Check out all the events in February and beyond!
Our calendar is updated frequently, so please check our website at www.fcccp.org regularly and contact us if you'd like to add an event.

Have you checked out our "year at a glance" calendar? This page contains links to national awareness event sites and resources throughout the year. If you are planning an awareness event or would like to collaborate with Caring Communities, we would like to know about it! Contact us at info@fcccp.org.

February
1 - 28 American Heart Month
Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month
14 - 20 Children of Alcoholics Week 2010
7 - 13 National PTA Take Your Family to School Week 2010
9-11 CADCA National Leadership Forum 2010
Feb 21 - 27 National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW) 2010

March
1 - 31 Safe Spring Break Month
15 - 21 Brain Awareness Week 2010
15 - 21 National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW) 2010
24 National Kick Butts Day 2010

Using the SuperBowl as a teachable moment.
Click here for tips on talking to your child about advertising.

Highly Effective Vermont Tobacco Control Program Faces Deep Budget Cuts
. Governor Douglas announced his budget proposal last week. In that proposal, he suggested a cut to the Health Department's share of Tobacco Control funding by 47%. Since all cessation services, community coalitions, media and evaluation fall under the Health Department's tobacco control budget, the impact will be huge to the comprehensiveness of our successful statewide tobacco control program. Coalition partner Amy Brewer has share the following information relating to tobacco prevention and cessation. VT has made serious gains since FY 2001 when we began the comprehensive, statewide program. But some of the most exciting gains have been in the past 2 years. The data below are taken from VT's 2009 report from its independent evaluator and listed on the VT Tobacco Evaluation and Review Board's website http://humanservices.vermont.gov/boards-committees/tobacco-board/fy09-annual-report-final-11-09.pdf/view

1. VT has cut its youth smoking rate in half from 31% in 1999 to 16% in 2007
2. Adult prevalence has started to decline at a faster pace in the past couple years: 22.4% in 2001 down to 20% in 2004 and then decreases EACH year since (19.3% in 2005, 18% in 2006, 17.6% in 2007, and 16.8% in 2008) - a 25% decline compared to only a 10% decline nationally
3. Adults have begun to increase quit attempts as a result of the Your Quit. Your Way. campaign in 2008 and 2009: quit attempts always hovered around 53-55% until 2008 when they jumped to 62.2%!
4. Adults who are thinking of making a quit attempt have also increased in the past couple years: in 2006 26.3% of smokers were thinking of quitting in the next 30 days; in 2007 it was 34.8%; but in 2008, the percentage jumped to 45.6%!
5. We have greatly reduced exposure to secondhand smoke:
a. Smoking in the workplace is no longer legal - this affected large employers in our area and eliminated a major barrier to many workers making a successful quit attempt
b. Vermonters with children in their homes rarely allow smoking in their homes: in 2001 73.1% of Vermonters with kids banned smoking in their homes. In 2008, 84.8% banned it! ( a 16% increase) c. Vermonters who smoke and have children also ban smoking in their homes more than ever: 2001 only 43% of smokers with kids banned smoking in the home but that number is up to 66% in 2008! (a 54% increase)
6. The comprehensive, statewide program has saved the VT Medicaid program $4-5million annually.

Clearly, the comprehensive program and the efforts of local coalitions under this program have been successful. The Coalition for a Tobacco Free VT is working hard to make sure this proposal is not put into the budget by legislators. For more information about the status of tobacco control efforts both statewide and locally, contact Amy Brewer at Northwestern Medical Center, 524-1296.

Watershed Mentoring Update

Expand Your Universe. Mentor a Child.
Sure it's February, but it's not too late to make it your Almost-New Year's resolution to become a mentor in 2010. Click here for more information and an application. We will be hosting a mentor training February 18. Please contact us for more information.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Watershed Mentoring open house and mentoring celebration Sunday, January 17, at the Swanton Teen Center. We enjoyed games, social time, delicious food (thanks, everyone!) and we learned about mentoring in the process. We appreciate our mentors, mentored youth, and their families, without whom Watershed Mentoring would not exist.

Visit the Vermont Mentoring Network to learn more about mentoring in Vermont.

