Taking a brief break from political news, a Carpetbagger guest poster, Nili, has been doing some excellent non-political work on preventing kids from drinking alcohol, and he asked me if I’d be willing to post a brief public service announcement on the issue.
If you have kids between the ages of 11 and 14, or if you know educators, counselors, or other youth advocates who work with this age group, you may be interested in www.thecoolspot.gov. This is a teen/pre-teen alcohol prevention site sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of NIH.
Lest you think this site is more inaccurate HHS propaganda, Nili assures you that much of the material is based on actual science and research conducted at the University of Michigan and published in a middle school curriculum called the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study. Nili himself adapted much of the curriculum for the web.
The site is both a cool destination for this age group, and an effective teaching tool. Education News has named The Cool Spot today’s site of the day. Please check it out, and more important, share it with kids and advocates far and wide.