The Reconnecting Coalition participates in Out Of Their Hands and Project Sticker Shock.
The Reconnecting Coalition is a part of a statewide initiative to reduce underage drinking. Recognizing that problems associated with underage drinking cannot be addressed by focusing solely on youth, the State of South Carolina is working with local Alcohol Enforcement Teams, Drug Free Community Coalitions, which is the Reconnecting Coalition in our community and County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Authority-LRADAC, the Lexington/Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council to target parents and other adults through our Out Of Their Hands statewide initiative.
This spring, the Reconnecting Coalition in partnership with our local AET (Alcohol Enforcement Team), the Reconnecting Youth Coalition will conduct Sticker Shock activities.
WHY?
Parents tend to dramatically underestimate teenage binge drinking and their own children's drinking in particular and, in some cases, parents enable and/or condone underage drinking.
Nationally, 65 percent of teenagers report getting their alcohol from family and friends; and research proves that parents are the most influential person in their child's life and are the key to preventing underage drinking.
PURPOSE
The campaign will emphasize that providing alcohol to minors is against the law and that together we can keep it "Out Of Their Hands." Similarly, there will be considerable focus on educating parents, caregivers, merchants and community members about the consequences of providing alcohol to a minor or hosting underage drinking parties.
Over the course of the next several weeks, local community groups will come together to make their community a safer place. Each community will incorporate evidence-based approaches to local efforts that are based on community 
needs and local needs assessment data. Activities could include sticker shock campaigns, compliance checks, party patrols, media campaigns, town hall meetings, parent outreach, and the list is as unique as is the community you live in and the commitment you are willing to make to our youth.
SO WHAT HAPPENS
The purpose of this activity is to enforce underage drinking laws and to reduce underage drinking and its related problems through environmental and policy changes. Youth will place alcohol-warning stickers on cases of beer at local participating stores. The sticker warns potential buyers that it is illegal to purchase or provide alcohol for anyone under the age of 21.
What Does Project Sticker Shock Do?
The Sticker Shock Project is designed to reach adults who might purchase alcohol legally and provide it to minors.
What Is the Positive Impact on the Community?
The Sticker Shock Project is designed to reach adults who might purchase alcohol legally and provide it to minors. Stickers warning about the penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors are placed on all multi-packs of beer, alco-pops, and other alcohol products that might appeal to underage drinkers. The impact of the stickers is increased by media coverage of the event and by the signs that are displayed by participating retailers. The project represents a partnership between youth, retailers, concerned parents and community members, prevention professionals, and law enforcement with the goal of educating potential furnishers, raising public awareness about underage drinking, and strengthening the deterrent effect of the law against providing alcohol to minors.
"Project Sticker Shock" is a community working together to create a safer, healthier lifestyle, to reduce underage drinking and its related problems, and to enforce the underage drinking laws. It is a youth driven environmental approach designed to reduce youth access to alcohol. This project permits youth to have a voice in addressing the problem of availability of alcohol to minors and to be active in providing a service that is one piece of the puzzle of solutions. Communities here and throughout South Carolina want to attack the social availability of alcohol to minors that is provided by parents and other adults by placing a warning sticker on beer cases. The sticker warns that it is illegal to purchase or provide alcohol to anyone under 21.
