What is SafeHomes?
The SafeHomes Program is a volunteer group of parents who join together to help provide a safe environment for their children. It does not require a commitment of time or extra effort for already busy families. It is simply an agreement between parents to follow some simple principles that will provide a genuinely safer world for our children to grow in.
Why Do We Need a SafeHomes Program?
Our young people are faced, almost daily, with pressures to use alcohol and illegal drugs. As if the over glamorized advertising of alcohol were not enough, there are endless social messages and pressures on our kids to use all kinds of intoxicants. Even those children who choose not to use, are frequently forced to socialize with those who are using, if they are to socialize at all.
No responsible and informed adult today can deny that the use of alcohol and illegal drugs pose a real and unacceptable danger for our teens. Yet, as individual parents, we frequently feel helpless to protect a "young adult" without standing in the way of social opportunity. We are caught in a real dilemma. SafeHomes is a tool to address this problem.
What is Required if I join SafeHomes?
Read the pledge to your children and explain that, while they may not now understand or appreciate the purpose, you have joined SafeHomes out of love for them. Then, live up to the requirements of the pledge, without fail.
What if I Feel That Young People Should be Allowed to Drink Alcohol if They are Properly Supervised?
You are perfectly free to choose NOT to sign the SafeHomes pledge. You should feel no pressure to join if you plan to serve alcohol to teens. SafeHomes feel, however, that you should know several things. Research shows that adults who are "taught to drink responsibly" as teens grow up to have as many related problems as adults who were freely allowed to drink as teens. There is no advantage to "teaching" them to drink.
Adolescents are both physically and psychologically more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol than the mature adult. Biological researchers have proven that young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who began drinking at age 21. In fact, the risk of alcohol dependency decreases by 14% with each increasing year of age of drinking onset.
The SafeHomes pledge does not intend to interfere with your choice in your own home with your own children. However, along with preventing underage drinking, it does hope to eliminate drinking party situations where others are present.
Finally, we feel that adults and parents who choose to allow groups of teens to drink are fostering a disrespect of the law in these young people, regardless of your own personal beliefs. SafeHomes sincerely hopes that you consider the potentially serious consequences of letting teens drink in your home.
What About the Teens Who Choose to Drink Anyway, Regardless of the SafeHomes Program?
No effort can be made to stop all kids from drinking. This is not the goal of SafeHomes. We wish to do three things:
1. Provide a safe social environment for teens in OUR OWN HOMES.
2. Send a clear, unambiguous message to our children and all teens that we care enough for their safety to risk their displeasure to try to protect them.
3. To inform other parents that if their children come to our home, they will be supervised, and that alcohol and other drug use will not be tolerated.
The goals are proper, realistic, and can be achieved in our community.
What if a Family Signs, Then Violates the Pledge?
The SafeHomes program is a voluntary program and those who sign it are pledging on their personal honor to abide by it. If a SafeHomes parent violates the pledge, it is hoped that he or she will reflect on the ever-present dangers of underage drinking and begin to uphold his or her pledge. By signing this pledge, SafeHomes volunteers do not incur liability for the acts of others.
After I Sign, Then What?
Then simply supervise social gatherings at your home and prevent the use of alcohol and other drugs. The SafeHomes pledge will be renewed on an annual basis. You are not obligated to work, volunteer, attend meetings, or spend any of your time or effort. Just send in your completed pledge form and follow the pledge.
SafeHomes - Safe From Drugs - Safe From Alcohol - Safe For Children to Grow
Pledge to Provide a Safe Home
- I will not allow parties or gatherings in my ho me when I am not there.
- I will not serve minors, nor will I allow youth under the legal drinking age(21) to consume alcohol or to use other drugs in my home or on my property.
- I wish for communications with any parents who PERSONALLY OBSERVES my child using alcohol or other drugs.
- I will communicate with any SafeHomes parent of a child I PERSONALLY OBSERVE using alcohol or other drugs.
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