A coalition of Mankato community leaders have pulled together a plan to deal with the growing problem of high risk drinking. Now the rest of the community should get behind the plan and make it happen.
The plan stems from ideas gathered at Mankato’s High Risk Drinking Summit that took place earlier this year. That community meeting was prompted by the high-profile deaths of Minnesota State University students that involved alcohol. That summit gathered input from not only community leaders, but the young people themselves, who face the biggest dangers of high risk drinking. The involvement of young people was key to the High Risk Drinking Coalition’s recommendations.
Solving the problem of high risk drinking is more urgent than ever. After the drinking summit, there was at least one more high-risk drinking death in the Mankato community — a sophomore at West High School. Reports from around the state and country show high risk drinking is a growing and deadly problem.
The Mankato group publicized its recommendations this week, and the plan calls for a wide variety of actions from educating adults and young people about the dangers of excessive drinking to more practical things like creating late night activities that don’t center around drinking.
The group is hoping to build a coalition, for example, of professionals, teachers and average young people and average citizens in order to create campaigns that will relate to the average young person. The group seems to understand there will be little success in campaigns that preach.
The coalition has six stated goals that include message and marketing, education of young adults and youth, education of adults, coalition building, law enforcement, legislation, transportation and alternative activities.
The alternative activities goal may be one that can be accomplished most quickly and without a lot of extra money. The plan calls for surveying students to find out what kind of late night activities they are drawn to and then figure out if there are some that currently exist or how to create new activities.
Creating alternative activities was a key for Mankato Public Safety Director Jerry Huettl who noted that young people pointed out the Sibley Park sliding hill closed at 10 p.m. Certainly, that can be rectified without much cost. The cities of Mankato and North Mankato may have other amenities that can be used after traditional hours as well.
Plans to increase marketing and messaging that combats high risk drinking behavior can happen with a little energy put into them from organizations in health care, media and other businesses that already have marketing resources available to them.
Minnesota State University, South Central College, Bethany and Mankato Area Public Schools also have a role to play. The coalition calls for student forums related to high risk drinking, and making sure education professionals in the schools have access to accurate and pertinent information on high risk drinking.
Another good idea involves getting “help cards” in the hands of those at risk of excessive drinking, similar to “yellow cards” that help those coping with thoughts of suicide. These cards provide resources for help.
While the High Risk Drinking Coalition will need to seek funding, and has already secured a $20,000 grant, many of its ideas can be implemented with community resources already in place.
More money will be needed, but energy of community members and organizations will be the key to solving this serious community problem.
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