Red and Blue Crew
The Red and Blue Crew promotes safe, social, and healthy consumption of alcohol.
Students in the Red and Blue Crew encourage others to have a healthy relationship with alcohol. We try to reduce the harms associated with alcohol including over-intoxication, alcohol poisoning, hangovers, poor decisions, and death. These harms are addressed via crisis intervention and improving education and self-monitoring on alcohol consumption.
Goals
- Take care of each other. Promote prosocial bystander intervention to the point where all students at Acadia University are watching each others' backs and willing to help one another while consuming and during alcohol-related incidents.
- Change the culture. Alter university drinking culture into a more social and healthy norm of behaviour. We want a community where those who wish to consume alcohol can enjoy its positive effects without compromising the health, well-being, dignity, or safety of themselves or others.
- Spread the message. Grow our initiative throughout the campus community so that the majority of students are either Red and Blue Crew members or associated with at least one member.
The Red and Blue Crew began as the Red Watch Band program following the tragic death of a student due to alcohol poisoning. The mother of the student founded the program in the hopes of creating a community of students that would look out for each other, so that help could be provided to those who might need it when drinking.
What We Do
Red and Blue Crew members do not have specific duties. No one is ever on shift, or on call, or otherwise working for the University. However, it is expected that members try to help other students who have drank unsafely or drank too much alcohol.
Red and Blue Crew members are expected to be prosocial bystanders, education providers, and sometimes first responders to alcohol-related crises. Above all, the goal is to teach students how to look after themselves when drinking while still showing that help is available if things go wrong.
Members are not expected to help by themselves: waving over a bouncer or RA ensures that someone is attending to the situation, and that may be the extent of the help provided by the member. The main point is making sure that there is someone with the person that is unwell.
Training
Red and Blue Crew conferences are held once a month to provide training and information to students interested in becoming a part of the organization.
Conferences are held in the morning and are typically 2-3 hours. After the conference, attendees will be presented with a Red and Blue Crew band and will be sent a certificate acknowledging their participation.
Training is focused on crisis intervention and prevention, and on creating an attitude of helping others in need. Red and Blue Crew training is not a substitute for proper medical training or first aid, as members will not be expected to aid others on their own but to find trained help (RAs, EHS, 911, etc.) when it is needed.