In Kalihi tonight, parents, teachers, community leaders and even a few kids will gather to talk about how to tackle underage drinking, arguably one of the biggest problems facing youth today and one that advocates say appears to be on the rise in Hawai'i.

The town hall is part of a nationwide campaign to get people brainstorming community-based solutions to underage drinking, which studies have shown leads to other risky behaviors, including driving drunk, drug use and unprotected sex.

The town halls have been held in four Hawai'i communities so far.

In addition to the Kalihi gathering, at least six others are set for this month across the state.

Hundreds of similar meetings are being held across the country.

Sean Spriggs, an organizer for the Kalihi town hall, said the meetings are designed to link residents with services and make sure the programs designed to curb underage drinking are aware of what life is like on the ground.

"There are resources out there," Spriggs said, adding the gatherings also are meant to come up with innovative solutions to a complex problem.

"People are going to ... be a part of that whole process," he said.

Spriggs and other youth advocates have plenty of anecdotes — but no statistics yet — to support their assertions that alcohol use among minors in the Islands is increasing. In 2003, the last time the state Department of Health took a survey of Hawai'i eighth-graders, about 37 percent said they had tried alcohol at some point. That's compared with about 49 percent in 2000.

The survey also showed 73 percent of high school seniors in 2003 had tried alcohol.

The figure was down from 1987, the first year the survey was conducted, when 86 percent of seniors said they had tried alcohol.

Spriggs said he is working to get newer numbers from the federal government.

Without them, he conceded, it's hard to convince people the problem is a significant one.

Still, he said, there has been a good amount of interest about the Kalihi town hall.

Spriggs, project coordinator for the Drug Free Coalition of Hawai'i, said the community meeting will have three panelists, including a young person. The panelists will speak for about 15 minutes, and then action groups made of up audience members will take up problems — such as how to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors — and brainstorm possible solutions.

A town hall set for tomorrow in Kane'ohe also will invite the community to come up with ways to tackle the problem.

"It affects the entire community," said Gordon Miyamoto of Parents and Children Together. "The reason we want to have a town hall meeting is to raise awareness."

Residents in Nanakuli will meet April 9. Bernadette Philhower of Hope Chapel Nanakuli said she wants to see plenty of parents and kids at the meeting in hopes of getting a range of opinions on the problem.

"We're hoping that we can reach out to parents," she said. "This is a problem. We need to be more proactive."