a youth-led "meeting of the minds" on the issue of underage drinking and driving

1. a youth-led "meeting of the minds" on the issue of underage drinking and driving

2. Make it your own! • This PowerPoint is meant to be customizable to fit your needs. • Please feel free to add your own information that relates to your local community and the audience you’ll have at your Reality Check. • You may want to add information provided by your panelists, local law enforcement, or other sources. • Make this PowerPoint your own!

3. WELCOME! • Welcome to the [name of community] Reality Check! • [Include logos of the program, NOYS, and the local organization.] • [Include date and time.]

4. WHAT’S A REALITY CHECK? • Think about a Reality Check as a youth-led "meeting of the minds" where people: • get together, face reality, ask the hard questions, talk openly about the problems of underage drinking and driving, learn from each other, commit to making a change, and then help others make changes, too. • The entire focus of a Reality Check is one thing: Educating parents and teens about the dangers of underage drinking and driving — what is really happening in OUR community — so we can work together to stop it. • They’re a time to get a true Reality Check!

5. The goals • To gather the community around the issue of underage drinking and driving. • To spread awarenessof the problem in our community. • To work togetherto come up with community-wide solutions.

6. The partnership • Tonight’s [or this afternoon’s or this morning’s] Reality Check is brought to you by several organizations. • National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) developed the program through a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). • [Insert information about your organization.]

7. The issue • Too many teens and their parents are unaware of the dangers of underage drinking and driving. • Teens know it’s illegal, but that may not be enough to change their behavior. • It’s going to take the community of [insert community] to join together to give everyone a Reality Check.

8. Why it’s an issue: the stats • Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among teens in the United States, more so than tobacco and other drugs. • Alcohol use contributes to more than 4,700 teen deaths every year. • Even though drinking under the age of 21 is illegal, people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States. • According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol.

9. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that during the 30 days prior to the poll, 39% of high school students drank some amount of alcohol, 8% drove after drinking, and 24% rode with a driver who had been drinking. • Statistics sources: www.kidshealth.org and http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm • [Insert any local statistics that may be available.]

10. The format • Introduction of teen moderator • Introductions of guest panelists • Each panelist will begin with a short opening statement. • The moderator will then ask questions, with the panel responding based on their area(s) of expertise. • The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions. • Each panelist will have the opportunity to share a closing statement. • Next steps as a community

11. The speakers • [Include information about the teen moderator and the guest panelists.]