About YEPP

YEPP Page

Welcome to one of the most interesting web pages for information on alcohol

About Us

Who: Youth ages 15-20 from all corners of Maine with a passion for affecting change.
What: Annual projects about underage drinking, and informative and professional presentations, reports, and products created from them.
Why: Because the issue of underage drinking concerns alcohol and youth—who better to tackle the issue than those on the inside? We’re like James Bond, but without the martini. Instead, we shake and stir up the communities with education and awareness for a better tomorrow.

"I joined YEPP to be part of something proactive. I have always felt strongly about the issues the group works with and I knew my input could be helpful. I think it is really important for young people to be the leaders of the underage drinking movement because we are youth and this issue is affecting us and our peers."-Kayla

"I joined YEPP because I wanted to see what it's really like, despite all the things that people think about drinking and what they do, it's really quite sad to see what is happening in today's society". -Chris

Projects

General School Policy (2001). This document contains findings and recommendations of the groups work related to school-wide alcohol and drug policy.

School Athletic Policy (2002). This document contains findings and recommendations to assist school policy makers in strengthening and enforcing school alcohol and drug policy for student athletes. It compliments the group's previous work in general school alcohol and drug policy.

Enforcement of Underage Drinking Laws (2004). Combined with the findings of their own research and gaining critical knowledge from a cross-section of experts in the field of law enforcement, the youth group prepared findings and recommendations to assist law enforcement agencies in strengthening enforcement policies and procedures. As a result of this document, youth were invited to work with the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and the State Attorney General's Office to develop a model law enforcement policy, which was adopted by the Maine Police Chiefs' Association in 2005.

Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking: A Youth Perspective (2005). This document contains the results of the group's own independent statewide survey of 500 youth on the effects of alcohol advertising on underage youth and corresponding recommendations for change.

Alcohol Retailer's Local Marketing Code of Conduct (2006). This document contains recommendations for local retailer alcohol marketing, its effects on under age drinking, and recommended forms and procedures to assist communities in making practical interventions are also included.

A Guide to Replicating an Alcohol Retailer's Marketing Code of Conduct in Your Local Community (2007). This document is intended to help local, statewide, and national groups replicate an Alcohol Retailer's Marketing Code of Conduct. The code of conduct is a set of guidelines to help retailers make concrete changes in their stores to reduce the impact of alcohol advertising on underage youth. The purpose of this guide is two-fold:

• To provide a history and tools for local Maine communities implementing the Maine Alcohol Retailer's Marketing Code of Conduct developed by the YEPP.
• To provide guidelines to communities outside the state of Maine on the replication of the Alcohol Retailer's Marketing Code of Conduct and explore how alcohol advertising promotes underage drinking in your local market.

Social Hosting in Our Communities: A survey of youth and adults (2008). Social hosting has been a rising problem across the country. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association's 2006 National Survey on Drug Use & Health, a little over 25% of people under the legal drinking age have had at least one alcoholic drink within the past month. The last time they reported using alcohol, over half of underage drinkers did so at someone else’s house. This document is a publication of the findings and recommendations regarding YEPP's social hosting project.

Shadows Unveiled: The Realities of Mixing (2010). This recently released document lists the common trends in mixing behavior. Mixing is when an alcoholic beverage is combined with another substance (type of drug) -- prescription pills, energy drinks (for high caffeine content), marijuana, etc. YEPP members compiled this information from focus group data, and the outside research conducted by YEPP to correlate with those trends in a form intended to enlighten communities regarding the dangers of mixing.

Upload
All documents
Marketing video
Press conference news story
Poster
 

Application Flyer