For over 30 years now, April has held a special significance for those who have conquered (or are hoping to conquer) a drinking addiction. From now until the 30th, advocates and activists are taking part in Alcohol Awareness Month; pushing messages front and center through print, video and social media campaigns.
Thanks to support from The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (also known as NCADD), Alcohol Awareness Month has a permanent home. They’ve created a special website with an important message that the public at large should be familiar with. The term is “Help for Today, Hope for Tomorrow” and the emphasis this year is to educate young people; steering them away from beer, wine and spirits.
The home page of the site touches upon the month’s history and the success it has had over its three plus decades. Founded in 1987, Alcohol Awareness Month always kicks off with an Alcohol-Free Weekend during the first Saturday and Sunday of April. There are also national NCADD events, as well as partnerships with organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.
As far as this year’s theme goes, NCADD’s media team summed it up with a few important sentences in their annual press release. “The 2019 theme, ‘Help for Today, Hope for Tomorrow,’ is designed to draw attention to the pervasive impact that alcohol, alcoholism and alcohol-related problems have on young people, their friends, families and communities,” their statement read. “It also works to highlight the reality that help is available and recovery is possible.”
To help get in front of more young people, NCADD has made a heavy push into sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There is now a branded hashtag, #AlcoholismAwarenessMonth2019, as well as a variety of shareable factoid images that are meant to appear in people’s feeds.
One example is the image below, which the NCADD strongly encourages recovery alumni to share with their networks.
Other visuals highlight important stats, which can hopefully discourage experimentation among middle and high schoolers.
And for those who want to delve deeper into the topic (or perhaps educate others), there is a lengthy PDF that explains the month’s mission and how people can make an impact in their city. This document can also be used by teachers, community organizers and law enforcement personnel to better educate their local friends and neighbors.
Obviously Alcohol Awareness Month is something we strongly support and hopefully it continues to reach the right audience, getting this very important message to the masses.
