NABCA Awards
Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board
Award Year
2021-2022
Education Award $10,000
Focus Area Education | Awareness, Regulatory | Enforcement
ALCOHOL EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Each year, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board–Bureau of Alcohol Education hosts an alcohol education conference. The Bureau plans, organizes, and coordinates the entire conference, which helps bring together organizations such as police departments, colleges and universities, campus security, prevention agencies, and like-minded organizations.
The 2022 conference sessions centered on reducing underage and dangerous drinking. The sessions provided new information and trends that the 197 participants could share and implement in their communities. Exhibitors presented throughout the day, and the conference featured ample time for networking. Sessions covered topics including alcohol enforcement in higher education settings, comorbidity with drug use, how PLCB funding is used to maintain student prevention efforts such as peer education efforts and student behavior assessment and scaling up evidence-based programs. Presenters hailed from a wide variety of stakeholders, from universities to regulators to prevention professionals engaged in Pennsylvania’s communities.
A post-conference survey found that participants indicated the sessions provided good and useful information, exhibitors were well received, and participants appreciated the networking and learning opportunity. The Bureau has hosted the alcohol education conference for 20 years. The NABCA award helped keep the event free for all participants, presenters, and exhibitors. The Bureau plans to keep the conference free for everyone in the future.
Award Year
2019-2020
Supplemental Award $50,000
Focus Area Capacity Building | Collaboration
Institute of Higher Education Assessment on College Drinking
There is a culture of unhealthy and underage alcohol use on college campuses across the United States, and in Pennsylvania as well. To shine a spotlight on this issue in the Commonwealth, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) partnered with the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance (CPA) to conduct an assessment and write a report on its findings and identified action steps that can be taken to improve the situation.
CPA convened an advisory team composed of preventionists, alcohol policy experts, regulators, researchers, and college and university staff to provide guidance and direction for the project. The study included an online survey distributed to chief student affairs administrators at 143 colleges and universities, in addition to conducting three focus groups.
The findings were published in July 2021 in a report titled, “Pennsylvania Higher Education Needs Assessment: Report of Findings from the Survey of Higher Education Institutions in Pennsylvania Regarding Alcohol Use on Campus.” The report found that the most implemented student sanctions were individual probation and warnings. However, when asked which potential sanctions or consequences alcohol and other drug professionals found to be most valuable, alcohol evaluation/screenings and brief motivational interventions were cited. This demonstrates a discrepancy between belief and institutional practice.
The study also found that more than one-third of the responding institutions did not have a designated, full-time staff member responsible for alcohol and other drug issues. The lack of trained staff and/or adequate staff resources were identified as primary barriers to providing more alcohol prevention and education services at most of the schools. Furthermore, less than half of responding institutions have any type of on-campus recovery support services available.
Based on these and other findings, the report developed a series of recommendations that could be implemented at the state and institutional levels, including establishing a collaborative that provides technical assistance support to higher education institutions to address their alcohol issues and to identify state and national resources that can assist with prevention and intervention efforts. The report also suggests that the state create a uniform alcohol assessment for institutions of higher education, and that universities should designate a full-time, professional to address campus alcohol efforts.
This report provides a way forward for Pennsylvania colleges and universities—both urban and rural, private and public—to create safer and healthier environments for their students.