The CAB grew out of CADCA's Community/Researcher Partnership Project. This initiative, which was supported by funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to CADCA, was designed to (1) help coalitions and researchers understand the research process, (2) partner coalitions with researchers through meetings and conferences about community issues, and (3) foster the identification of shared research questions and assist collaborative research projects. CADCA convened small meetings (15–30 individuals) of community coalition representatives, substance abuse researchers, and federal partners (see Table 1). The general problem of teen drinking parties, and a specific set of solutions involving community education, law enforcement, and policy development, was repeatedly prioritized by the participants at these meetings as one of the one or two top topics in need of research. They advocated for tests of the feasibility of implementing such changes in local communities and the effects of these changes on the size, frequency, and pervasiveness of underage drinking parties and attendant consequences. The specific policy change of interest was local “social host” ordinances, which hold the hosts of parties civilly or criminally responsible for underage drinking parties that take place in locations under their control, such as personal residences [33].
