Local Groups Urge Underage Youth To Avoid Alcohol

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, yet the Awareness needs to continue every day.This is the time of year when the weather gets warmer, proms are scheduled and people are out socializing and enjoying each other's company after a long winter.

Social times often involve consumption of alcohol and for people over the age of 21, the message is clear: 'Moderation' and 'don't drink and drive'. For people under age 21, the message is clear: 'Don't drink'. What lies in between those messages are personal points of view, personal choices about whether or not to obey the law or qualifying circumstances about the law.

Shaping Summit Together, a 501c3 which in 2007 merged with Summit's Municipal Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse, seeks to raise awareness among all Summit stakeholders to please help our youth understand why it is important that they abstain from substances at a tender young age when their brains are still forming, their biochemistry is changing and their social behaviors are not fully mature. The cause and effect of split second decisions can have serious ramifications and these effects are not immediately considered at the time of the decision to drink or take drugs.

We all want to see our youth lead healthy and happy lifestyles. We all want them to be socially adjusted and safely situated. The messages are clear, but the perspectives are complicated. To bring more light to the varying perspectives, Shaping Summit Together launched the first premiere of Summit's "The View", produced and directed by Lisa Reznik and produced and hosted by Marianne DeSantis. The project was funded by The Summit Area Public Foundation and can be viewed on demand at HTTV http://www.hometownetv.org/. Watch it alone or with your kids and have a family dialogue about it.

Conversation is the first step towards insight and you might find out that it becomes easier to make healthy decisions and to find people who would make the same healthy decisions when the topic is discussed more openly.
Make April and every day safe for all youth and families! For more information, please visit www.shapingsummittogether.org

Editor's note: This press release was submitted by Shaping Summit Together and the Sumit Municipal Alliance.