RUMFORD – Now that proms, graduations and holidays are in sight, police are working to curb underage drinking and to stop adults from providing alcohol to teens.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, in the municipal building, the Oxford County Law Enforcement Agencies will conduct a news conference about the issue and the work they intend to complete.

They intend to put “a unified message out there that we take underage drinking and furnishing to minors seriously, especially during this time of proms, graduations, holidays and summer,” Rumford police Chief Stacy Carter said in a Monday report.

Carter said Tuesday that a River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition grant will fund the project to try to prevent underage drinking from taking a toll on lives.

“It’s not a reaction to what state police did,” Carter said of what prompted the multi-police-force project.

So far this spring, state police have raided two underage drinking parties in Oxford County: one on May 3 in Buckfield and another on April 20 in Peru.

In the Buckfield incident, 11 of 24 charged with underage drinking were under the age of 18. Thirteen were between the ages of 18 and 20. One adult was arrested on a charge of furnishing a place for underage drinking.

Following the April 20 party in Peru, two 16-year-old boys were seriously injured when their car crashed into a tree off Ridge Road.

In June 2008, prior to SAD 43’s Mountain Valley High School graduation, state police raided an underage drinking party at Bunker Pond in Roxbury and charged 25 students ages 17 to 18 with drinking alcohol.