LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Council unanimously approved Wednesday a grant application and gave their permission to the Anti-Drug office to spend an award of up to $1.5 million for the prevention of underage drinking under the state’s Strategic Prevention
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i County Council unanimously approved Wednesday a grant application and gave their permission to the Anti-Drug office to spend an award of up to $1.5 million for the prevention of underage drinking under the state’s Strategic Prevention Framework — State Incentive Grant, a county press release states.
The SPF-SIG program is administered through the state Department of Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division.
The County is a sub-recipient of the SPF-SIG project under the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
Award announcement is expected in January. Once the money is awarded, funding for evidence-based program providers aimed at underage drinking prevention on Kaua’i will be coordinated through the Anti-Drug Program office. A request for proposals will be sent out early next year.
“We entered this prevention venture a long time ago,” Anti-Drug Coordinator Theresa Koki said in the release. “This will help our need to ‘move the needle’ as a statewide focus for children in terms of alcohol.”
According to Amanda C. Gregg, the county’s SPF-SIG project specialist, Kaua‘i has the highest amount of alcohol-dependent and alcohol-abusing eighth graders in the state.
“The youngest average age of first-use of alcohol by Kaua’i males is 11,” Gregg noted in the release, adding that sixth graders on Kaua‘i report that they find it twice as easy to access alcohol compared to their counterparts around the state.
The county is working to execute a data-driven plan that utilizes evidence-based practices and programs to attain the Hawai‘i SPF-SIG goal of reducing and preventing underage alcohol consumption for youth ages 12 to 17.
The Kaua‘i plan is being developed under the guidance of a Community Advisory Council comprised of stakeholders from relevant community agencies that will direct and oversee the implementation of the Underage Drinking Prevention Plan.
