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A drug-free community coalition supporting positive youth development in Franklin County.

CURRENT FEATURES IN THE SECTION INCLUDE:

Click here to learn about starting a Drug-Free Zone
ASSET BUILDING
- THE HEART OF CARING COMMUNITIES
DRUG-FREE COMMUNITIES SUPPORT PROGRAM FCCCP Year 6
LOCAL AFFILIATE COALITIONS - UPDATES
***Richford Underage Drinking Town Meeting

ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES
COMMUNITY ANTI-DRUG COALTIONS OF AMERICA (CADCA)
- NIDA's SEVEN STAGES OF READINESS


RECOVERY RESOURCES
PREVENTION RESOURCES
- MEDIA
PREVENTION RESOURCES - SPEAKERS

SEARCH INSTITUTE'S 40 ASSETS

SEARCH Institute has identified eight types of "internal" and "external" assets that are crucial for helping young people grow up healthy:
Support, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, Constructive Use of Time, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies, Positive Identity. Within these categories, there are 40 developmental assets:

  • Support (6) Family Support, Positive Family Communication, Other Adult Relationships, Caring Neighborhood, Caring School Climate, Parent Involvement in Schooling
    • Young people need to experience support, care, and love from their families and many others. They need organizations and institutions that provide positive, supportive environments.
  • Empowerment (4) Community Values Youth, Youth as Resources, Service to Others, Safety
    • Young people need to be valued by their community andd have opportunities to contribute to others. For this to occur, they must be safe and feel secure.
  • Boundaries and Expectations (6) Family Boundaries, School Boundaries, Neighborhood Boundaries, Adult Role Models, Positive Peer Influence, High Expectations
    • Young people need to know what is expected of them and whether activities and behaviors are "in bounds" or "out of bounds."
  • Constructive Use of Time (4) Creative Activities, Youth Programs, Religious Community, Time at Home
    • Young people need constructive, enriching opportunities for growth through creative activities, youth programs, congregational involvement, and quality time at home.
  • Commitment to Learning (5) Achievement Motivation, School Engagement, Homework, Bonding to School, Reading for Pleasure
    • Young people need to develop a lifelong commitment to education and learning.
  • Positive Values (6) Caring, Equality and Social Justice, Integrity, Honesty, Responsibility, Restraint
    • Youth need to develop strong values that guide their choices.
  • Social Competencies (5) Planning and Decision Making, Interpersonal Competence, Cultural Competence, Resistance Skills, Peaceful Conflict Resolution
    • Young people need skills and competencies that equip them to make positive choices, to build relationships, and to succeed in life.
  • Positive Identity (4) Personal Power, Self-Esteem, Sense of Purpose, and Positive View of Personal Future
    • Young people need a strong sense of their own power, purpose, worth, and promise.

     

    The Asset Approach: Giving Kids What They Need to Succeed Copyright © 2000 by Search Institute. All rights reserved. Search Institute, 615 First Avenue N.E., Suite 125, Minneapolis, MN 55413

For a complete list of the 40 assets by category, visit the SEARCH Institute website.

 

RECOVERY RESOURCES
Friends of Recovery/Vermont offers activities and resources for individuals and families seeking help with recovery from substance abuse. Click here for their website.

Caring Communities Updates from around the County:

Bakersfield:
Bakersfield Caring Communities (Coordinator: Carrie Klinefelter) 827-3125.

Bakersfield Caring Communities hosted a Family Day dinner for school youth and their families just before the return to school. The Bakersfield team is working on getting their teen center up and running again. Contact Carrie or Robin Erickson (at the school) for details.

Berkshire - guidance counselor Monica Sweet (933-2290) is coordinating Caring Communities partner activites at the school through VKAT and other groups.

Enosburg
Coordinator: Ethan Dezotelle (933-4375) County Courier/
Enosburg Community Alliance

Franklin Northeast's Strategic Prevention Framework coordinator, Ethan Dezotelle, Lisa Greco, and EFMHS student assistant counselor, Michelle Lewis-Bourdeau, teamed up to organize Enosburg's "Underage Drinking Town Hall Meeting' in April. The turnout--about 180 parents, teens, school teachers and administrators, law enforcement, and concerned community members--brought energy and insight to the topic. Ethan is continuing to work with EFMHS in the wake of a student's recent death in an alcohol-related incident.

