Clare, MI - On March 5 and 6, 2008, over 350 youth groups representing 49 states, will take part in local Community Briefings as part of the national Take It Back youth movement. The Community Briefings are being held across the country and we encourage all concerned citizens to attend and learn more about alcohol issues that impact their community.

Take it Back is a national, youth-directed movement to reduce alcohol problems, driven by facts like these:

• 8 million adolescents from ages 12 to 17 drank alcohol in the past year.¹
• Adolescents who used alcohol drank an average of 4.6 drinks per day.¹
• Each day, more than 5,400 kids in the United States under age 16 take their first drink.²
• More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 to 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.³

Alcohol is the single most important health issue facing young people today. At the briefings, youth will present data they collected in their own community and present it to local audiences. They will also identify key issues they will be working on in the future based on the research they found.

Penny Norton, Director of FACE – Resources, Training & Action on Alcohol Issues states, "Never before have youth been empowered on a national level to voice their concerns about an issue that affects them in so many devastating ways. FACE is proud to sponsor these youth groups who are unafraid to tell the truth about what is going on in their communities regarding the use and misuse of alcohol."

Take It Back Community Briefings are co-sponsored by SADD National. For additional information, please contact Heather Fisher, FACE – Resources, Training & Action on Alcohol Issues at 1-888-822-3223 or at hfisher@faceproject.org.

Go online to learn more about the Community Briefings or Take It Back.

References:
¹ 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health 
² 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health 
³ Hingson et. al., 2005