Communities mobilizing for change on alcohol: Lessons and results from a 15-community randomized trial

Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) is a 15-community rando mized trial designed to develop, implement, and evaluate a 2 1/2 year commu nity organizing intervention to change policies and practices of major comm unity institutions. Pre- and post-data were collected via: surveys of high school students, surveys of youth age 18-20, surveys of alcohol retailers, alcohol purchase attempts, content analyses of media coverage, arrest and c ar crash indicators, surveys of strategy team members, and process records. Organizers and local strategy teams changed policies and practices of comm unity institutions such as law enforcement agencies, alcohol merchants, and sponsors of community events, leading to significant changes in alcohol-re lated behaviors among 18- to 20-year-olds, and significant reductions in th e propensity of alcohol establishments to serve alcohol to youth. (C) 1999 John Wilty & Sons, Inc.