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Training
New England Schools of Addiction and Prevention Studies
June 14-17
Colchester, VT
The Summer School is a four-day intensive
experience for participants to further their knowledge, skills, and
experience in the field through in-depth coursework. There is something
for everyone with keynote addresses and a wide variety of workshops.
Initial Training on Addiction
August
11, or November 17, 8:30 - 4:00 p.m., Concord, NH
This
introductory training on
addiction is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the
dynamics and impact of addiction. It will cover the neurological basis
of addiction; mental, behavioral, emotional and spiritual dimensions;
stages of change; recovery; motivational techniques and resources.
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Reports
Berkeley Media Studies Group - Alcohol Marketing in the Digital Age
Carsey Institute (Spring 2010)
Help in a Haystack: Youth Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in the North Country
Read the reports on the CATS news page.
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Summer Camp for Children in Military Families
www.nhomk.com
Operation: Military Kids is a
partnership of Army Child & Youth Services, 4-H National Headquarters/USDA,
and University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Family Day Camps: A series of four Day Camps for military families will
be held at the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn, NH. These
nature-themed camps, entitled "Exploring Nature with Your Family", will provide
entire families with an opportunity to play, talk, and learn in the natural
world. Through hands-on, minds-on activities, participants will explore the
habitats of the Audubon Center's ponds, fields, forests, and gardens.
The Day Camps are offered free
of charge, and include: "Up in the Trees" (coming up fast!); June 12 "Water, Water Everywhere"; July 10 "Mini Beasts"; August
14 "Gardens are Great!". A picnic lunch & snacks will be
provided.
On-line registration for the Day Camps is OPEN NOW!!
Space is limited, and camps are sure to fill up fast. For
information about this and other OMK programs, go to our web site www.nhomk.com
Call 603-862-0876 if you do not have access to
a computer, or have questions.
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Graduated Driver Licensing
United States
Government
Accountability Office (GAO) Report
Last week the U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on state
Graduated
Driver Licensing (GDL) systems across the country.
The report confirms that GDL systems are associated with improved teen
driver
safety, and calls for additional research to help states move toward the
best
possible GDL systems. The report also notes the slow pace of state
action
in improving existing GDL systems. Read report.
Source: NOYS
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Staff
Sue Centner,
Director
Paula Galvin,
Assistant Director
Kaitlyn Clarke,
Youth Coordinator
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Community Alliance for Teen Safety is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Our mission is to promote safe habits for all youth by increasing awareness of high-risk behaviors, encouraging healthy choices, and fostering community alliances in Chester, Derry, Hampstead, Londonderry, Salem and Windham. |
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Dear Friend of the CATS Community,
Sue Centner  | The school year is almost over. Kaitlyn Clarke, our new youth coordinator, will be working with current youth members all summer and planning for fall activities. A couple of pilot projects we'll be working on this summer include a video production "boot camp" in cooperation with Derry CTV and a community leadership program. CATS invites all interested youth to get involved this summer and be part of the solution to reduce risk behaviors among youth and strengthen skills for making good choices.
We've all read the news articles about the decreased opportunities for teens to find summer jobs. It is more important than ever for parents to be involved and to be aware of how your children are spending their time. Check out the resource pages of the CATS website for some suggestions such as Derry Parks & Recreation or the Derry Public Library. Also, the National Forest Service has a wonderful website about discovering the forest. Links to local and statewide calendars are on our events page.
Before this school year ends CATS will conduct its third Sticker Shock campaign. On Wednesday, June 16th Kaitlyn and participating youth will be placing red "Buyers Beware" stickers on multi-packs of beer and other alcoholic beverages at the Derry Hannaford and Shaw's. Say hello and show your support if you happen to run into them at either of the locations.
Thanks to the efforts of Media Power Youth and funding from the Alexander Eastman Foundation students at Gilbert H. Hood Middle School learned about media literacy this year. The students recently completed presentations, which are available for viewing on the CATS website.
