For more information, visit: www.durhamtry.org www.youthempoweredsolutions.org
By Cliff Bellamy
cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744
DURHAM -- A group of students in grades 8-10 spent most of their Saturday learning some basic information about alcohol, and how to become advocates against underage drinking. While adults organized the sessions, held at Holton Career and Resource Center, the students did not just sit and take in information: They helped lead the sessions along with the adults.
Shevanique Winston, 16, and DaMar Hodge, 14, both of Raleigh, were among the students who helped teach the sessions. Winston told her peers to take the information they were learning and "create a ripple effect" by taking it back to their schools and communities. She and Hodge were among about 13 students who were recruited for "Advocacy 101," put on by the nonprofit Durham Together for Resilient Youth (Durham TRY).
Having students advocate to their peers is crucial to combating underage drinking, said Wanda Boone, one of the founders of Durham TRY. "They can go back to their peers, their parents, their communities and speak intelligently on the issue," Boone said. Children also "receive the message better" when they hear it from their peers, she added.
Aidil Collins, program coordinator for Raleigh-based Youth Empowered Solutions, who recruited the students for Saturday's training sessions, said students "make very credible and relevant spokespeople for this issue." That organization teaches students how to keep their peers from drinking.
Collins taught a class in alcohol and its effect on the developing brain. She stressed the need for the students to be "so, so careful" about knowing which organizations are credible sources of alcohol information, and Collins told the students about some of the agencies that are considered reliable.
The students also learned about North Carolina alcohol policy, and how to advocate for stronger laws. A lot of the discussion focused on getting the state Legislature to enact a substantial increase in the tax on beer and malt beverages.
In a brief interview, Boone cited some recent statistics that illustrate the problem of underage drinking. A recent Durham Public Schools survey found that about 29 percent of respondents had consumed alcohol in the last 30 days, and that about 24 percent had been in a car with someone who had been drinking. "The perception of risk [from alcohol] appears to be very low in Durham," she said.
Saturday's session was the first of four seminars planned this year, all of which will focus on alcohol.
