Local Spotlight: Quaboag Hills Substance Use Alliance’s New Social Norms Messaging Campaigns!

Quaboag Hills Substance Use Alliance has recently created two different social norms messaging campaigns with their youth advisory group. One campaign is targeted towards parents and caregivers in Ware, and one campaign is targeted towards youth in Ware. The data that informed these campaigns came from a QHSUA 2025 Parent and Caregiver Survey as well as the results from the 2025 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey of the school districts in Ware, Palmer, Monson, Quaboag Hills, and North Brookfield. The posters from these campaigns will be hung up in the schools of the towns listed above, and promoted through school take-home materials, libraries, lawn signs, and more!

So… What is a social norms marketing campaign?

A social norms marketing campaign is an evidence-informed strategy to educate individuals on positive social norms in order to correct misconceptions and decreasing risky behaviors. This strategy is based on the following:

1. The attitudes and behaviors of young people are highly influenced by what they believe their peers’ attitudes and behaviors are.
2. Perceptions can be inaccurate. For example, youth often overestimate their peers’ use of substances.
3. Misperceptions of peers’ attitudes and behaviors can lead youth to conform to a risky behavior, such as drinking, if they believe that is the normal behavior of their peers.
4. Correcting misperceptions allows youth to act in ways that align with their own beliefs, which most often involve positive behaviors.

Learn more about the evidence and impact of social norms campaigns with the following links:

• National Social Norms Center
• A Guide to Implementing a Social Norms Media Campaign for Substance Use Prevention in Secondary Schools
• An Introduction to Positive Community Norms