BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) is designating the 2013 summer season as a “Summer Above the Influence” with the launch of its youth media campaign, “ATI 802.”
Created by Brattleboro area students during the 2012-13 academic year, with the support of BAPC, ATI 802 features the faces and voices of local youth as they send a powerful message to peers: stay above the influence of negative pressures to drink, do drugs, or do anything else that goes against who you are in order to fit in.
This launch of this positive message campaign is timed to reach youth during their summer break, when more free time and less adult supervision typically increases the likelihood of exposure to dangers and substance abuse.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), more teens start drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in June and July than any other months of the year.
Last week, ATI 802 campaign posters, featuring the faces of local youth, debuted in the store windows of downtown Brattleboro businesses, and remained on display through Gallery Walk and the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Each poster highlights the influences the student chooses to stay above … and the activities they choose to help them stay there.
Featured are BUHS students Ian Cebek, Cheicknia Doucoure, Nancy Young, Nina Goodhue, and several students from the PEAK Program at Brattleboro Area Middle School.