Welcome
to HCCA's Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 3 Substance Abuse Prevention Update for Southern
Kennebec County
Enhancing
the quality of life in our communities is central to our purpose. Our newsletter's goal is to provide you with resources to connect with others
and resources to improve lives. We hope you will find the information presented here useful and informative.
This issue provides an update of some of the key
substance abuse prevention projects that are on-going in our area, and some up-coming events of interest
to people concerned about substance abuse issues.
All our newsletters are permission only. You are receiving it
because we have an established relationship with you. If you do not want to
receive future newsletters, please activate the "SafeUnsubscribe"
link at end of the newsletter. .
Jan, 2008 - Vol 2, Issue 1 |
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HCCA Towns
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Augusta
Chelsea
Farmingdale
Fayette
Gardiner
Hallowell
Litchfield
Manchester
Monmouth
Mount Vernon
Pittston
Randolph
Readfield
Richmond
Vienna
Wayne
West Gardiner
Windsor
Winthrop
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Board of Directors
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Mary Frances Bartlett
Rebecca West Dick, Chair
Cindy T. Flye
Rob Gordon
Chuck Hays, Treasurer
Bill McKenna
William McPeck, Vice Chair
Kathi Wall
Jim Wood, Secretary
Joanne Joy, Director
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Three Area High Schools Win Grant for Intervention
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Area High Schools Collaborate to Preserve and Expand Skill Building Program for Students Caught Using Alcohol and Other Drugs
Gardiner High School, Hall-Dale High School and Monmouth Academy will be partnering this fall on the continuation and expansion of Student Intervention and
Reintegration Program (SIRP). The three schools and HCCA have just won a grant from OSA to assume local control over the delivery of this program. The program has, until now, been provided in a small number of central Maine schools (including Gardiner) by an outside agency, AdCare Educational Institute. AdCare will be supporting the expansion of the program to 10 sites statewide (including our local schools).
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Latest Youth SA Survey Results
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Bi-Annual Youth Drug and Alcohol Survey Data Released: Good News and Bad News
The latest survey of student use of substances was released
a few weeks ago, giving us some good news and some bad news.
The Good News:
Across Kennebec County and the State of Maine the trend in reported use of alcohol and other drugs is down. For Kennebec
County, since 2006, across all grades, in the past 30 days:
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Use
of alcohol is down in 3% to 23% of all students,
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Use
of marijuana is down 2 % to 12% of all students,
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Use
of cigarettes is down 2% to 11% of all students.
Individual school results differ from this general trend. More significant downward trends have been documented by some local schools.
The Bad News:
Substance use continues to be a very
significant problem in Kennebec County and across the state - and create huge, continuing problems for our students. Among seniors:
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44%
report using alcohol in the past 30 days
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27%
report binge drinking in the past 2 weeks
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25%
report using marijuana in the past 30 days
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22%
report using cigarettes in the past 30 days
Copies of the complete report by county and state are available at:
http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/osa/data/mydaus/index.htm
A troubling sidebar: A recent series of articles in the Kennebec Journal about dropout rates (approaching 30 % in some
area schools) underscored one limitation in these statistics: the survey reports use only among those young
people who are still in school, and choose to participate in the survey.
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Youth Voices Groups to View SA Survey Results Data
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Youth Voices groups at
Winthrop High School, Cony High School, and Gardiner Middle and High Schools
have asked to look at their school's Maine Youth
Drug and Alcohol Use Survey Data (MYDAUS). Now that the data is out, all three area
Youth Voices groups are looking at their school's results. Each group intends to identify their
particular "good news" and "bad news." They will offer comments and suggest
ways in which their school and community can a) celebrate important progress,
and b) better address continuing problem areas.
Youth are not always
involved in this kind of discussion about the MYDAUS results. We congratulate these groups and their
schools for taking these steps.
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Call to Action
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HCCA Calls for a Regional
Substance Abuse Prevention-to-Recovery Coalition
Our area needs a true
coalition of organizations and people who are concerned about substance abuse
issues, similar to coalitions that exist in other parts of the state. Here in southern Kennebec County we could
benefit from:
a) greater collaboration
across the county on existing projects and programs, where this can benefit all
involved, and
b) a stronger, regional
voice on policy and program decisions that affect the prevention, treatment,
and recovery from substance use-including alcohol, tobacco and other
drugs.
If you or your
organization would like more information-or would like to help HCCA create this
kind of coalition, please contact Neill Miner (tel: 557-2947; e-mail: nminer@mcd.org)
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Area Police Focus on Underage Drinking
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Area Police Departments Coming Together to Address Underage Drinking
Area law enforcement agencies are working together to
increase the enforcement of Maine's underage drinking laws and policies. The six departments are building upon work now being done in northern Kennebec
County, to increase alcohol retailer compliance checks, respond to reports of
underage drinking parties, and increase the monitoring of large public events
where underage use is an issue. An
agreement has been signed. Officers will
receive training in late January.
Increased enforcement will begin shortly thereafter.
