“Speak. They Hear You.”® Celebrates 10 Years of Stopping Underage Substance Use

This yr, “Speak. They Hear You.”® celebrates its tenth anniversary. SAMHSA’s nationwide prevention marketing campaign helps mother and father and caregivers, educators, and neighborhood members get knowledgeable, be ready, and take motion to stop underage consuming and different substance use.

The marketing campaign is designed to capitalize on the prevention science literature and add to the information base. The literature^1,2 suggests that folks’ interactions with children about alcohol and different substances can present a novel alternative for efficient intervention.

“Speak. They Hear You.”® seeks to:

• Enhance mother and father’ consciousness of the prevalence and dangers of underage substance use;
• Equip mother and father with the information, expertise, and confidence to stop underage use; and
• Enhance mother and father’ actions to stop underage use.

The marketing campaign gives:

Anybody could make use of the marketing campaign’s free merchandise and instruments, anytime. Communities and colleges can get began with “Speak. They Hear You.”® by downloading the easy-to-use marketing campaign implementation information (PDF | 925 KB).

Launched in 2013, the marketing campaign got down to present mother and father and caregivers with assets to handle alcohol with their kids. In 2017, amid the opioid disaster, the marketing campaign was prolonged to incorporate different medication; and in 2018, it grew from an preliminary deal with children ages 9-15 to embody all youth underneath age 21. Given the success of the marketing campaign, it additional expanded to incorporate the function of faculties in 2020 and communities in 2022. Screen4Success launched in 2022.

Underneath the management of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Ingesting (ICCPUD), SAMHSA’s Middle for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) developed the “Speak. They Hear You.”® marketing campaign in response to directives set forth within the Sober Fact on Stopping Underage Ingesting Act (STOP Act), requiring the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary to: fund and oversee a nationwide adult-oriented media public service marketing campaign; and report yearly on the manufacturing, broadcasting, and analysis of this marketing campaign.

The marketing campaign has:

• Registered greater than 1,500 licensed marketing campaign companions throughout the nation.
• Garnered greater than 22.4 billion impressions of its PSAs on tv, radio, and in print publications. The worth of those PSAs, based mostly on what they might have price as paid advertisements, is estimated at $267 million.
• Earned recognition from the Nationwide Guardian Instructor Affiliation’s Faculty of Excellence Program.
• Gained 58 awards (Viddy Awards, Telly Awards, Berreth Award, dotCOMM Awards, Hermes Inventive Awards, MarCom Awards, Thoth Award) since 2018.

An analysis of “Speak. They Hear You.”® is a part of the ICCPUD’s annual Report back to Congress.

We invite you to have a good time “Speak. They Hear You.”® with us. You too can be a part of us at SAMHSA’s twentieth Prevention Day. Plan a neighborhood occasion with Communities Speak to Forestall Alcohol and Different Drug Misuse. Take part in Nationwide Prevention Week and #MyPreventionStory all year long. For extra alternatives for youth and younger adults to get entangled as brokers of change, go to Voices of Youth. Obtain SAMHSA’s Prevention Month toolkit, every October.

Everybody has a job to play in prevention. Take a look at our “Speak. They Hear You.”® marketing campaign to study extra about what you are able to do in the present day ― to advance prevention in your neighborhood. Collectively, we’re companions in prevention.

¹ Nash SG, McQueen A, Bray JH. (2005). Pathways to Adolescent Alcohol Use: Household Surroundings, Peer Affect, and Parental Expectations. The Journal of Adolescent Well being, 37(1), 19–28. 

² Wooden MD, Learn JP, Mitchell RE, Model, NH. (2004). Do Dad and mom Nonetheless Matter? Guardian and Peer Influences on Alcohol Involvement Amongst Current Excessive Faculty Graduates. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18(1), 19–30.