Tackling alcohol harm
Alcohol harm, why should you care? Because a young man, on his first night out in a major state capital, is bashed and kicked by a drunken 16-year-old—for no apparent reason—and because The Salvation Army regularly offers shelter to women and children who used to spend their evenings cowered in a corner as a drunken partner abused and assaulted them.
‘Alcohol harm is indeed one of the great issues of our time, and one with which The Salvation Army has always contended,’ Commissioners Raymond Finger and James Condon, territorial commanders, Australia Southern and Australia Eastern Territory, respectively, recently endorsed in the foreword of The Salvation Army Alcohol Culture Initiative (SACi) Learning Module .
‘SACi is a vehicle for proactive Salvationist action on alcohol harm. It seeks long-term change in the way Australians think about alcohol. A key step towards such change is the diffusion of quality, evidence-based information among all Salvationists. The SACi learning module is a tool to this end.’
SACi, a national initiative, combines (internal) education with (external) advocacy to reduce alcohol harm. The first strategy involves encouraging corps and centres to develop customised responses that tackle priority issues of alcohol harm within their local communities. Such responses could be linking with schools, offering community youth activities, supporting community and corps/centre parents in their roles, or educating and guiding Salvationist youth.
Much current concern centres on the issue of alcohol over-supply, with research, as well as common sense, linking this to preventable violence. With multiple state premiers, government ministers, senior police, doctors and many in the general community all beginning to acknowledge Australia’s out-of-control alcohol harm, it is time for action, not just talk.
SACi’s first learning module, ‘Alcohol Harm: Why Should I Care?’, available to all corps in both Australian territories, is targeted at all Salvationists—from young people, to parents, cadets, officers, lay leadership and groups concerned with social justice.
The module is comprised of four key areas: ‘Australia’s alcohol culture’, ‘Alcohol and the individual’, ‘Why should I care?’, and ‘What can I do?’ Additional resources are also provided on an accompanying DVD containing fact sheets, news items, report summaries, useful links and a promotional video. On 11 November, corps are encouraged to partake in SACi Sunday—an opportunity to educate people on, and consider a response to, alcohol harm.
The easy option is to put alcohol harm in the ‘too hard basket’, accepting the status quo of enormous and ongoing damage. Now Salvos in Australia have another alternative. They can inform themselves, and get involved in positive action at the local level. The harm is great, but it does not have to be like this.
NOTE: From 17–21 September, The Salvation Army will be sharing a public message about alcohol harm through its annual Alcohol Awareness Week campaign.
Alcohol Awareness Week is an external media initiative designed to stimulate discussion and debate in the community around the social impacts of alcohol abuse. This year, the campaign focuses on how alcohol abuse impacts children and families.
Alcohol Awareness Week is targeted externally, whereas the SACi learning module is targeted internally.
The learning module is available for download from the resources section on mySalvos.
Article reprinted courtesy of The Australia Southern Territory’s On Fire magazine.
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