ARAPO Updates

September 2005

September brings a lot of changes to students and professionals alike. As students get back into the routine of school and professionals say goodbye to summer vacations, there may be opportunities to access some of the many services that ARAPO offers.

Youth Presentations

Research shows over and over again that alcohol advertising does appeal to minors; and as a result, can negatively impact the patterns of alcohol use among students. One major way to combat the negative influences from the alcohol industry is to provide training to students surrounding the alcohol promotion and its effects on public health and safety, especially on youth. ARAPO offers many resources and services to help students become more aware about the destructive influence of alcohol advertising on minors and help develop media literacy skills to combat these potentially harmful effects on student’s personal choices surrounding alcohol consumption.

For special events, ARAPO provides an interactive display and resources for a student audience surrounding alcohol issues, particularly around alcohol promotion. Some examples of special events include: grade nine orientation events, MADD or OCCID special events, youth conferences, or youth/university interest groups. Additionally, ARAPO offers presentations to groups of students in classrooms. This presentation is an interactive session with students to help facilitate thinking surrounding the effects of alcohol promotion and to develop the skills to make responsible and informed decisions about alcohol usage. A representative from ARAPO is commonly invited to a variety of classes, including Physical/Health Education classes or Media Literacy classes. With the elimination of OAC in Ontario high schools there are many minors heading off to university, ARAPO could be a resource for this unique group of students.

For teachers who would like to incorporate this topic into their teaching curriculum – ARAPO offers an Educator’s Took Kit. The Educator’s Kit, meets the current Ministry of Education and Training, Health & Physical Education Curriculum and offers a straight forward manual to teach alcohol media literacy in the classroom with a variety of overheads, a list of contacts to access videos on the topic, etc. The Kit can easily be downloaded from ARAPO's website. ARAPO is currently working to revamp the 2000 Educator’s Kit, so stay tuned for the updated version!

Professional Presentations

ARAPO also offers presentations to professional groups. Periodically, teleconferences surrounding alcohol promotion are offered such as the "Alcohol Advertising and Youth " teleconference offered on July 27th 2005, which are open to a vast number of professionals from many organizations. ARAPO also offers on-site consultations as requested by interested professional groups or organizations. Professional groups who have used ARAPO in the past include: Public Health Units, Community Centres, School Administrators, etc. The consultation includes a presentation entitled: "Alcohol Advertising 101 " and is intended to provide an introductory session on the issues of alcohol promotion and sponsorship and its effects on public health and safety. Applications specific to the audience may also be provided. Contact the ARAPO coordinator for further details.

ARAPO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for its programming.

ARAPO is the host of APN's Alcohol Advertising Information Pack.