Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio

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 theatre still ads placed in six geographically dispersed theatres 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, encouraged parental involvement with children through school projects specific to this initiative, and a variety of planned activities in the spring.