24th August 2007, 07/283
Glass has been filled again for tackling alcohol
issues
£20,000 has been poured into new measures to slash the number of
young people binge drinking.
West Lancashire Community Safety Partnership (of which the District
Council is the lead agency) has given more funding to Lancashire
County Council's Youth and Community Service for them to carry on
delivering a number of initiatives to warn teenagers about the
dangers of drinking.
The idea behind the project is to reduce alcohol-related incidents,
target underage drinking and to highlight the health risks.
This initiative was first launched last year with a major alcohol
awareness campaign. It was so successful that the WLCSP has given
the project another cash injection so that this good work can
continue until March 2008.
Cllr David Westley, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, said:
"We first provided funding last year to target the 11 plus age
group in order to help them make informed choices later in life
about alcohol because it is important to educate them from an early
age. This campaign was so successful that we have decided to give
them additional funding to continue the good work because alcohol
can be a major cause of anti social behaviour, criminal damage,
violent crime and many other offences that we are trying to
tackle."
The WLCSP first gave the alcohol project funding last year which
was used for a number of initiatives including: organising
'non-alcoholic' social events, an Alcohol Youth Conference for Year
9 pupils, a questionnaire on drinking habits, producing packs on
safer drinking, and working closely with other agencies to
establish good practices and reduce alcohol related crime.
With this latest cash injection the money is to be used to produce
a DVD as an awareness resource for schools; educate parents about
alcohol so that they can pass this onto their siblings; organise a
number of non-alcohol events to show that you can socialise without
drinking on a night out; target new college students about sensible
drinking; and encourage agencies to work together and bridge any
gaps in current services.
Chris Ingham of Lancashire County Council's Youth and Community
Service, said: "This latest project that the WLCSP is supporting
complements other work that the Council has been involved in around
alcohol awareness, such as Age Check, launching a new comic for
teenagers and supporting the Best Bar None Awards Scheme."
Bill Taylor, Chairman of the WLCSP, said: "Tackling alcohol related
problems are a big priority for us and I applaud the work that is
being done across the district. Underage and binge drinking can
have a negative impact on our society and we want to do all that we
can to nip it in the bud. I'm confident that this latest project
will help in our fight against this common problem of underage and
binge drinking."
For more information about the work of the WLCDRP, visit the
Community
Safety section.
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