CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. An Introduction to Environmental Strategies
2. Types of Environmental Approaches
3. Putting Environmental Strategies To Work

Supplements
References
Resources

Environmental Strategies for Prevention
A Guide To Helping the Prevention Professional Work Effectively in the Community

Education (Border Project)

Another collaborative effort was the Binational Collaboration between the hospitality industry and regulatory agencies. The California Alcohol Beverage Control agency teamed up with the Baja California Office of Tourism and Tijuana's Regulators Agency to conduct a series of binational workshops to train and educate regulatory agents, bar owners, and employees from Tijuana and Rosarito to accurately spot false U.S. identification cards. ref

Communications

Media advocacy efforts were developed to enhance community and institutional buy-in for the project. The availability of the survey data allowed the project to keep the information fresh and newsworthy. The media strategy included using spokespeople representing key constituencies -- such as police officers, parents, youth, and city officials -- to show strong community support for the operations. Project representatives helped generate more than 300 news stories to increase awareness of the problem and the related enforcement efforts. The project's media advocacy campaign was covered in front-page stories in The Los Angeles Times and Tijuana's Zeta and by ABC Nightly News and other major outlets. ref

Since public awareness is important for deterrence, telephone surveys were also conducted to gauge local residents' knowledge about Operation Safe Crossing. In all of the surveys, both men and men who reported visiting a Tijuana bar were more likely to say they were aware of increased enforcement of alcohol laws. Between 50 and 60 percent of the Tijuana bar patrons were aware of the increased enforcement. ref

Following the success of Operation Safe Crossing, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) supported additional work to implement the program in border communities in three locations in Texas -- El Paso, Brownsville, and Laredo.

In El Paso, Operation Safe Crossing provided compelling evidence that changing policies on the Mexican side can dramatically reduce risky behaviors. On January 1, 1999, the bars in Juarez, Mexico -- which had typically been open all night -- were required to stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m. Cross-border surveys conducted before and after the policy change indicated that the number of young Americans returning to El Paso after 3 a.m. from a night of drinking were reduced 89 percent. (The number of drinkers returning from a night of drinking in the earlier slot remained the same, indicating that the earlier closing actually decreased the total number of cross-border drinkers.) ref