For Immediate Release - Washington, DC

Donovan Kuehn
703-741-7686, ext. 125
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NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals, proudly honored the Youth to Youth program of Dover, New Hampshire citing the program?s positive accomplishments and constructive leadership. NAADAC President, Mary Woods, RNC, LADC, MSHS, awarded Youth to Youth the President's Special Recognition Award.

Dover's Youth to Youth program is a comprehensive peer-based youth outreach group sponsored by the Dover Police Department and is the largest program of its type in the State of New Hampshire. Student volunteers actively work to promote alcohol-free and tobacco-free lifestyles and events. The youth involved also develop public speaking, educational and leadership skills.

The most dramatic accomplishment of the Youth to Youth program was their campaign for the New Hampshire "party host" law. In the winter of 2004, legislation making hosts of parties responsible for any under-age drinking at their gathering seemed unlikely to pass. Through the direct intervention of the Dover Youth to Youth Program, with its youth members speaking directly to the state's legislators, the "party host" law was revived and signed into law in April 2004. This law is unique because it holds parents accountable for allowing minors access to alcohol.

Two St. Thomas Aquinas High School students, Ryan McClure and Chris Fortin, as well as Lt. William Simons of the Dover Police Department, accepted the President's Special Recognition Award on behalf of Dover Youth to Youth.

NAADAC President Mary Woods, a Manchester, New Hampshire resident, was encouraged by Youth to Youth's positive example. "NAADAC's 12,000 frontline addiction clinicians know patterns of behavior can be established early in life. By encouraging people to make healthy choices while they are young, it helps make long-lasting change in people's lives and their communities. We are pleased to honor young people who have taken a passionate and thoughtful approach to under-age drinking and smoking," she said.

The award ceremony was held at NAADAC's Leadership Summit and Advocacy in Action Day in Washington, DC on March 8, 2005.