Please contact CATS with any questions, comments or suggestions. We invite your involvement!
Best regards.
Contact Us |
White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President
 In February, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let's Move! campaign
to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. As part of
this effort, President Barack Obama established the Task Force on
Childhood Obesity to develop and implement an interagency plan that
details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines
an action plan to end the problem of childhood obesity within a
generation. The action plan defines the goal of ending childhood obesity
in a generation as returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5
percent by 2030, which was the rate before childhood obesity first began
to rise in the late 1970s. In total, the report presents a series of 70
specific recommendations, many of which can be implemented right away. Go to site.
Michelle Obama's next childhood obesity target: summer break (Christian Science Monitor 6/9/10)
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HB 1523: New State Law on Bullying
HB
1523, revising the pupil safety and violence protection
act, has passed both the NH House and Senate. The
new law highlights the inclusion of cyberbullying, emotional,
physical and psychological violence, and specifies timeframes
and requirements for local policy development, training and
reporting on such incidents. Most of the important provisions in the
law were developed through the work of a collaborative group which met for over
a year. Monica Zulauf (YWCA) and Malcolm Smith (UNH Family
Studies), of the Manchester Family Education Collaborative, testified before
the committee and were supported by NH Children's Advocacy Network Partners
Mark Joyce of the NH School Administrators Association, Jennifer Durant of the
Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and Laura Hainey of the American
Federation of Teachers. More than a dozen students from around the state
came to share their very moving personal stories of bullying with the
committee. Kathleen Murphy, representing the Department of Education,
testified in support of the bill and strengthening the statute.
Click here for the full text of the law.
Resources
Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
UNH Cooperative Extension - Understanding Bullying
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - Facts for Families
Source: NH Children's Trust Fund Newsletter - June 2010
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2009 YRBSS Data Released
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS), Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC). Division of Adolescent and School
Health (DASH) released the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Mortality and
Morbidity Weekly Report (MMW) Surveillance Summary and the 2009
National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data. Both are available at www.cdc.gov/yrbss.
 The YRBSS is the only surveillance system to monitor a wide
range of priority health risk behaviors among youth. The YRBSS includes
national, state, territorial, tribal, and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveys
(YRBS) conducted biennially among representative samples of 9th through 12th
grade students. The national survey, conducted by CDC, provides data
representative of high school students in public and private schools in the
United States. The state and local surveys, conducted by departments of health
and education, provide data representative of public high school students in
each state or local school district. Since the system was implemented in
1991, the number of participating states has increased from 26 to 47 and the
number of participating cities has increased from 11 to 23.
The MMWR Surveillance Summary released June 3rd includes results from the 2009
National Youth Risk Behavior Survey and results from 42 state and 20 local
Youth Risk Behavior Surveys. The Surveillance Summary, updated fact sheets,
2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey data file, and 2009 technical
documentation are all available at www.cdc.gov/yrbss.
Youth Online, a web-based, YRBS data exploration system, has
also been significantly updated and improved. Important new features
include the ability to look at data across all sites simultaneously, to run
t-tests for subgroup differences, and to filter data by grade, sex, or
race/ethnicity. During the next few months, DASH will provide a series of
webinars introducing the new Youth Online features and showing how they can be
applied in program activities. More information about the webinars will
be available soon. You may access the new Youth Online from www.cdc.gov/yrbss.
Additionally, DASH has created the YRBS Data Widget, a small
web program that you can put right on an agency's web page to help disseminate
YRBS results quickly and conveniently. It displays YRBS results from the
site you choose for selected behaviors and provides links to the new and
improved Youth Online for users who want more details. More information
about the YRBS Data Widget is available at www.cdc.gov/widgets.
Source: OSDFS Prevention News Bulletin
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American Academy of Pediatrics
Policy Statement- Alcohol Use by Youth and Adolescents: A Pediatric Concern
Alcohol use continues to be a major problem from preadolescence through
young adulthood in the United States. Results of recent neuroscience
research have substantiated the deleterious effects of
alcohol on adolescent brain development and added even more evidence
to support the call to prevent and reduce underage drinking.
