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Sacramento
Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project (SNAPP)
Principal Investigator:
Paul J. Gruenewald, Ph.D.
Project Director: Andrew J. Treno, Ph.D.
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In a recent 5-year community prevention trial, mutually reinforcing strategies
such as media focus on alcohol problems, changes in alcohol serving practices
in local bars and restaurants, reductions in retail sale of alcohol to young people,
increased enforcement of drinking and driving laws, and reductions in the concentration
of alcohol retail outlets were used to combat alcohol-related accidents and injuries.
The trial targeted entire communities and yielded substantial reductions in violence,
drinking and driving and other harm within the experimental communities. It did
NOT, however, consider the effects of intervention targeted at the local, or neighborhood
level. Subsequently, prevention needs to establish the efficacy of local prevention
programs within ethnic minority neighborhoods, which typically experience different
alcohol problems from those of non-minority communities. To address this need,
the Prevention Research Center has embarked on the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol
Prevention Project (SNAPP). The
Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project (SNAPP) is implementing a series
of preventive interventions to reduce drinking and alcohol-related problems such
as violence and assaults among young people in two largely multi-ethnic neighborhoods
in Sacramento, California. 
The
interventions are designed to alter underage and young adult drinking practices
unique to minority youth; presenting a focus upon social and physical access to
alcohol. Working
with a local service provider, the Prevention Research Center developed an action
program designed to tackle the specific problems plaguing the target neighborhoods,
specifically readily available alcohol to youth within their social circles, and
public drinking and intoxication (at bars and restaurants). 
Early in the
project PRC staff met with local leaders to identify local resources to respond
to these challenges. It was determined that combining the provision training of
neighborhood businesses serving alcohol in RBS polices with intensified enforcement
of laws relating to drinking and the service of alcohol constituted one workable
environmental strategy. Although
we are in the early stages of the SNAPP there are a number of indications that
it will yield results similar to those of the Community Trials Project. To date,
we have mobilized key opinion leaders as well as the broader community in support
of project goals. We have made responsible beverage service (RBS) training available
to all of the on- and off-premise establishments within the South Target area
and have trained 56% of these establishments. We have also obtained the cooperation
of the local police and sheriff departments in conducting underage decoy operations
in the target sites and in enforcement of intoxicated patron sales and public
drinking laws. Based on our prior experience we believe that this combination
of RBS training and subsequent law enforcement will lead to reductions in the
project targets, specifically, underage access to alcohol, and youth drinking
and problem outcomes associated with drinking. Results of the SNAPP intervention
evaluation and scientific program are establishing a scientific basis for future
neighborhood-based preventive interventions in multi-ethnic populations in the
U.S. These
interventions have been phased into the two neighborhoods at different times allowing
a comparison of intervention effectiveness to be evaluated by examining several
key areas: •
Reductions in underage access to alcohol in the study neighborhoods
•
Reductions in social access to alcohol in the study neighborhoods
• Decreased
number of assaults in the study neighborhoods 
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