Hamilton Nationwide Insurance Agency

Nationwide and MADD will be launching the new program, The Power of Parents: It's Your Influence, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Washington, D.C. The program will equip parents with the conversation tools they need to talk with their teens at home in an effective way that helps stop underage drinking.

For years Nationwide has supported preventing underage drinking with programs such as Nationwide Prom Promise and MADD's THINK. These programs were successful; however, there was no way to enforce them. Teens sign a pledge for an evening and then forget about it. After 20 years, underage drinking is still an issue.

Last year, when the THINK program ended, we began creating a new program geared toward parents based on research confirming that parents are the number one influencer of teens and their decisions to drink or not. The program will equip parents with the conversation tools they need to talk with their teens at home in an effective way that helps stop underage drinking.

Nationwide and MADD will be launching the new program, The Power of Parents: It's Your Influence, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Washington, D.C.

The program has two components: a website and a community-based program.

The website will:

• Empower parents/caregivers/adults with the tools, strategies and knowledge to combat underage drinking
• Provide a clearinghouse of the best information available to parents/caregivers/adults on underage drinking
• Provide resources from the most credible organizations and researchers
• Serve parents/caregivers/adults with underage drinking prevention messaging
• Be easy to navigate by highlighting information by topic

The website www.thepowerofparents.org will go live on Tuesday, Oct.27.

The Power of Parents: It's Your Influence is based on research conducted by Robert Turrisi of Pennsylvania State University. It's a proven guide on how to talk to college students about alcohol. The program has been tailored for parents of high school aged students. Mr. Turrisi's research indicates that parents will have the strongest impact on drinking if they use specific communication techniques that affect positive outcomes when discussing their expectations about drinking.

The program will train facilitators around the country to teach parents how to have these talks with their high school students. MADD's trained field volunteers/facilitators will conduct workshops in their local communities to educate parents/caregivers/adults on the best communication techniques to effectively address the dangers and consequences of underage drinking.

Nationwide will always be committed to saving lives and making the roads safer for everyone. By preventing underage drinking, we can help stop drunk driving in the future.

To learn more about car insurance and The Power of Parents: It's Your Influence, contact Tim Hamilton or Monica Landers at (859) 276-1234 or go online at www.timhamiltoninsurance.net or www.nationwide.com/timhamilton.

Hamilton Nationwide Insurance Agency, based in Lexington, KY, provides a full range of insurance products, including auto, motorcycle, boat, homeowners, renters, life,&commercial; insurance, as well as fixed and index annuities.