Legislative Update

With two bills currently introduced in the state legislature concerning the minimum legal drinking age, it is a good time to bone up on the research around this topic. The research generally finds benefits from a higher drinking age. Alexander C. Wagenaar and Traci L. Toomey conducted an extensive review and analysis of research from 1960 to 2000 and concluded that there is an inverse relationship between the minimum legal drinking age and two outcome measures: alcohol consumption and traffic crashes. This review was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol March 2002. There is also recent evidence that teens who drink under parental supervision are not "protected" against bingeing or consuming alcohol in other situations. Please see the link to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Coming events

Put your dancing shoes on! The next three weekends feature fancy footwork to fund great causes.

February 6: Dinner and contra-dance with Mark Sustic at Fairfield Center School to benefit the school and the Fairfield Community Association.

February 13: Valentine's Swing Dance with Joe Levesque at the Bliss Auditorium in St. Albans to benefit Common Ground.

February 20: Mardi Gras Dance with the Fabulous Spiders at Chow!Bella to benefit Franklin County Court Diversion. Click here for invitation.

Visit our calendar for more events and details.

Coalition Partner News

Bowl-A-Thon! Retro Style... for the Sake of the Ground..The Common Ground. This note from Erin Nolan at Common Ground on the subject of their March fundraiser: Subject: Prizes for Highest fundraiser... Hello! For those of you still trying to decide whether to attend BOWL YOUR FACE OFF...let me share some of the highlights of the event. 1- The opportunity to get in costume and bowl with a group of friends and have a fun time on sunday morning or afternoon. 2- The opportunity to raise funds for your local teen center. 3- Highest fundraiser will recieve full snowboard gear fitted to their size...this includes a jacket, snowpants, boots, goggles, bindings, snowboard, and helmet. More Information on prizes to come.... If you are interested stop up at the center, or send an email so I can email you the sponsor form 45 Dollars to bowl March 7th (lunch provided) 15 dollar deposit due february 19th.

Ticket to Ride?
Green Mountain Transit Agency's Safer Streets Initiative
The Green Mountain Transit Agency is starting a new initiative to help make the streets of Franklin County safer. The Agency will be working with law enforcement agencies, the courts, and substance abuse counselors to deliver the message, "If you lose you license, don't make things worse. Don't break the law. Take the bus." GMTA will be distributing bus schedules and can take calls during business hours from passengers. For trip information, call 527-2181; or check out the website at gmtaride.org

Chronic Pain/Narcotics Community Forum
The CP/N group has resumed meeting. The mission of this group is to reduce access to, misuse of, and addiction to prescription medications while ensuring access to treatment of pain. Led by Dr. Ed Haak of Northwestern Medical Center, this is an interdisciplinary forum that welcomes all stakeholders. Our most recent accomplishment is a provider conference and training for health professionals in the northwestern Vermont region. If this issue is of concern to you, please join us! Our next meeting takes place Friday, February 26, 7-9 a.m. at Northwest Medical Center Conference Room 1.

Stop Teen Alcohol Risk Team (START) application news
Caring Communities, Rural Partnerships, Franklin County Court Diversion, and our law enforcement partners throughout Franklin County: Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Swanton Police Department, St. Albans Police Department, and Vermont State Police, are working together on the START grant for 2010. This year, the coalitions are taking on responsibilty for the administration of the grant For more information, contact Beth Crane or Mary Fletcher at 527-5049, or Ethan Dezotelle at 393-5383.

Volunteer Opportunities
Kids-A-Part
The Kids-A-Part (KAP) Program of Vermont Children’s Aid Society is looking for volunteers to meet the needs of incarcerated mothers at Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton. Please contact Tara Graham, Kids-A-Part Program Director @ (802) 655 – 0006 x 107 or email: tgraham@vtcas.org. A flyer with description is available.

Reparative board members
The St. Albans Community Justice Center is seeking volunteers for the Reparative Boards. If you would like more information about volunteering, please call Marc Wennberg, Director, at the St. Albans Community Justice Center at 524-1500 X268

Court Diversion Review Board
Contact Pat at 527-1112, or pat@fccd-cjp.org for application materials and information.

Underage drinking-- it's not just a minor problem.

How are our local liquor outlets doing? Visit http://liquorcontrol.vermont.gov/enforcement/ to see which stores and restaurants have passed compliance tests and which have not.

GoodSearch
& GoodShop

YOU SEARCH OR SHOP
WE GIVE!

Raise money for Franklin County Caring Communities just by searching the web and shopping online!

Search the web now!

Free coupons at top stores!

Add to your site

RESOURCE CORNER

Grant opportunities. Click here.

Training Opportunities

Medication Abuse Prevention Training:
Wednesday, February 3, 1:30-4:30 PM
Essex CHIPS. Click here for details.

