Community Organizing
An EPIC Tale: Youth Prevent Alcohol Problems Through Environmental Design
 When the young members of Environmental Prevention In Communities (EPIC) first met with city officials and agency representatives to ask for crime-prevention policy changes in Oakland, California, they found some of them uncooperative and others down right rude. "The policy makers would use lots of jargon and buzzwords," recalls Kara Andrade, Program Coordinator, "and they wouldn't explain their terms." She noticed that the officials didn't speak directly to the EPIC board members or show other signs of respect-like offering a business card at the close of the meeting. However, after several meetings during which the board members demonstrated their command of the issues, the officials began to show more respect.
"We had to be patient," recalls Quyen-Thi Nguyen, who at 17 is one of the older EPIC participants. "They just aren't used to young people doing this kind of work." Staff in Oakland's planning department, the city attorney's office and the office of the city manager can be forgiven for their lack of experience with groups like EPIC. Authentically youth-driven prevention efforts that focus on "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design" (CPTED) are indeed rare.
EPIC, a project of the Alcohol Policy Network, consists of a 12-member youth board between the ages of 13 - 23, a project coordinator (Andrade) and three interns. EPIC is funded by the City of Oakland and Alameda County and is committed to mobilizing communities through campaigns, research-based projects and policy development addressing alcohol-related issues.
 When the group surveyed a sample of alcohol outlets in Oakland last year, they found that 85 percent did not comply with California's "Lee Law" 1 which stipulates that "No more than one-third of the square footage of windows and clear doors (e.g., glass) of an alcohol retailer may have signs of any sort, including all types of advertising." The recently-adopted change in state law, introduced by then-California State Assembly Member Barbara Lee, is intended to prevent crime by increasing visibility.
The young prevention advocates discovered that many store owners and managers were unaware of the law, and although several quickly removed enough signs to comply, others were "too busy." EPIC youth made a series of follow-up visits and eventually all but one of the outlets came into compliance. They gave the name of the one remaining offender to the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
"We learned that the Lee Law only addresses signage," explained John Trinidad, 18. "Some of the stores were technically in compliance with the law, but they still had more than 33 percent of their windows obstructed with refrigerators, shelving, mesh screens and other things." When EPIC realized that stores could comply with the letter of the law without being true to the intended spirit of the law, they began looking for another way to address the blight in and around alcohol outlets.
"It all kind of clicked for us," says Andrade, "when we learned that making certain changes in and around alcohol outlets had been proven scientifically to reduce crime." After they got this crucial information about "crime prevention through environmental design," EPIC youth started meeting with city officials.
"We have become the intermediary between the city and community residents," says Andrade. "Residents have been raising the issue of blight at town hall meetings and through crime watch groups for years. But the community would never show up at the table to meet with the officials whose job it is to address these concerns. We are a bridge between two different worlds."
Community residents know that blight is a problem because they see it everyday. "The city people wanted data," says Trinidad. "So we set out to collect the information needed to quantify the problem and build our case for amending the city's blight ordinance."
EPIC has just completed a report on its survey of 90 stores in one district of Oakland. They compiled the data to meet the needs of the different groups with whom they had met. "We make it a point to respond to all the needs that are brought to us each time we meet with different groups," says Andrade. For example, EPIC gave the city's Alcohol Beverage Action Team, a special unit of the Oakland Police Department charged with enforcing alcohol laws, a requested list of the stores surveyed that are out of compliance with the Lee Law.
Armed with their survey findings, EPIC is now setting up meetings with the Chamber of Commerce and local merchants' associations. The young people involved in EPIC will not be surprised if they encounter adults who fail to take them seriously. But EPIC youth are confident that if they keep showing up, the adults will eventually recognize that they share common goals for a safe and healthy community and that EPIC might just have a way to reach those goals.
To learn more about CPTED visit the National Crime Prevention Council Web site at:
www.ncpc.org .
1 One of nine alcohol retail operating standards in Section 25612.5 of the California State Business and Professions Code.
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