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Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free

Introduction
The Governors' spouses initiative, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, was established to make childhood drinking prevention a national health priority. A unique coalition of Governors' spouses, Federal agencies, and public and private organizations, the Leadership is the only national effort that specifically targets prevention of drinking in the 9 to 15-year old age group.

Alcohol use by 9 to 15-year olds is an overlooked but very serious problem in the United States. Despite its known health and economic consequences, underage drinking is generally viewed as a normal part of growing up. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware both of the potentially harmful outcomes of early alcohol use and of the large numbers of underage drinkers, especially younger ones.

The data on the onset of alcohol use at very young ages are compelling and demonstrate the need for a prevention campaign.
Research is beginning to reveal that early alcohol use can have serious adverse consequences for mental, physical, and social development that may persist into adulthood. For example, research shows that 40 percent of individuals who begin drinking alcohol before age 13 will manifest alcohol abuse or dependence at some point in their lives. The most recent studies indicate that alcohol may actually impair cognitive functioning in young users, causing them to remember 10 percent less of what they learn than their nondrinking peers. Early alcohol use is often associated with poor school performance, depression, and suicide; criminal and violent behavior; and risk-taking that can lead to injuries and death as well as early sexual activity, with exposure to sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned teen pregnancies.

Launch of the Leadership
In response to this national public health threat, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free was launched in the spring of 1999 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in partnership with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), to bring the scope and dangers of early alcohol use to the public's attention and to mobilize National, State, and local action to prevent it. This multiyear, multimillion-dollar initiative provides support to participating Governors' spouses, who convey the initiative's messages within their States and nationally through State policy briefings, outreach to and through the media, broad distribution of educational materials and public service announcements, and personal appearances.

Leadership's Governors' spouses are also prosecutors, judges, educators, business leaders, substance abuse prevention specialists, and parents. The Leadership initiative provides them with a source of information to use as they reach out to these audiences: through the Leadership Web site and through a set of informative materials including the statistical brochure, How Does Alcohol Affect the World of a Child? and the prevention brochure, Keep Kids Alcohol Free: Strategies for Action.

Goals of the Leadership
The Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free strives to prevent early use of alcohol by children. The four goals of the Leadership initiative are:
The Governors' spouses signed a pledge to promote the initiative goals, at the public launching of the Leadership in March 2000. The signing ceremony was held during the March 2000 First National Conference, in Washington DC.

Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free
7500 Old Georgetown Road
9th Floor
Bethesda, MD 20814
http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org