NineZero is The Arc of Riverside County’s coined word for saying “Nine months. Zero alcohol.”  The campaign features a peer-to-peer training curriculum the organization is offering free to all Riverside County high schools called Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Teaching and Research Awareness Campaign (FASTRAC).  The campaign also uses public service announcements featuring Olympic athletes and everyday people concerned about FASD, an interactive Web site (www.NineZero.org), and NineZero promotional items geared toward teens and young adults like T-shirts and tank tops as well as temporary tattoos.

In October, The Arc of Riverside County is hosting a mega-event to prevent FASD, and we want you to be a part of it - it’s called the NineZero Games.

Another recent development in the NineZero Project is the project’s NineZero Coffee Club venture, which it is hoped will help raise the funds needed to sustain this project.  The Arc of Riverside County has partnered with Redlands based Inland Empire Coffee Company to offer premium coffee for a great cause. The coffee can be purchased online through the project’s Web site.

While prenatal exposure to alcohol is the number one cause of developmental disabilities in the United States, it is totally preventable.  Many children can be spared a lifelong sentence of living with a disability or an irreversible physical or mental condition through education and prevention.  County health and social service personnel are seeing many of the problems drinking during pregnancy causes and are involved with The Arc of Riverside County in this county-wide effort as well as their own prevention efforts.  Individuals born with prenatal exposure to alcohol represent some of their toughest cases.  It follows the burden on taxpayers because of this public health problem is enormous.