PACE grant to help reduce consequences of high-risk drinking

UW–Madison’s PACE Coalition has been awarded a four-year, $468,000 grant renewal from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Formerly known as the RWJ Project, the project has been renamed PACE: Reducing the Consequences of High-Risk Drinking, to reflect the four pillars of its work: policy, alternatives, community, and education.

The renewal of the original six-year, $707,000 grant will continue to fund the campus/community partnership’s work toward reducing the consequences of high-risk drinking on campus.

“This grant recognizes the dedication and hard work of numerous partners from the campus, the city and beyond,” says UW–Madison Chancellor John Wiley. “It’s a vote of confidence in what we’ve accomplished so far and a great contribution toward our future work.”

The coalition will target four major policy issues aimed at changing the environment and culture around campus alcohol.

They are:

• Limiting late-night drink specials
• Exploring parental notification for certain violations
• Addressing the dangers of house parties
• Clarifying and publicizing university policies and expectations of student conduct.

“We focus on consequences when we look at the problem,” says Aaron Brower, principal investigator for the grant and a professor in the UW–Madison School of Social Work. “We’re not prohibitionists. Sexual assault, fights, vandalism: That’s ultimately what we hope to reduce, largely through changing policy.”

The group will also continue to support alternatives to high-risk drinking. Among them:

• Innovative partnerships with local taverns to provide some alcohol-free nights: The Annex at the Regent Street Retreat is a new partner.
• Promotion of off-campus activities that do not focus on alcohol: This fall, the university will begin a partnership with Laff Lines at the Orpheum Theatre, 211 State St.
• Extended late-night hours at campus recreational facilities and libraries.

PACE is a “A Matter of Degree” grant site, a group of 10 universities funded by the RWJ Foundation and evaluated by Harvard University, to reduce high-risk drinking and its consequences on campuses. The National Program Office for all of the grants is housed at the American Medical Association.

“As a proud alumnus of UW–Madison, I’m excited about the progress that PACE has made over the past few years,” says Richard Yoast, director of the AMA’s Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse.” And their current work on policy — limits on drink specials, for instance — is exactly the direction campuses should be heading.”

The Princeton, N.J.-based RWJ Foundation is the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse-tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.