While the Big Bowl Vote is centered on the |  |
Sport and athletics are a significant part of any community, from gymnastics classes for kids to adult softball leagues. Almost all youth are involved in some sort of athletic activity, even if just gym class at school. And many adults are engaged in athletics or fitness activities: sports leagues, health clubs, or simply ‘walking the mall’ to stay in shape.
The American Athletic Institute (www.americanathleticinstitute.org) has a wealth of information about the impact of alcohol and other drug use on athletic capacity and performance. Yet most youth and adults do not readily recognize this connection, particularly the effects of alcohol consumption. We often discuss with young people the enforcement consequences of alcohol use (e.g. suspension, grounding, legal trouble), but we often neglect to simply discuss the immediate costs to their daily lives, including the deleterious effects on athletic function.
Your community can use this information as a natural evolution to the Big Bowl Vote activity or as a stand-alone strategy. Your target audiences can be anyone involved in any sport or other athletic or fitness activity, including, but not limited to:
▪ Elementary, middle, and high school gym classes ▪ School sport teams ▪ Special sporting event (e.g. marathon) participants |  |
Strategy framework:
1. Information packet: Put together a small packet of information, including Drug Free 24/7 materials, downloaded information from the American Athletic Institute website, and a cover letter asking for participation in your initiative. Customize to fit your community and your strategy
2. Solicit partners: Share the information packet with the governing entities of the ‘athletes’ you hope to reach to partner with you on the initiative. Those may include school administrators and/or physical education teachers, league administrators, coaches, health club managers, and others. Ask them to partner with you on the initiative.
3. Determine media strategy: Facilitate the appropriate media coverage to your initiative, whether a simple press release, advertising, or even a press conference. If possible, identify a relevant honorary spokesperson (e.g. a local athlete of some prominence) to be the figurehead for your initiative.
4. Assess material needs: Will you be utilizing Drug Free 24/7 Pledge Cards? Buttons? Stickers? Determine your material needs, and ask your partners to provide financial support, as well.
5. Provide information to athletes: Circulate age-appropriate information about alcohol and other drugs and athletic performance to your target audiences, along with Drug Free 24/7 materials. Some examples:
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With any written materials developed from the information provided by the American Athletic Institute, ensure that you are providing appropriate attribution and/or citations to both recognize the Institute’s work and to add legitimacy to your efforts.
This framework is simply a suggested approach and can be modified to fit your community’s needs and ideas. Your partners may have innovative ideas on how to implement the strategy, the information, and the Drug Free 24/7 tools with their audiences.
While this strategy is suggested for February and a natural next step to the Big Bowl Vote, it can be implemented or repeated at any time in the year. For example, a school system might integrate the information and the Drug Free 24/7 materials into each new season of organized sport – fall, winter and spring.
The Big Bowl Vote activity helps demonstrate the unfortunate link between alcohol marketing and sport. This strategy helps counter that connection and emphasize a healthier approach to athletic engagement at any level. With repetition and time, a community can change the perceptions of sport and alcohol and other drugs among both youth and adults.
As always, if you have other ideas to communicate the Drug Free 24/7 message within the suggested strategy, contact Drug-Free Action Alliance for assistance in identifying appropriate materials and messaging. Good luck with your efforts!
Another Example:
Observance:
Children of Alcoholics Week
National Association for Children of Alcoholics
Target Population:
Youth, parents and young adults
Social Marketing Strategy:
Work with treatment providers, self-help groups, youth-serving and health organizations
to distribute information on alcoholism risk for children of alcoholics, along with Drug Free 24/7 information.
Other February observances you can use to create a Drug Free 24/7 campaign:
American Heart Month – American Heart Association
National Wise Health Consumer Month
American Institute for Preventive Medicine
National Wear Red Day – National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute Health Information Center
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth
National Black HIV /AIDS Awareness Day
Healthy Black Communities, Inc.
