Carnarvon partysafe project

Partysafe was a community mobilisation project, conducted in the remote Northwest town of Carnarvon in Western Australia over a period of 18 months. The initial goal of was to reduce alcohol-related harm associated with drinking in private settings. However, subsequent to the pre-intervention community survey, greater emphasis was placed on influencing males in the age range 25-45 years, because of the high risk drinking behaviour identified in this group. The intervention comprised a number of components, including local media advertising and advocacy; participation in high profile community collaborative campaigns and use of a peer character cartoon strip to highlight alcohol issues and model behaviour change. On completion of the intervention phase, process and impact data were gathered from a number of community sources. The major impact of the Partysafe projectt was heightened awareness of alcohol issues in the community. The project also contributed in a major way to institutionalising a collaborative Christmas alcohol harm prevention campaign. Use of local media content was particularly effective in raising community awareness as to the project’s message and garnering support for its aims