The ECAT Project

ECAT, acronym for "to Empower the Community in response to Alcohol Threats", ran as EC-co-funded project from December 2006 to November 2008 in six participating countries. The main aim of ECAT was to enhance the effectiveness of local alcohol prevention campaigns, based on:

• a continuous participation of local stakeholders
• guidelines for local campaigning, built on (evidence-based) practices
• local quick scan analysis to have a clear view on the local situation concerning alcohol use, as a starting point to develop local actions and more specifically local alcohol prevention campaigns
• a continuous evaluation of the process that leads to a local alcohol prevention actions.

The interaction of these elements results in a better understanding of the alcohol phenomenon in local communities, which is an essential step in conducting local alcohol prevention actions, such as a alcohol prevention campaign. The community-based approach is reinforced by the structural participation of local stakeholders, both representatives of professional sectors (e.g. health care, social services, education, police, ...) and representatives of the local population.
Two publications give insight in the conceptual and methodological framework of ECAT and describe the first practical applications in eight local communities. The first is more-practice-oriented, the second gives the necessary theoretical backgrounds.

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