The Bernards Township Municipal Alliance and Health Department just wrapped up Neighborhood Coffees 2011! This national award winning program was held March 21st through April 1st. You can also read more about Neighborhood Coffees on Basking Ridge Patch!

To continue this discussion, please join us in the fall for Dialogue Nights. More information to follow!

"A child who reaches age 21 without smoking, abusing alcohol or using drugs, is virtually certain never to do so."

-Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman and President of the National Center on Addiction & Substance Abuse at Columbia University

Why the Bernards Township Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse is developing a campaign called “It’s 21 for a Reason”

Our mission is focused on education and prevention and reaching teenagers is imperative to our mission. By delaying the age that a child under 21 takes their first drink, we can reduce the chances that a person will suffer from alcohol problems and the better the rest of their lives will be.

Here are a few facts that support our campaign:

• 45% of people who begin drinking by age 14 develop alcohol dependence at some point in their lives, compared to 10% of those who begin drinking at 21* 

• Young people who start drinking by age 15 are five times more likely to experience alcohol-related problems in their lives compared to those who begin at 21*

• Half of our 10th graders who have started drinking will become addicted or dependent on alcohol in their lives.

 *The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey 2006.

 

 

                                                 

Click here to view “It’s 21 for a Reason” PowerPoint

Click here to watch our Social Host video shown at Neighborhood Coffees, created by RHS student Derek Vogt.

Click here for our Know The Law Fact Card.

Click here for our Parent-Teen Guidelines for Parties and Social Events.