Three local law enforcement agencies are giving residents who violate drinking laws the opportunity to expunge their charges through learning and experience

The Athens Police Department, Ohio University Police Department, and the Department of Liquor Enforcement are looking for ways to increase awareness about their cooperative program, Second Chance, a voluntary diversion program for people arrested for intoxication. The program is two years old.

It consists of three phases, said Lara Trujillo, student program coordinator. Three hours of education and counseling, a two-hour information session with the arresting officers and five hours of community service are all to be completed in a thirty day period. Participants have three business days to make their decision to participate and pay an eighty-dollar program fee. Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible.

OU Health Education and Wellness and Flores & Associates Inc., a private service, conducts phase one. The addition of Health Education and Wellness gives participants more choices and flexibility to complete the program within the thirty-day time limit.

The education sessions look at how to change participants' behavior. Participants are given information about the effects of alcohol to help them make wiser decisions.

Stephanie Dorgan, co-facilitator, said she isn't sure if three hours will be enough. The bigger the group, the more time a session will take, she said.

Health Education and Wellness tries to be prevention oriented. The Second Chance program acts as secondary prevention to deter subsequent alcohol abuse. It helps to reduce the risk of future intoxication.

"We're glad to be a part of the puzzle," Dorgan said of the community effort.

Phase two is part of the HABITS program that is run by OUPD, in which officers speak with students and community members concerning alcohol related laws and punishments.

"An important part of it is those (people) sitting down with the officers and seeing what (the officers) have seen dealing with drinking and results of drinking," said Ted Jones head of Department of Campus Safety. "It's a positive chance to talk to the young who have made a bad decision."

Community service is the final phase of the program. Second Chance works with several non-profit groups and hopes to add more as the program grows, Trujillo said. The program tries to stay away from tasks such as picking up trash on College Green. Instead, she wants the participants to gain something from the experience and to give back to their community.

Each participant evaluates the education counseling and information session. So far, the feedback has been positive.

"I've had people that said that they didn't realize how out of control their behavior was until they got arrested and decided to make a change," Trujillo said. "I've seen people get way off track. It starts with one little drink."