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Youth Advocates Against Social Hosting |
Youth Advocates Call For
Action Against Social Hosting
Members
of the Youth Empowerment and Policy Project (YEPP) say "there is no such thing
as safe social hosting"-NO safe way to provide alcohol to an underage person
YEPP is a group of youth
who work together to address some aspect of the problem of underage
drinking. Each year they select and
study an issue in depth, and then work to identify and advocate for policies
and practices that can make a difference.
As a result of this
year's focus on "social hosting," YEPP members concluded that:
-more attention should be
paid to the practice of social hosting;
-parents need to become
more informed about the law and the consequences, and
-whole communities,
including youth need to work together and take a stand against the practice.
YEPP members say: "Taking away the keys is not enough." In fact, their work on this project makes it
clear that taking away the keys and then giving youth alcohol is a REALLY bad
idea.
More information about YEPP and this year's report is available
at: <http://www.neias.org/YEP/>
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Alcohol Retailers Work To Avoid Risky Sales
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HCCA organized a second
Responsible Beverage Server/Server training in
late October in Winthrop, offering the training
to bars, restaurants, and clubs. Over 30
owners, managers, and servers from across southern Kennebec County attended the
event, hosted by American Legion Post #40, and co-sponsored by all six southern
Kennebec area law enforcement agencies.
The series continues with a training for
off-premise alcohol retailers on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, and one for
on-premise retailers on Monday, April 6, 2009.
More information is available on the HCCA website www.healthycommunitiesme.org/SAtrngs.html,
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Special Thanks!
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Special Thanks To Community Partners Who Are Making a
Difference Around Substance Abuse in Our Area Communities:
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Kennebec
Savings Bank;G & E Roofing and The China Dine-ah; the Augusta Rotary Club: Three business sponsors who
helped support and promote a recent Parent Education Night in Augusta in
November, with a keynote by Gary Crocker.
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The
Winthrop Unites Education Committee-and Healthy Futures: WUEC organized and
provided a forum for community members on underage drinking in September, chaired
by Rep. Patrick Flood. Healthy
Futures organized a follow-up conversation among locally groups addressing this issue, lead to further
collaboration among the partner organizations.
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The
Area Adult Education Programs-and especially Augusta Adult Ed and Gardiner
Adult Ed AND the Maine Conservation Corps in Hallowell-for helping HCCA staff
administer a large number of young adult alcohol and drug use surveys,
as part of a statewide effort to begin to document the size and nature of the
problem among those young people not in school or college.
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Up-coming Events of Interest
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1) Drug Impairment Training
for Education Professionals (DITEP). This event is intended to
make participants competent and confident in evaluating and documenting those
individuals suspected of abusing drugs in the school setting.
Scheduled for January 21 and 22nd at the Auburn Public Library. The cost
is $35.00 per day and includes lunch.
Interested? Contact Christine
Letcher at 795-2506 or go to this Website: http://healthyandroscoggin.org/2008/12/drug-impairment-training-for-educational-professionals-ditep-training/
2) Training scheduled by OSA especially Law
Enforcement and Others:
February 24, 2009, Green Ladle, Lewiston. No registration fee. contact: Maryann Gotreau 287-5713 to register for any of the trainings below- please register by February 13th
On-Site Training for Law Enforcement
Professionals ONLY:
On-line Social Networking
(9 AM-Noon) The training is
an introduction to the world of online social networking investigations.
Participants will learn about the two top social networking sites, MySpace and
Facebook, as well as how to navigate these sites, find "friends," and
how to narrow the internet down to their particular area of concern. There will
also be discussion about how to do investigations using the social networking
sites.
Party Patrols (12:30 PM-4
PM): This training will provide participants with the knowledge to safely
conduct party patrols. Party patrols include both active and passive patrols,
as well as call-out teams, 3rd party surveillance, and shoulder tap operations.
Participants will learn specific tactics to use when conducting party patrols,
as well as lessons learned and things not to do. Participants will also learn
about conducting shoulder tap operations, including the protocol and how one
department has successfully implemented them in their community.
Web-Based Training (concurrent) for Other Professionals and
Volunteers:
Party Patrols Webinar: (1-3
PM) Same content as above. Open to both law enforcement and HMP substance abuse
coordinators and other
interested parties, via the internet. Register through the link below
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MP0Wqp3oKmGYV2Vo8yOzTQ_3d_3d
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Thank you for your time and attention. Please contact us if
we can be of assistance in supporting your southern Kennebec communities'
quality of life!
We hope you found the information presented here useful
and informative. Please send comments and suggestions for improvement to
the contact information below.
Sincerely,
Joanne E.A. Joy, Director &
Neill Miner, Substance Abuse Prevention Program Director
Healthy Communities of the Capital Area
Send comments to:
Karen Tucker, Project Coordinator
ktucker@mcd.org
or 207 588-5012
All
our newsletters are permission only. You are receiving this because we
have an established relationship with you. If you do not want to receive
future newsletters, please activate the "safeunsubscribe"link at the
end of the newsletter.
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