Cincinnati, OH
Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati
The Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati promotes drug-free environments
for youth by enhancing partnerships to educate, advocate, and support local community
mobilization throughout its 10-county, tristate region. The Coalition operates through
seven task forces and more than 300 volunteers. The Too Smart To Start team in Greater
Cincinnati provides regional mass media outreach with targeted awareness and utilization
approaches in five neighborhoods.
The regional strategies include theater still ads placed in six geographically dispersed
theaters during the peak holiday movie season; a parent educational piece printed
and inserted into nearly 250,000 suburban Community Press newspapers; information
cards with popular bracelet giveaways for youth attending select premiere movie
weeks; and multiple media opportunities bridged throughout the regional launch,
resulting in feature pieces by local TV affiliates and coverage in local and regional
newspapers. To help drive traffic to the site, the launch of the Coalition’s revamped
Web site was marketed as part of the launch of Too Smart To Start, featuring a family
trip for four contest. This strategy allowed parents to find information on the
importance of talking with their children about underage alcohol use while promoting
Too Smart To Start. Ongoing newspaper articles, parent and youth education sessions,
and a presence at KidsFest—a popular Cincinnati summer family event—are
used as other opportunities to promote the local Too Smart To Start initiative throughout
the year.
The local community coalition partners launched their Too Smart To Start initiatives
with street banners, poster contests, giveaways, local media coverage, community
events where materials were handed out to parents and youth, and celebrity and other
guest speakers introducing the Too Smart To Start message. Additionally, their initiatives
feature heavy involvement with their district elementary and intermediate schools,
including curriculum-based age-appropriate messages and lessons that encouraged parental
involvement with children through school projects specific to this initiative, and
a variety of planned activities in the spring.
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