Date:  

February 12, 2009

Facilitator:  Courtney Lamport

Location:

3 Blue Streak Blvd., 2^nd floor, School District Administrative Offices

Recorder: Becky Black

Attendees:

Josh Walker, Michael Piccirillo, Rev. Eleanor Stanton, Brenda Quinn, Bill Boehmke, Judy Ekman, Rev. Shelia Byrd, Bishop Byrd, Sarah Rudgers-Tysz, Mike Laudicina, Cindy Dort, Mary Haley

Materials Distributed:

News article; “Little Change in Teen Drug Use” from the NASSP Feb. 2009 issue; Courtney handed out information on case statements with regard to the Youth Empowerment Committee, Laws & Norms Committee, Transition Committee, Parent Resource Committee, and Partnership for Prevention as a whole.

Overview

Discussion

Decisions/Actions

News and Announcements

 ·   Welcome new members Rev. Shelia Byrd and Bishop Byrd.

 ·   Welcome back Sarah Rudgers-Tysz!

 ·   Safe Spring is on March 12^th at Skidmore College. For the past 25 years the Prevention Council has planned this leadership conference to give high school students the skills to become or stay alcohol free.

 ·   We have had some wonderful Character Education Nominations, including two young men who were recently featured in the February column: Nathan, who repaid the family that helped him after running out of gas on the way to school; and Patrick, who jumped into action to try and save the life of an elderly women who collapsed on the street near the Holiday Inn. They earned the feature spot for exhibiting excellent character!
 

Partnership Updates

Overall Goals by Sept. 30, 2009 from the logic model:

·   200 middle school youth who have participated in All Star camp and booster sessions will express intent to avoid ATOD.

□  Camp will serve 200 students this summer during July and August with booster sessions throughout the school year.

·   50 parents of middle school and high school youth will demonstrate increase in family management skills.

□       This is being delivered through programs such as Strengthening Families and Parenting Wisely.

□       Approximately 10 families were served by Strengthening Families Program this fall.

·     By April 30, 2009, transition program will be chosen and implemented with class of 2013.

□  This was accomplished by the Transition Committee.
 

·  50 Youth Peer Opinion Leaders will demonstrate commitment to a no-use message and readiness to train other youth.

□       In progress through the Youth Empowerment Committee.

·  95% of youth in violation of school policy will receive sanctions

□   Accomplished

·  Local calls to underage drinking hotline will increase 300%, Youth will report fewer house parties. (More info is needed from SSPD.)
 

·     5 underage alcohol sales compliance checks will be held within SSCSD.

□   In progress via UEDL grant.
 

·  Social norms campaign on the risks of marijuana use will be developed and have reached households of 3500 secondary students in SSCSD.
 

·  30 youth will have been recruited and trained as peer leaders, will have provided 20 presentations on negative effects of marijuana use for parents and teens.

□  In progress.

· Local data on prescription and OTC use will be collected and disseminated.
 

· A social marketing campaign concerning prescription and OTC drugs will have been designed and disseminated in collaboration with pharmacists and health providers.

We are looking for input on these goals in partners’ chosen areas of interest.

Committee
Updates

·    Sustainability Committee
A sustainability subcommittee convened to discuss the question, “How will the Partnership be sustained after the Drug Free Communities Grant Funding is over?” The committee developed a plan to formalize the structure of the Partnership with a Governing Board to oversee the Partnership as a whole. In addition to the Board, individuals that are new or fairly new to the coalition would receive a welcome packet and a mentor from the Partnership to assist them with our history and goals. This would allow for a better understanding of the coalition so we wouldn’t have to spend time updating new members during monthly Partnership meetings. Members/partners would also be asked to sign a contract, MOU, outlining how much time they would be willing to invest in the Partnership and what areas of interest/expertise they would like to focus on.
 

Transition Committee
This group is looking to expand the mentoring program offered at the high school. They have had great success with the program and don’t want to lose the energy and momentum they have gained.  Two members are meeting with the current 8^th grade students to help get them directly involved. The committee’s five-year-plan is to have a mentor for every incoming student and to have a student-to-student mentor program. Currently it is a one-on-one teacher-to-student program. This group is looking to pull in outside agencies by sending a letter to community members asking them to join. 
 

Parenting Committee
This committee is currently seeking parents to pilot the Parenting Wisely program. Janice White had Courtney speak at the Superintendent’s Parent Forum on January 20, 2009, about the Parenting Wisely Program. Janice asked the members of the group to seek out parents who’d be interested in piloting the program. The parenting committee has a meeting on March 5^th to further discuss moving forward with the Parenting Wisely Program.

Community Laws & Norms Committee
This committee is working with area Police Departments on the 1-888 party hotline. Currently, there is no tracking system in place for the hotline and that is something that the committee would like to put into place.  Parents are afraid to call the hotline because they don’t believe that it is truly anonymous. Even if the cops are called repeatedly, they just break the party up, not wanting to make any arrests. The committee would like to change parents’ thoughts from “we used to do it too” to “it’s the law” to not allow underage youth to drink.

Robin Lyle, Community Mobilization Specialist from the Prevention Council, applied for and was awarded a $15,000 EUDL grant to foster collaboration between prevention providers and law enforcement to conduct environmental strategies such as party patrols, compliance checks and responsible beverage server training. Party Patrol Trainings will be taking place in Albany, NY on March 25^th and 26^th. For more information please contact Robin Lyle @ 581-1230 or robinlyle@preventioncouncil.org.

Youth Empowerment Committee
This committee is working on a couple major projects. The first is called, “Art in the Community.” Starbucks and the Saratoga County Arts Council have agreed to let Saratoga High School students display their artwork in the Starbucks Hallway and at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.  There are currently 4-5 pieces in Starbucks, so please go take a look! The library display beings March 3^rd.

This committee is also planning a youth-run summit on May 9^th  from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. During a meeting held on Feb. 25^th, students had the opportunity to sign-up to help out in various areas. The kids are also putting together a documentary on the way our community sends messages about alcohol to youth. It will be a kid’s-eye view of what they feel is marketed to them with respect to alcohol.
 

Besides the summit, fundraising will be a major topic for this committee.  At the last Partnership meeting various ideas of fun ways to fundraise were brought up. Please feel free to offer any ideas that have worked for you in the past.  Thank you for all your help and ideas.

Finally, this committee would like to join forces with the transition committee and make it possible for each freshman to have a mentor. This was an idea that students brought up over a year ago, and thanks to the hard work of the Transition Committee, we may have the opportunity to bring this idea to fruition.

Thank you to everyone for all of your hard work and dedication to the Partnership. We are honored to work with all of you!
 

  Partnership members are encouraged to help plan this summit. We want it to be as successful and positive as the summit in November 2007.

If you are interested in helping, please contact becky@preventioncouncil.org.

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