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"It's OK to say NO WAY!" is a community wide, multi-year campaign to help kids say no to drugs, alcohol, and other destructive choices. The project is funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
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 The theoretical foundation of the It's OK campaign comes from social norms research, which shows that most youth are making positive personal health choices. However, they consistently over estimate the number of their peers who drink heavily as well as the level of acceptance of the drunken behavior. In reality, the data supports that most students are not heavy drinkers and most do not support drunken behavior. Based on these misperceptions, students accept excessive drinking as the norm; thus, they may actually drink more because of their misperceptions. Social norms theory attacks misperceptions by using positive, credible, norm-based numbers. The result of this approach has been a gravitation toward the true norm, which in turn has resulted in positive behavior change. The social norms theory can be applied through the development of media-based marketing campaigns.
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Background:
The social norms project in Colby was designed to challenge those assumptions. The idea is to use data from the Kansas Communities That Care Student Survey of 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students given annually in Colby and to incorporate the results of a newly-developed parent survey to craft accurate messages about alcohol and other drug use and expectations for no-use behavior. When simple, consistent, social norms messages developed by parent and youth focus groups and based upon the results of the surveys are disseminated throughout the community, the expectation is that current misperceptions and negative talk about youth alcohol and other drug use will be replaced with perceptions based in fact and messages about nonuse.
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