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Promoting the positive

What is the Positive Community Norms Campaign?
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The Positive Community Norms(PCN) Campaign is an evidence based strategy that works to correct misperceptions, reduce underage drinking and other drug use, reinforce positive parenting habits, and raise awareness of the fact that the majority of students in the Issaquah School District are making healthy choices.
Most youth do NOT engage in substance use, but most may think their peers do. Similarly, parents may think most teens drink alcohol, but they may not think it is an issue they need to address with their own child.  Our strategy to promote Positive Community Norms corrects misperceptions like these and in the process, helps us all shift perspective, attitudes and even our behaviors for the better.
What you can do…
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Hear the conversation (what teens and their parents say), and then steer the conversation to correct any misperceptions and promote the positive norms. In other words, find the untold goodness and continuously spread it through mass media marketing efforts, school-based activities, or even dinner table conversations.

Goals of the Positive Community Norms Campaign 

  • Correct student misperceptions regarding their peers’ alcohol and other drug use.
  • Increase the number of youth who believe that alcohol and other drugs are harmful to their health.
  • Reduce youth substance use.
  • Correct community and adult misperceptions about teen alcohol and other drug use.
"ITC utilizes evidence based data to help create the village we need to raise our youth. ~Bernie L., Chamber of Commerce Sector Representative

How it Works
The Positive Community Norms campaign is a research-based strategy which recognizes that many young people are likely to conform to peer norms or feel the social pressure to do so. A growing number of studies show that both high school and college students’ personal drinking behavior is strongly influenced by their incorrect perception of peer drinking norms. Students typically think that the norms for both the frequency and the quantity of drinking among their peers are higher than they actually are.
The Social Norms approach works to correct negative misperceptions by collecting actual data that measures beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The data is then incorporated into a marketing strategy using media materials and messages to correct commonly-held beliefs like “everybody does it.” By continuing to market the positive messages and true norms, the misperception that “everybody does it” is slowly altered until there is a realization that “not everyone does it.”
The Results
Research shows repeated exposure to a variety of positive, data-based messages can change the misperceptions that help sustain problem behaviors. Over time, the negative behaviors of a group begin to shift toward the more accurately perceived safer and healthier norms.
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  • Home
  • Programs and Events
    • Student Video Contest
    • Power of Me, Power of We
    • Community Education
    • Hidden in Plain Sight Exhibit
    • Youth Leadership Events
    • Action Forum for Youth
    • Calendar of Events
  • TECH Youth Coalition
  • Resources
    • Positive Community Norms
    • Community Resources
    • Healthy Youth Survey Data
    • Supporting Our Community in Complex Times
  • About Us
    • Our Team in Action
    • Staff & Executive Committee
    • Want to Volunteer?
    • Environmental Strategies of Change
    • Contact
  • Donate
  • ITC Spring Fun Run
    • Influence the Choice Spring Fun Run
    • Individual Registration
    • Family Registration
    • Sponsorship
  • Our Community Partners