you are here: home > our programs > sober up

The SOBER UP & A.C.T. (Acknowledge, Communicate and Triumph) Learning Guide is designed to help parents and other adults take ownership of our community’s youth alcohol drinking problem. Adults gain an understanding of the problem in our area, its causes, and potential solutions. The free program equips participants with proven tools to prevent underage drinking in their families, schools, churches, and communities.

Surveys find that more Southwestern Indiana teens engage in binge drinking or daily alcohol use than the state and national averages.

Addiction experts say one reason for this sobering statistic is that the region treats alcoholism as an individual problem or, at most, a family problem. The SOBER UP guides help participants recognize that it is the community’s problem and therefore everyone’s problem.

All parents and/or adults are invited to host or join a SOBER UP & A.C.T. discussion group to help raise awareness, increase dialogue, and prompt action about underage drinking.

The free user friendly guides provide facilitators with everything they need, including videos, handouts, and promotional materials, to start and lead a series of discussions about the problem of underage drinking and the solutions.

Topics include:

1. Defining the Problem:  What you may or may not know about kids and alcohol.
2. Parents & Prevention:  “Best practices” for talking to your kids.
3. Setting Limits:  The road to prevention, intervention, and treatment.
4. Taking Action:  Setting the stage for positive change.

The SOBER UP guide contains four hours of  information and is best used in a small adult group setting, which allows participants to learn the best practices for prevention and intervention in their families, schools, churches, and communities.

At the conclusion of the program, participants are asked to complete a one page survey for evaluation purposes and return it to Youth First, Inc.  Evaluations show participants find the program worthwhile and helpful.

Youth First provides the SOBER UP and A.C.T. Learning Guides with videos for free to anyone who requests one.  In addition, Youth First can provide technical assistance to help facilitators launch a program in their school, church, or community group.  To receive a free SOBER UP guide or for technical assistance,  contact Cindy Bathauer at Youth First, 421-8336, ext. 3.