Pediatricians should be knowledgeable about substance abuse
to be able to recognize risk factors for alcohol and other substance
abuse among youth, screen for use, provide appropriate brief
interventions, and refer to treatment. The integration of
alcohol use prevention programs in the community and our educational
system from elementary school through college should be
promoted by pediatricians and the health care community.Promotion
of media responsibility to connect alcohol consumption with
realistic consequences should be supported by pediatricians.Additional
research into the prevention, screening and identification,brief
intervention, and management and treatment of alcohol and
other substance use by adolescents continues to be needed to
improve evidence-based practices. Access full article.
Source: New Futures
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An exploratory study of the relationship between parental attitudes
and behaviour and young people's consumption of alcohol
Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
Abstract
Concern is growing regarding frequent and excessive misuse of alcohol
by young people. The average age at which young people in Europe start
to drink is twelve and a half, and during the last decade, the quantity
of alcohol consumed by younger adolescents in the UK has increased.
Families are known to play an important role in shaping young people's
alcohol misuse, although family risk and protective factors associated
with misuse in a UK context are in need of further investigation. Access full article.
Source: New Futures
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A New Focus on Recovery
William L. White
Something quite historic is afoot at the Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP). For the first time, recovery will be embraced
as a pivotal organizing concept through the activities of ONDCP. During
a recent visit with ONDCP staff, we discussed ways this new focus on
recovery could help: Celebrate the growth and diversification of
American communities of recovery; Reduce policy barriers to long-term
addiction recovery; Create platforms through which the voices of
individuals and families in long-term recovery can be heard on key
policy issues; Develop and disseminate treatment models
that incorporate prolonged recovery support and assertive linkages
between professional and peer-based recovery support resources; Formulate an addiction recovery research
agenda; and Facilitate international information
exchange on creative and effective approaches to long-term addiction
recovery support for affected individuals, families, neighborhoods, and
communities.
The vision that emerged from our discussion was of a nation reaching
and engaging individuals and families at earlier stages of problem
development; providing accessible, affordable, and effective resources
to achieve acute stabilization; guiding the transition from recovery
initiation to long-term recovery maintenance; providing resources to
enhance quality of personal and family life in long-term recovery; and
breaking intergenerational cycles of addiction-related problems. The
vision was of communities across the United States creating the
physical, psychological, and cultural space where recovery and
resilience can flourish and calling upon people who were once part of
the problem to become part of the solution.
Recovery can be contagious. It can be spread interpersonally by
recovery carriers-people whose character and quality of life exert a
magnetic attraction to those still suffering. ONDCP has an opportunity
to spread recovery by defining it, celebrating it, and mobilizing
recovery carriers within communities across the country. Recovering
people and their families are ready for such a call to service.
William L. White is Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health
Systems
Source: New Futures
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Get Involved with Safe Homes Network
1. Can you spare one to two hours a month to serve as a member of an
advisory committee?
2. Have you invited a friend to join Safe
Homes Network?
Safe Homes Network is a nationally recognized
voluntary peer parent/guardian support network with the goal of
enhancing the safety net for youth and reducing the toll of underage
drinking and use of drugs. In signing a voluntary pledge, participating
parents elect to take an active role in minimizing the influence of
alcohol and drugs on youth in their homes and to be available to other
parents via a Safe Homes Network directory.
In addition to
enhancing youth safety CATS Safe Homes Network is also committed to
educating parents about current laws and policy such as the State of New
Hampshire's party host liability law, RSA 644:18 Facilitating a Drug or
Underage Alcohol House Party. This law holds "hosts" of parties
responsible for the actions of underage participants and can result in
fines and/or jail time. Safe Homes Network is currently offered to
residents of Chester, Derry and Hampstead. Go to www.catsnh.org/safehomesnetwork.html for more
information and the pledge!
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