Enosburg Community Alliance continues to operate a much needed and well-used food shelf in the undercroft of the Masonic Temple. They have just completed their second wildly successful clothing drive and are making clothes available on Thurdsdays.

Fairfield:
Fairfield Community Center Association (chairman: Steve Doe)
FCCA, under the guidance of Faith Cassidy and with seed money from the Youth-Inititated Grants program, is starting a teen center. Contact Faith for more details.

 

Franklin
Franklin Recreation and Activities Program (FRAP) (Coordinator: Nancy Wilson at 285-2100)

Program coordinator Nancy Wilson organized another successful summer camp program in 2007, followed by a Family Night dinner at the school at the end of September. Plans for 2008 include another "Survivor" style high school transition summer camp. Meanwhile, Franklin's Haston library has been sponsoring teen nights on a monthly basis.

 

 

Highgate:
Highgate Cares (Coordinator: Joyce Ashton)
From community garden work with pre-schoolers and elementary students to teen nights and family nights, there is something for everyone thanks to Highgate Cares. Coordinator Joyce Ashton also acts as site director for the Crossroads Program. To get involved, call Joyce at 285-6553. Check back for more information.

 

 

Montgomery

Contact: Allison May, 326-4618.
Montgomery School Community Team - Guidance Counselor Allison May advises the VKAT.

Community member/musician/mother Amie Koontz is now coordinating "The Basement," with a teen council comprising MES and HS students. The Basement, a teen center located in the Grange/Town Hall, held its Open House September 5. It is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 3 - 7 PM. One highlight will be a coffee house-fundraiser with live music at the Grange the first Friday of every month.

THE BASEMENT'S Mission Statement: The Basement, Montgomery's Youth Center, is a grant and fundraiser funded, youth and adult governed organization designed to empower youth to leadership and inspire the breakdown of peer barriers, encourage the development of community connections and the promote the growth of a sense of social responsibility by providing a safe space for teens to hang out and have fun, and opportunities to connect with their peers and communities and to make a difference in the world around them. We are an anti-biased organization and believe that everyone deserves respect regardless of race, religion, sex, age, origin, ability or orientation.

 

 

Richford:
Underage Drinking Town Meeting photos by Greg Lamoreux. Left, DUI State Trooper Jay Riggen participates with Richford students in a "World Cafe" discussion on one of the questions; center, Ethan Dezotelle moderates; right, parents tackle a question.

Richford Junior/High School hosted a very successful underage drinking townhall meeting thanks to great organizing by student assistance counselor Lisa Greco, assisted by her "boss," Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union's Strategic Prevention Framework coordinator Ethan Dezotelle (pictured above, center). L isa's SADD team, the Richford Empowerment youth (see below) and the Explorers helped out at the meeting, which more than 140 parents, teens, school teachers and administrators, and other concerned community members attended.

Richford Youth Empowerment Project (JoAnn Foote)

Richford Empowerment hosts monthly community dances at the town hall, field trips for teens, and more. Please call JoAnn Foote at 848-7039 or Tammy Ryea at 848-7400 for more information. At the High School, Lisa Greco, the Student Assistance Program Counselor, is forming a SADD team. Please contact her at 848-7416 for more information.

 

St. Albans:
Common Ground Teen Center
: Colleen Kestenbaum ( 782-1811)
Email: stalbansteencetner@yahoo.com

Coming September 14: A back to school Dance Party for all Franklin County 8th and 9th grade students. Location: St. Albans City Hall Gymnasium. Time: 7:30-10:30 PM. Entertainment: DJ Don Martin. $5 admission: all proceeds to benefit The Run for Jim Foundation. Proof of grade status required for admission.

Common Ground's community garden is overflowing!!

Common Ground is in the process of hiring a full-time Americorps member to add to its team.

 

Sheldon:
Sheldon Cares (Coordinator: Kerri Irick).

 

Swanton and MVU:

Swanton Teen Center: Call Chris at 868-9880 for information and events.

