The Piatt County Mental Health Center received a grant to address the epidemic of teen drinking in DeWitt County and five years later, statistics are showing improvements.

Tuesday morning on the WHOW Morning Show, Tony Kirkman with the Piatt County Mental Health Center says DeWitt County was showing a higher than the state average of underage drinking among youth and so they received a grant from the State of Illinois to address the problem.

Kirkman indicates the success of the grant and the coalition they formed was huge. He explains throughout the grant, they were able to expand their base of students to survey and feels their efforts paid off.

The goal from the grant was to decrease the underage drinking rate by only 2 or 2.5 percent but Kirkman points out, the rate decreased by 5-percent.