JAY – Statistics show underage drinking is so prevalent in the greater Franklin County area, including Jay and Livermore Falls, that it exceeds the state average.

A meeting to prevent underage drinking in the Jay and Livermore Falls area is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, at LaFleur’s Restaurant.

Healthy Community Coalition in Farmington received funding from the Office of Substance Abuse to develop a substance abuse prevention strategic plan in greater Franklin County area. The final report identifies three major goals the group will undertake: Reduce high risk and underage drinking; reduce prescription drug abuse and misuse and look more at prevention of crystal methamphetamine use, said Lisa Laflin, a community builder with the Healthy Community Coalition in Farmington.

The surgeon general has also issued a call to action to reduce underage drinking nationally, Laflin said.

Wednesday’s forum is one of dozens of meetings being held nationally to find ways to prevent young people from drinking.

Maine first lady Karen Baldacci, who has been instrumental in raising awareness of the effects of underage drinking, will be the keynote speaker, Laflin said.

The purpose of the meeting is to bring people together to collectively take action to build awareness and develop steps to address underage drinking as a community.

A panel of local experts will discuss the issue and recommend ways to reduce underage drinking, Laflin said.

Those panelists include Jay police Chief Larry White Sr., Karen Haley, substance abuse and mental health counselor, Darren Carter, health teacher, and Meghan Norris, a seventh-grader at Livermore Falls Middle School.

Materials will be passed out directed at parents to help them to listen to their children and talk about and understand underage drinking and how to prevent it.

A short video titled “This Place” will be shown. It gives data such as how alcohol in the United States kills more youths than all illegal drugs combined, and that’s not just talking about accidents, Laflin said. The video talks about the affects of alcohol on the brain, adult role models, advertising, and some effects of underage drinking, including violence, injury, premature death, and suffering academics and aspirations, she added.

Laflin said parents, health educators and others are involved and they’d like to increase that number.

“We really need community support,” she said, to reduce the number of underage drinking. They plan to start in Jay and Livermore Falls.