Compliance Check
A Compliance Check usually involves the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) or the local Police Department. The purpose of the compliance check is to make certain that establishments selling alcohol are checking identification and selling responsibly according to Massachusetts State Law requirements. To complete a compliance check, preplanning is conducted around the partnership between CAT team members and out-of-area youth. The youth enter alcohol vending establishments and attempt to purchase alcohol. If the bar, restaurant or liquor store finalizes the transaction between the vendor and the youth under twenty-one years of age, the youth must walk with the item in hand and give it to the officials waiting outside the establishment. The youth reports the outcome of the transaction to the ABCC/officers and identify the establishment employee who served them. This person is informed by a ABCC/local Police Department representative that they have just committed a crime. A citation is immediately issued to the person and/or the establishment under the name of the license holder.
Shoulder Tap
A Shoulder Tap campaign involves youth (specifically anyone under twenty-one years of age) in association with liquor store owners and the local Police Department.To perform a shoulder tap, the youth position themselves outside the entrance door of a liquor store establishment and ask customers hypothetically: “We are under the age of twenty-one and cannot buy alcohol ourselves. If we were to ask you to buy us alcohol would you?” Depending on the answer from the customer the youth themselves would issue the person either a “YES” card or a “NO” card, along with a short verbal explanation about why purchasing alcohol for youth is wrong and against Massachusetts State Law
Social Host Liability Training
Social Host Liability Training is an activity usually accomplished in cooperation with the District Attorney or the local Police Department. The training includes reviewing the laws and regulations of regarding serving alcohol to minors on personal property and the liability that comes from alcohol being served on one’s own property without owner awareness. The District Attorney/local Police Department reviews the consequences of the Social Host Liability Laws.
Sticker Shock
A Sticker Shock campaign is an activity that involves adults and youth under age twenty-one entering stores to help raise awareness of underage drinking. With permission from the liquor store owners, youth and adult volunteers enter stores and apply stickers, specifically targeting cases of beer, and all alcohol beverages (excluding single bottles). The sticker must not obstruct the label. The stickers say things like “Hey You! It’s Illegal to Provide Alcohol to Anyone Under 21” and “Buyer Beware Don’t Provide Alcohol for Kids.”
One-on-One Interviews
One-on-One Interviews are an integral element of the CAT project. In a One-on-One Interview, a designated CAT member asks a series of questions to members of the community to get insight into the community at large. The questions are also designed to raise awareness and solicit feedback on project activities.