Using GIS in partnership with community advocacy groups to affect local public health policy decisions: Project Extra Mile and alcohol consumption in Omaha

Project Extra Mile is a statewide network of coalitions in Nebraska working to create a community consensus that clearly states that underage alcohol use is illegal, unhealthy and unacceptable. Nebraska is now at a critical time for its need to effectively begin addressing alcohol-related problems, including a nearly 25 percent increase in liquor licenses over the last seven years. The coalition has partnered with citizens, neighborhood associations and other prevention groups to address outlet density, in addition to working with UNMC. The efforts were undertaken to provide a tool for local policy makers and to advance local organizing initiatives as the coalition continues to engage municipalities in addressing licensing issues at the local level. Recently, a chain of convenience stores has applied for liquor licenses at their Omaha locations. A study of the non-compliant events at existing licenses around the 24 locations was undertaken. After plotting active and closed alcohol licenses within Douglas County, a 2 minute drive time service area buffer was created for each proposed location. These buffers were used to examine existing licenses around each proposed locations for patterns in non-compliant events and license density. It was discovered that the locations were composed of 2 smaller populations based on density and that one of the proposed locations was near a ‘hot spot' for non-compliant events. Given the correlation between license density and alcohol related harms (Campbell 2009), Project Extra Mile recommended that only those new locations with low license density and compliant records be granted licenses.