Narrator:
As communities around the country are learning, the key to effective prevention is to use multiple strategies, in multiple settings, toward achieving one common goal. For example, two of the most important channels for delivering health messages to an entire community are newspapers and local access cable television. In Gloucester, Massachusetts, by developing a positive and trusting relationship with local editors and reporters, the Gloucester Prevention Network positioned its program to be a resource to these media outlets.

Philip L. Salzman, director, Gloucester Prevention Network:
We’ve started to build a personal relationship with some of the reporters and the editor, trying to move from “We want you to promote our program” to “Our mission is about creating the healthiest community we possibly can, and how do we do that?”

Narrator:
The trust established between the Prevention Network and the Gloucester Daily Times continued to grow.

Philip L. Salzman:
And when that relationship got established, there was a sense of, there’s a mutuality here, that the prevention network is a resource, that its mission is clear.

Narrator:
And when an alcohol-related car crash claimed the life of 15-year-old Stephen Ross as he walked home one night, the prevention network was positioned to assist the Times in developing a year-long public service campaign that examined the impact of alcohol and other drugs on the community.

Mickey A. Ratte, community organizer:
The community was devastated when this happened. They were absolutely terrified that something like this could happen in their community. And Steven was 15 years old, and the young man who hit and killed him was 20 years old.

Bruce Tarr, state senator:
And it was an incident that really shocked the whole community because of the youth that were involved, both the individual that was driving the car and because of Steven.

Narrator:
The Gloucester Prevention Network was already using the strategy of communications in its work with the local media; now it drew on existing relationships across the community and its capacity for collaboration to make a statement through a well-planned public event, a candlelight vigil. In turn, this led to efforts involving policy change. So now three strategies—communication, collaboration, and policy change—were working together.

Mickey Ratte:
A whole group of young people and some church people got together and said, “Let’s have as many people as possible in this very cold winter night come out and have a candlelight vigil with signs, letting people know as they come into Gloucester that this is a community that cares about how you drive here and what you do here.”

James Marr, chief of police, Gloucester Police Department:
I can remember standing in Grants Circle, in probably one of the coldest, blowiest evenings in a long time. And people were standing up there out of respect for the family and for the tragedy, and sending a message not to drink and not to drive, and sending a message—not just on Cape Ann but across Cape Ann and to other communities—through the news media. I can recall the people standing up there in the freezing cold, and they just had a feeling for the Ross family and a feeling for everyone who was involved in that situation.

Bruce Tarr:
And the grief didn’t drive this community into the ground; it joined it together, just as it has in so many different occasions. The community came together and said, “This is a problem, and what can we do that’s practical?” And so as a result of that, we began looking at how families could talk about alcohol, and responsible use of alcohol, and we looked at what we could do by way of having a better dialogue with the local police department. But the most important thing, I think. was a change in public policy of the nature of what we’ve talked about. There was legislation pending in the Massachusetts legislature that had been pending for a few years, but frankly the bill was stuck in the legislature, and we had a tremendous amount of support from one of my colleagues, Senator Antonioni, from Central Massachusetts, and the connection came by Steven Ross’s death, emphasizing the importance of changing the law.

Mickey Ratte:
The Gloucester Prevention Network contacted Senator Antonioni, who we had heard was interested in passing a bill to reduce the alcohol in the blood from .10 to .08 and he agreed that if we could get a large group of people to come to City Hall, that he would come and hear testimony so he could build his case for reducing the blood alcohol count in the state.

Bruce Tarr:
We had some of the most courageous testimony I had ever heard offered by Steven Ross’s peers. And Steven Ross’s parents came before that committee. That was a hard thing to do. It could have only happened at Gloucester City Hall, with the community standing around them, giving them the courage to go forward. And when that evening was done, we knew that we were going to have success. And we did. And, in fact, Senator Antonioni was gracious enough to name the bill the Steven Ross Bill because of what this community did to make it a reality. That’s what kind of an impact we had. That’s what kind of an impact the Prevention Network had, on making a law change that will impact generations to come.

Narrator:
This tragic incident led the local paper’s editorial board to consider ways in which they could cover this story in a more comprehensive manner. The paper turned to the Gloucester Prevention Network for assistance in developing a yearlong campaign called Message in a Bottle.

Philip L. Salzman:
The Prevention Network was there as a community participant, to provide the newspaper with objective resources and information that can help the newspaper communicate to its readers what the nature of these tragedies were, how it relates to the state or to the nation, and some specific information that can be helpful.

Narrator:
Throughout the year, the Times provided ongoing coverage of alcohol-related stories at the national, state, and, most importantly, local level. The paper editorialized in support of state legislation and local policies, and prominently publicized accounts of the community’s alcohol arrests, convictions, injuries, and mortalities. The campaign was a major success, winning the National Commission on Drunk Driving Community Media Award. Gloucester combined several strategies toward one common goal—to pass legislation that would reduce the likelihood of further tragedies like the death of Stephen Ross. Other communities, too, can examine their own local situations and look for ways to combine effective multiple strategies.