Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Thursday the launch of the "Think!...Don’t Drink" initiative, a campaign to reduce underage drinking in Virginia. The program will enable community civic organizations and parents to address the issue by providing them with monetary and informational resources.

“Underage drinking is a serious threat to the health and safety of our young people,” says Kaine. “The 'Think!...Don’t Drink' initiative will give these young people the information they need to avoid underage drinking and make responsible and healthy decisions.”

"Think!...Don’t Drink," presented by the Governor’s Office for Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative, is part of the Governor’s Prevention Comes First initiative. Since its inception in June 2006, Prevention Comes First has cultivated collaboration, provided opportunities for youth, increased public awareness and training, and offered tools for community planning in localities throughout the Commonwealth.

The program advances the mission of GOSAP and Prevention Comes First by increasing the awareness of negative consequences associated with underage drinking, sharing evidence-based strategies reducing underage drinking with localities and developing a common grant format to solicit proposals from localities and service agencies/organizations to identify and address underage drinking in their communities.

"Think!...Don’t Drink's" Community Guide for Preventing and Reducing Underage Drinking provides civic organizations and community prevention specialists assistance in designing and implementing a multi-strategy approach using evidence-based programs and activities tailored to their communities. A Parent Guide for Preventing Underage Drinking will assist parents with factual information on risks and consequences of underage drinking and provide strategies they can use to protect their own children.

The program offers grants of up to $10,000 through initiatives, such as the Governor’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Grants, to various communities in order to establish positive alternatives to deter youth from consuming alcohol at an early age.

The GOSAP Collaborative, organized in 2002, is made up of representatives of 13 agencies across four secretariats. GOSAP and the Collaborative have provided leadership for numerous components of the Governor’s Prevention Comes First initiative, which include the Virginia Interagency Gang Workgroup. In 2007, Kaine assigned the development of his statewide underage drinking prevention initiative to the Collaborative.

For more information on "Think!...Don’t Drink" publications or to apply for The Governor’s Underage Drinking Prevention Grant Program, visit the website below.