Youth and Adults Working Together for a
Safe and Healthy Community

Presentation about Youth ²

Beverly Lazar founded a new group called Youth² to encourage youth to be active in their community and to foster discussion about ideas and issues they care about. She plans to speak to youth groups to discuss their ideas and make them aware of the ability to apply for grant funding to carry out their ideas in the community. Youth² plans to fundraise about once a year also.

Topics that have come among the group’s advisory council – made up of five youth and five adults – include volunteer activities, social action, and fundraising. The group has already sent funding to Cambodian street orphans, sent school supplies to indigenous children in Costa Rica, created health kits for children in Iraq. They are currently collecting backpacks for children in Costa Rica. Anyone who has one still in decent shape can drop it off at The Prevention Council by February 25^th. Bev will pick them up before her trip.

Youth² is currently requesting applications for community-oriented ideas from local youth. Two $500 grants will be awarded. The application deadline is March 31^st. Youth need to work through a local 501c3 organization, which would receive the funding and pass it on to the youth for their project. For more information, call 281-9130.

Miscellaneous

Saratoga Springs School District Attendance Officer Dave Torres and Saratoga County Supervisor Skip Scirocco recently met to discuss the Food Stamp program, which is not being used to its full capacity. Only about half of the eligible families are taking advantage of the Food Stamp benefit. There will be more information to come about the ways local and county officials will spread the word about Food Stamp eligibility.

Community-wide Planning

The Partnership has been around for three years, so a lot of what we’re doing, though innovative and effective, isn’t "news" anymore. To effect real change, the issues of underage drinking and substance abuse prevention must remain consistently in the public eye. Toward that end, the Partnership needs to continually initiate strategies that raise awareness and have community-wide impact.

Partnership Coordinator Elissa Nolan showed a brief PowerPoint presentation about how utilizing a combination of individual and environmental prevention strategies maximizes community impact. Environmental strategy ideas generated at previous meetings were distilled into 3 categories, and Partners broke into groups to identify how feasible and desirable it would be to put those ideas into action. Groups were asked to brainstorm the tasks and timeline necessary to accomplishing each strategy. Groups then answered a series of planning questions rating the feasibility of the project:

1. How important is the strategy to the mission and goals of the Partnership?
2. How expensive would it be to plan and implement the strategy?
3. How much time and effort would it take to implement the strategy?
4. How enthusiastic would Partners be about implementing the strategy?
5. How difficult would it be to attain the strategy?

Below is a brief synopsis of the results:

Topic: Community Forums (Possible topics: Marijuana, gangs, youth development, alcohol – you and the law.)

Tasks to achieve this: Identify topics, audiences and locations for forums, contact speakers/presenters, publicize, come up with recruiting resources, and coordinate informational handouts to give out on the day of the forum publicizing the Partnership and other forums. It was projected that it would take two to three months to fully plan and execute a forum.

Feasibility Points: Community Forums scored 17/25 feasibility points.

Topic: Billboard Project (Youth-to-youth prevention message, contest format, multiple media possibilities.)

Tasks to achieve this: Expand number of people involved, possibly invite other school districts/have them create other media instead of a banner (i.e., video projects, TV public access, essay, Broadway window display, PowerPoint for classes, radio, posters), disseminate invitations, ask for places to display, contact TV and radio, decide who sets up display.

Feasibility Points: The Billboard Project scored 13/25 feasibility points and it was decided that we will revisit that project next fall.

Topic: Youth/Youth Development (Highlight area youth and youth serving organizations.)

Tasks to achieve this: Partner with Saratogian. Contact Barb Lombardo, establish criteria, create a nomination form in paper -- "Kids Making a Difference," create a committee to review and choose candidates, publish once a month, award youth service.

Feasibility Points: The Youth/Youth Development Project scored 19/25 feasibility points.

Several partners expressed interest in getting the Community Forums and Youth Development projects off the ground before our March meeting. To form an action team and begin the planning process, call Partnership staff at 581-1230 for help with contact information and logistics.

The next partnership meeting will take place on Thursday, March 11^th
at the NEW district administration offices, 3 Blue Streak Blvd, 2^nd fl.
(old Junior High wing of the High School on Circular Street)