 

 

CADCA
To find out what’s going on with community anti-drug coalitions and events related to the substance abuse field, check out: www.
cadca.org/Events/Events.htm

NIDA’s Nine Stages of Community Readiness

Community Mobilization

“Community mobilization is the movement of community members from dormancy in preexisting groups or potential in yet-to-be formed groups toward action. - Henry Ford -

The Demands of Community Mobilization
Community mobilization demands a commitment to action that will lead to an overall improvement in the health and well-being of the community. As the Henry Ford quote suggests, the community mobilization experience follows specific process that begins with the concerns of community members, proceeds through the articulation of a vision and mission, the formulation of a strategic plan, implementation of action steps that are designed to bring about community change, and finally, analysis and evaluation that leads to strategy adjustments and future success.

The process of community organization requires the commitment of concerned and committed individuals who represent all facets of the community, responsive and capable organizations, and a sense of community purpose that can be widely accepted by the community. It is important to assess the mobilization capacity of the community during the early stages of coalition development. It may be that the capacity is not present to develop a substance abuse prevention coalition at this time; it may be that steps can be taken to enhance the community’s mobilization capacity.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) identifies mobilization capacity as a key element in assessing a community’s overall readiness for implement substance abuse prevention programs. In a 1997 publication, Drug Abuse Prevention and Community Readiness: Training Facilitators Manual, NIDA outlines nine community evolution precepts that determine a community’s readiness to mobilize around and issue like substance abuse prevention. They include:

Community Tolerance
Denial
Vague Awareness
Pre-planning Preparation
Initiation Institutionalization
Confirmation/Expansion
Professionalism

NIDA’s Nine Stages of Community Readiness

Stage 1: Community Tolerance
Community norms actively tolerate or encourage the behavior, although the behavior may be expected of one group and not another (e.g., by gender, race, social class or age). The behavior when occurring in the appropriate social context, is viewed as acceptable or as part of the community norm. Those who do not engage in the behavior may be tolerated but might be viewed as somewhat deviant.

Stage 2: Denial
There is usually recognition that the behavior is or can be a problem. Community norms usually would not approve of the behavior. But there is little or no recognition that this might be a local problem. If there is some idea that it is a problem, there is a feeling that nothing needs to be done about this locally or that nothing can be done about it.

Stage 3: Vague Awareness
There is a general belief that there is a local problem and that something ought to be done about it. Knowledge about local problems tends to be stereotypical and vague or linked only to a specific incident or two. There is no immediate motivation to do anything. No identifiable leadership exists, ort leadership lacks energy or motivation.

Stage 4: Pre-planning
There is clear recognition that there is a local problem and that something should be done about it. There is general information about local problems, but ideas about etiology or risk factors tend to be stereotyped. There are identifiable leaders, and there may be a committee, but no real planning.

Stage 5: Preparation
Planning is going on and focuses on practical details. There is general information about local problems and about the pros and cons of prevention programs, but it may not be based on formally collected data. Leadership is active and energetic. The program may have started on a trial basis. Funding is being actively sought or has been committed.

Stage 6: Initiation
Enough information is available to justify a prevention program, but knowledge of risk factors is likely to be stereotyped. A program has been started and is running, but it is still on trial. Staff is in training or just have finishes with training. There may be great enthusiasm because limitations and problems have not yet been experienced.

Stage 7: Institutionalization
One or two programs are running, supported by administration, and accepted as a routine and valuable activity. Staff are trained and experienced. There is little perceived need for change or expansion. Limitations may be known, but there is not much sense that the limitations suggest a need for change. There may be some form of routine tracking or prevalence. There is not necessarily permanent funding, but there is established funding that allows the program the opportunity to implement its action plan.

Stage 8: Confirmation/Expansion
Standard programs are viewed as valuable. And authorities support expanding or improving programs. New programs are being planned or tried out to reach more people, those thought to be more at risk or in different demographic groups. Funds for new program are being sought or are committed. Data are obtained regularly on the extent of local problems and efforts are made to assess risk factors and the cause of the problem.

Stage 9: Professionalization
Detailed and sophisticated knowledge of prevalence, risk factors and etiology exists. Some programs may be aimed at general populations, whereas others may be targeted at specific risk factors and/or at-risk groups. Highly trained staff members are running programs, authorities are supportive, and community involvement is high. Effective evaluation is used to test and modify programs.

     


Franklin County Caring Communities
39 Barlow Street
St. Albans, VT 05478

(802) 527-5049 (voice) ~ (802) 524-3952 (fax)
e-mail: info@fcccp.org