Youth Involved in Friday Night Live Make Their Community a Better Place

Young people in Friday Night Live (FNL) programs throughout the county recently participated in campaigns to inform youth about the dangers of underage drinking, encourage them to remain alcohol-free, and promote alternatives.  

Through four separate efforts, FNL youth members worked to address the environmental conditions, specifically social norms, that promote underage drinking and youth access to alcohol and sought to build partnerships with their neighbors, peers, and local stakeholders to create positive changes in their community.  

“This is a great opportunity for students to learn more about underage drinking and the dangers, as well as educating others in their school and their community,” said Venecia Montes, youth development coordinator for the San Diego County Office of Education. “This is a valuable experience for students because they get to use their creativity to develop various information materials as well as work in a team. As someone who participated in this opportunity in high school, I learned valuable information about my community I would’ve otherwise not known.”

Youth members from four local youth groups -- Oceanside High School’s Be The Resistance (BTR); Making Changes a STARPAL program, Youth in Action (YAC) from youth groups in Escondido, Fallbrook, and San Marcos;, and Vista High School’s  Spreading Tobacco And Alcohol Awareness Youth Club  (STAAY) -- concluded a year-long campaign to reduce underage drinking by building partnerships with local vendors to reduce youth access to alcohol. 

Students conducted store assessments, provided merchant education on preventative safety measures to restrict access for youth under 21, and informed retailers of the consequences of alcohol sales to minors. Young people in FNL also hosted “Spread the Word” activities to inform potential adult consumers of the legal ramifications of supplying alcohol to minors and initiated a social media campaign to educate and engage fellow teens. The groups also hosted town hall meetings to inform peers, parents, and other community members on how to join the effort to reduce underage drinking. 

The collaboration of local retailers and local teens may seem odd, but it is a partnership that can impact youth health outcomes across San Diego County. While the minimum legal drinking age is 21, present-day social norms and access to alcohol continue to perpetuate the problem of underage drinking, posing a significant risk to San Diego County youth.

"Based on the trends of underage drinking that have continued to grow throughout the years in my job as an officer and an educator, I have witnessed the amount of alcohol being consumed by youth,” said Officer Bermudez, San Diego Police/STAR/PAL Officer. “The Office of Traffic Safety mini grant affords students the opportunity to learn and be aware of the dangers of underage drinking, while learning about real life statistics in their community."

According to the National Institutes of Health, adolescent alcohol use remained steady during the pandemic despite barriers created by the stay-at-home orders and youth not being of age to purchase alcohol legally. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that rates of drinking among high school students have generally been declining in recent decades, but alcohol is still the most used substance among young people and youth access to alcohol remains a serious public health issue.

According to the Office of Traffic Safety, there is a common misconception that all young people are participating in underage drinking. Misleading depictions of youth perpetuate this false narrative in film, television, and social media. Due to the saturation of these images and messages, many young people may feel isolated in their decision not to drink. The behaviors that a group, such as teens, believes to be acceptable are called social norms, and social norms have been proven to influence behavior. Youth in Friday Night Live will launch a multi-media initiative to counter negative stereotypes of youth’s relation to alcohol and promote positive social norms by highlighting the stories of their peers choosing healthy behaviors and remaining alcohol-free.  

Friday Night Live, a California program started in 1984, is a youth development program that promotes healthy lifestyles free of alcohol, tobacco, or other substance use among youth.