The STOP Act program was created to strengthen collaboration among communities, the Federal Government, state, local and tribal governments in order to enhance effective efforts for reducing alcohol use among youth. This mission includes disseminating timely information to communities about state-of-the-art practices and initiatives that have proven to be effective in preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth. The STOP Act program enhances, not supplants, effective local community initiatives for preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth.

Amount: SAMHSA anticipates providing funding up to $50,000 annually in individual grants for up to 78 grantees for up to a four year period. Actual amounts may vary, depending on the availability of funds.

Eligibility: The application must be submitted by domestic public and private non- profit entities that are current or former Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grantees and who have not previously received a STOP Act award.

Application: Requests for a complete application package for SP-12-003 can be made from SAMHSA at 1-877-SAMHSA7 [TDD: 1-800-487-4889]. The required documents may also be downloaded from the SAMHSA Web site at http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/.

Contact: For questions about program issues contact Dan Fletcher at (240) 276-2578 or email dan.fletcher@samhsa.hhs.gov.

For information on grants management and budget issues contact Virginia Simmons at (240) 276-1422 or email virginia.simmons@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Deadline: March 6, 2012

Grant: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) is now accepting concept papers to fund programs that benefit children of Luzerne County. Priority consideration will be given to projects that are data-driven and supported by research as to their effectiveness. The goal of the initiative under this solicitation is to support programs that benefit the health, safety and general welfare of children of Luzerne Count, and must be applicale and/or accessible to children residing in Luzerne County.

Funder: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Funding Available: $2,166,750.

Contact: All questions must be sent by email to Wendy Poston at wposton@pa.gov in order for all potential applicants to benefit from this process. Answers will be available to all parties who register to receive them through the email process.

More grant information can be found here, click on Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County under Funding Announcement Title.

Deadline: March 12, 2012.

MBTA already bans advertisements for “tobacco, firearms, violence and nudity.”

Source: Newsroom.

The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth announces its 2nd Healthy Communities Action Team (HCAT) RFP funding opportunity.

Virginia organizations (schools, faith centers, community service boards, clubs, etc.) are eligible to submit proposals. Individual grant awards will not exceed $40,000 per year/$80,000 total for two years. The grant period will be from July 1, 2012 until June 30, 2012.

Deadline: March 27, 2012.

For more information, please view the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth website.

The FDA is investigating if these products put children at risk for nicotine addiction or poisoning. Two companies will be test marketing smokeless tobacco products in different cities in the country – R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will be testing Camel brand Orbs, Strips, and Sticks, all smokeless tobacco products. The other company, Star Scientific Inc., will be testing Ariva and Stonewall, two dissolvable tobacco products.

To read more about the FDA’s evaluation, click here.

David Jernigan is the Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He believes that young people are being exposed to alcohol-related advertisements and imagery mostly on the Internet through social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Jernigan states that the alcohol advertisements on the Internet are “far more than I think most parents or adults are aware of.” He deemed the Internet “the wild west without a sheriff.”

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the organization in charge of responsible advertising and marketing of alcoholic beverages, set forth new guidelines for alcohol companies to follow if they have social networking websites open to public view.  Some of these guideline include “age-gating” before a person is allowed to enter the site. The legal age for the consumption of alcohol in the United States is 21 and older. The Council believes that “Social networking sites are used primarily by adults, which makes these platforms responsible and appropriate channels for spirits marketers.” However, considering that 22% of Facebook users are between the ages of 13 and 20, Jernigan hopes for tighter content controls as today’s technology becomes more advanced and it’s users become smarter.

To read the full article, click here.

Tuesday, January 10th at 1pm ET – Classroom Management Strategies

Wednesday, January 11th at 2pm ET – Addressing Challenging Questions

Thursday, January 12th at 3pm ET – Community-based Prevention Afterschool

These webinars are full of helpful information and are not offered frequently throughout the year so take advantage of them while they’re here!

Interested in online trainings? Check out the Training Schedule above if you need to register for a last minute training this week. We still have spots open for Tuesday, January 10th’s High School Online Training as well as Wednesday, January 11th’s Elementary School Online Training.

If you need any additional information, contact lstinfo@nhpamail.com.

The Monday following the Superbowl, marks the day also known as the Drug-Free Action Alliance’s (DFAA) Big Bowl Vote. It is the opportunity for young teens to take a survey on the commercials shown during the big game. The reason for this survey is to better understand student preferences and measure appeal to alcohol advertising.

After this survey is conducted, DFAA will collect and summarize the data. The data will be used to educate people about the effects alcohol advertisements have on young people. Since social media plays a big role in the life of today’s teen, DFAA will encourage young people to tweet about the commercials they see during the Superbowl. To visit DFAA’s official Big Bowl Vote website, click here.

Source: Big Bowl Vote 2012