Drinkaware is the national registered charity, working to prevent and reduce alcohol misuse and tackle underage drinking in Ireland. Our brand awareness and trust amongst the general public at 89% (B&A/Drinkaware Barometer 2020), gives us our social contract to deliver this mission.
We do this by identifying the attitudinal and behaviour drivers of the misuse of alcohol, and using them to scope and inform our awareness and education programmes to support positive behaviour change. We are committed to delivering evidence-based programmes, to collaborating with other mission-aligned organisations, and to rigorous evaluation of the outcomes and impact of our activities.
Drinkaware is transparent, independent and accountable. Our Annual Reports 2019 and 2020 clearly state the outputs and impacts of the charity along with our financials, and earned us a place on the Corporate Governance Awards shortlist in 2020.
Our efficacy is reflected in our reach: we have on average half a million visits to our website, with hundreds of thousands of uses of our drinks calculator; and every year we distribute thousands of free resources across the country. Our research is Open Access and since its inception, 176 teachers have been trained to deliver our primary prevention Alcohol Education Programme, reaching over 13,000 Junior Cycle students nationwide. Last year Maynooth University concluded its 3 year evaluation of the Programme describing it as “a useful, feasible, high-quality programme which is successfully addressing a high level of need for alcohol education”.
Our current strategic cycle 2022-24 has ambitious plans to further our research, education and outreach and engagement activity, demonstrate our position as the lead organisation in alcohol education and awareness, and focus on two goals: to reduce risky drinking and to shift underage drinking .