Inhalant abuse prevention training
February 18, noon - 3 PM
Templeton's Restaurant, Richford
Sponsored by Rural Partnerships and the Northern New England Poison Control Center
Click here for more information

Click here for statewide Strategic Prevention Framework Training Overview 2009-10

Click here for the 2010 Addiction Training Series

Click here for Vermont Department of Education sponsored events.
Know Your Body Training Wednesday, February 3

Multijuristictional Counterdrug Task Force Training
Check out all of MCTFT's webcasts on a wide range of topics related to prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery by clicking here.

Save the date: From the Micro-Business Development Program: Internet training for Franklin County--click here for details.

For more training opportunities through Center for Health & Learning: Link to Center for Health and Learning training calendar and registration.

Say It Straight!
Say It Straight(TM) (SIS) is a research-based education and training program that results in empowering communication skills and behaviors, increased self-awareness, self-efficacy, personal and social responsibility, positive relationships and quality of life; and decreased alienation, risky or destructive behaviors, such as alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, eating disorders, violence, precocious sexual behavior and behaviors leading to HIV/AIDS. Is this a tool you could use? Contact Cindy for more information about Say It Straight.

Support for Parents
FACES: Families of Addiction Consulting for Effective Services website

Guiding Good Choices (TM) for parents
In five two-hour sessions, Guiding Good Choices (TM) helps parents understand the risks of substance use and the skills needed for communication, setting boundaries, positive discipline, and family organization. Contact Cindy Cook at 527-5049 x 2 for details.

Available now at the web site of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, New parent resource: "Time to Act"

The Parent Chronicles
Check out this interactive resource for parents and give your child the gift of your knowledge and involvement: http://www.theantidrug.com/advice/chronicles-home.aspx

Available NOW: Red Flags and Resources
Red Flags & Resources: Northwestern Vermont Edition is available in both print and PDF. Please contact Sally Bortz at the United Way (527-7418) or Beth Crane/Cindy Cook (527-5049) to obtain print copies. Red Flags and Resources is available in PDF by clicking HERE!

New treatment resource from Hazelden: Co-occuring disorders website.

Victims/Survivors Support
Voices Against Violenc/Laurie's House Hotline: 802 524-6575. Click here for a flyer.
Support Group - Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence, Stalking: 524-8538 x 204. Click here for a flyer.

Links to Prevention Program Planning
Find youth info: Check out this new website: http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/ for federally developed interactive tools and other resources to help community organizations' and partnerships' efforts to support youth.

Community Guide to Helping America's Youth
NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Preventing Drug Abuse

Preventing underage drinking using the SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework and Getting to Outcomes

State of Vermont Primary Prevention Plan available here.

New Tool Available to Educate Teens About Dangers of Substance Abuse Click here for:
Stay Smart: Don't Start: The Truth about Drugs & Alcohol

Sustaining Grassroots Community-Based Programs: A Toolkit for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers - Click here

Prevention year round: click here for a prevention planning calendar.

Franklin County, get your ASSETs in gear!!

Check resource archives for information previously found here.

ANNOUNCING NEW ALCOHOL & DRUG INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE
Alcohol and Drug Information for Vermonters
Contact: Rita Johnson, VADIC (800)-769-2798

To see a full list of VADIC publications, and to request materials, please visit the VADIC website at www.vadic.org, or call Toll-Free: (800)-769-2798 to reach Rita Johnson, VADIC Outreach Assistant.

How much is too much?

Click on the icon to the left to participate in free, on-line screening for alcohol.

Click on the image to the right to participate in free, online screening for substance abuse or dependency.

I think someone I know has a chemical dependency problem

- How Can I Help?
Check out local recovery resources.

Drug Calculator How much do alcohol, tobacco and drugs really cost a person?

Check out the alcohol cost calculator for Vermont

Click on the picture above, then take the pledge to stop distracted driving.

Northwestern Medical Center's Freshstart Program winter smoking cessation courses:
Thinking about Quitting? Join others for this 4-session series to help you successfully quit smoking. Call Heidi Messier: 524-8831 to sign up.
The next St. Albans class is starting February 3. Click here for a flyer.
March classes now available. Click here for the St. Albans class and here for the Enosburg class, or check our calendar for details.

Winter's almost here and you're smoking like a chimney?
Click here to check out the Vermont Quit Network.

Seeking treatment services for adults?

Click on the logo for Howard Center's new brochure.