DLN Consulting, Inc. Coordinates the North Dakota 5th Annual Alcohol Forum

This year marked North Dakota's Fifth Annual Alcohol Forum.  As in past years, this event was sponsored by the North Dakota Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).  The Alcohol Forum is designed to motivate and re-energize participants who work tirelessly to address a wide range of alcohol related problems and reduce the high numbers of alcohol-related fatalities on our highways.  The goal of the Alcohol Forum is to offer education and networking opportunities for individuals involved in intervention and prevention as it relates to alcohol.  The event brings stakeholders together from college campuses, community programs, community coalitions, and law enforcement.

A decision was made to concentrate this year's theme around underage alcohol consumption.  This was a conscious effort to address the issue of capacity building to reduce high-risk alcohol behaviors at the age of onset.  A secondary theme was "alcohol in the arts".  An attempt was made to balance in state and out-of-state presenters who could address the target population.  Nine general audience sessions were conducted.

Speakers included:

 

Dr. Mariela Shirley, Ph.D. of the NIAAA presents "Screening and Prevention of Underage and College Drinking Issues".

                                                                                     

                                                              

North Dakota's First Lady, Mikey Hoeven, meets "Julio", a character from Susan Vanderlip's Legacy of Hope.

In addition to the general sessions, five topics were presented in six breakout sessions on the second afternoon.  Attendees had an opportunity to choose two breakout sessions to attend.  Breakout session presenters included:

• Aaron Birst - Making Alcohol Enforcement Stick
• Susie Vanderlip - Thrive, Don't Just Survive
• Laura Oster-Aaland - Brief Interventions in College Drinking: Research, Prevention & Dissemination Issues
• Col. Mark Nelson - The Fatal Factor
• Kevin Grindstaff (2 sessions) - PREP (standard server training)

In place of the traditional booths, artwork was displayed from the Dickinson State University program entitled "Alcohol Awareness Through the Arts".  This program involves dozens of students, and uses creative writing, dance, film, music, poetry, theatre, and the visual arts to give voice to the issues of binge drinking and alcohol abuse from the students' perspective.  At the luncheon, the Office of Traffic Safety presented the 2007 Traffic Safety Honor Roll.  Following the presentations, Dickinson State University's Form and Fusion Dance Team performed several acts.  The final act was narrated by a DSU wrestler who was injured in a drunken driving incident.  The student provided the audience with insight into his personal experiences resulting from the incident.

 

The Form and Fusion Dance Team performs their final act.

As communicated by many of the participants, the forum was a great success.  One hundred twenty-six people from the fields of law enforcement, higher education, prevention, social work, human services, health, community coalitions, and substance abuse and prevention attended from CO, MN, ND, and MT, including NDDOT and NHTSA rocky Mountain Region staff.