The Hospitality Resource Panel (HRP) process is a framework for businesses and cities to create more safe and vibrant places for people to socialize. It has matured from early efforts begun in the 1990’s utilizing insights gained from a series of research evaluations aimed at reducing customer intoxication rates.

The early process relied upon organizing a coalition of diverse interest groups seeking to reduce underage drinking and drunk driving by promoting voluntary policies, practices and training among hospitality businesses. While this approach involved many of the responsible businesses, those often identified as most problematic failed to get involved.

In 1994, the process gained its name, Hospitality Resource Panel (HRP) and focused more on identification of high risk practices and a coordinated intervention involving a balance of peer-to-peer collaboration and enforcement. The initial stage of this process identified businesses named in “last drink reports,” invited the owners to a briefing, presented the option of a formal policy assessment and then assisted the business.

Lessons Lead to Evolution

El Cajon, California became RHI's second HRP. Recognizing that some high risk practices came more from lack of information and skills than intent to break the law or cause harm, this HRP introduced what is now one of RHI's signature tools. Roundtables were held where business owners and managers could meet, gather information and discuss issues with representatives from key government agencies.

Through San Diego’s HRP, it was determined that addressing issues in an urban environment with multiple business districts required better communication and coordination at the city level. Two alliances formed: one for safety agencies and a second for hospitality associations. While there were collaborative meetings between the two groups, it was also apparent there was a need for separate meetings.

An outgrowth of the Safety Alliance was the Development Alliance, to provide a forum to address emerging quality-of-life issues in mixed-use districts.

National Endorsement and Support

Through one of RHI's National events, the formation of the North American Partnership for Responsible Hospitality led to the introduction of a new objective for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2000 Objectives, recommending that states form “Hospitality Resource Panels .. to define standards on responsible hospitality and increase participation in management and server training.”

In 1999 and 2000, funding from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration supported HRP Training Institutes to introduce teams from cities nationwide to the HRP process.

Expanded Network and New Direction

Athens, Georgia was among the first non-RHI managed HRP’s. Montgomery County, Maryland, Washington, DC, Tallahassee Florida, among other cities also began the process, contributing new strategies and validating common trends and issues identified in other cities.

The July 2001 Issue Forum on Managing the Growth of Dining and Entertainment Districts, held in Washington, was a turning point for RHI in that it recognized a lack of organized resources for cities to better plan, manage and police dining and entertainment districts.

Five Year Plan

In 2002 RHI obtained additional resources from Diageo, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, as well as expanded involvement on the RHI board by the Community Policing Consortium, the International Downtown Association, the National Main Street Center and other key stakeholder groups. This new momentum spurred the beginning stages of a five year process to collect, analyze and organize information on trends, issues, gaps and resources for managing dining and entertainment districts.

Leadership Summit

RHI built upon the lessons learned and began a new approach to starting HRPs. Utilizing a planning committee from national associations and agencies divided into hospitality, development and safety perspectives the following recommendations were made.

• 2020 Vision Leadership Summit: Recognizing the impact of demographics on development of city's hospitality zones, the groups decided the Summit could act as a process to examine long-term issues as well as serving as an annual review and update.

• Strategic and Tactical: It was recommended that the event's structure should be organized first as strategic, inviting more global-thinking/big-picture participants, followed by a forum for more tactical individuals who could develop the “tactics” for the trends and issues identified by the first group.

• Roundtables: A forum for each individual stakeholder group was deemed important to provide a more comfortable environment for candor and exploration. Separating the groups subverts jargon and controversy, barriers to mining  substantial information for review and consensus development at the subsequent session that merges the three groups.

Today the Leadership Summit is used as part of the Hospitality Zone Assessment and determines a city's readiness to implement an HRP.

Trends and Issues

• Pilot Cities: Four cities were identified as pilot sites to implement the Leadership Summit in 2003. In each pilot city three Roundtables (hospitality, safety, development) were held and a preliminary report was prepared, followed by a local Leadership Summit with representatives from each Roundtable. A final report was prepared that featured a specific action plan presented to city leadership.

Community Perspective Added

In 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sought the services of RHI to explore how the HRP Process could be enhanced to focus specifically on impaired driving and pedestrian safety. With more people moving from suburbs to urban centers, the challenges for traffic and pedestrian safety are different, and require different strategies. While some prevention strategies are transferable others are not. Working with three demonstration cities, there will be a focus on creating templates for other cities to use in adapting the HRP process to better incorporate traffic and pedestrian safety concerns.