April is Alcohol Awareness Month, a national observance promoting ways to maintain healthy drinking habits. Navy Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention's (NADAP) Keep What You've Earned Campaign has resources to help Sailors take proactive steps to drink responsibly.

"April is a great time for Sailors and their families to check in with their drinking," said Dorice Favorite, NADAP Director. "Drinking responsibly doesn't have to mean avoiding alcohol altogether. It's taking conscious steps to stay safe, like planning ahead, knowing your limit and finding a safe ride home."

Pier Pressure is the Keep What You've Earned Campaign's mobile application that enables Sailors to take these steps, combining real-life tools with gamification to encourage a responsible drinking environment, while celebrating Sailors' achievements in their Navy careers.

"Pier Pressure has been popular among Sailors and we constantly seek their feedback to improve the app's function and user experience," said Favorite. "We recently added access to Uber, Lyft and local cab searches in the app's Safe Ride Home resource, and a calorie counter that not only estimates what's in your cocktail or beer, but how many push-ups it may take to burn off those calories."

The app's latest release includes other Sailor-requested enhancements, like renaming the Tools option on the home screen to "Resources" so that key features can be easily located. In addition to the Safe Ride Home access, the Calorie Counter and Alcohol Estimator, the Resources section includes a quick and anonymous self-check to help gauge drinking habits and engage the right resources if a person has concerns about their drinking. The app can also push periodic smart drinking tips to users on the go to help them keep what they've earned.

Pier Pressure is not the only tool that the Keep What You've Earned campaign offers to promote a culture of responsible drinking. Other new or updated products include the Costs of a DUI poster, illustrating potential short-term and long-term impacts of driving under the influence. This poster and the campaign's full suite of materials that can be found on the campaign's website or ordered from the Naval Logistics Library.

Keep What You've Earned has resonated with Sailors and contributed to a consistent decline in alcohol-related incidents because it's designed from their point-of-view. Starting this month, Sailors have the opportunity to share their responsible drinking story, what motivates them to keep what they've earned, or highlight the ways that their command is encouraging healthy behaviors for a chance to be featured in future campaign products.

"Sailors want to hear from each other, and those testimonials are powerful persuaders when it comes to promoting ways to drink responsibly," said Favorite.

For a chance to have their story shared, Sailors can submit a short description including name, rate/rank, command and location to MILL_NADAP@Navy.mil, subject: A Day in the Life. NADAP will review all submissions and contact those that may be considered for future campaign products.

This April, NADAP wants Sailors of all rates and ranks to practice and share ways to drink responsibly. All members of the Navy community can stay engaged by holding local Keep What You've Earned events, sharing the campaign's social media content, showing their realistic Public Service Announcements during training events, or even serving as a designated driver.

"Any one of these things can make a difference and help a Sailor keep what they've earned," said Favorite.

For additional messaging, videos and graphics to share, follow NADAP on Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.


For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Chief of Naval Personnel, visit www.navy.mil/.