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Five Town Communities That Care
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January 29, 2010 Executive Director's Update
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Vol 2, Issue 11
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Important Dates
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Saturday January 30
WinterFest Ice Carving Exhibition: 11:30 - 3:30pm in the Camden Amphitheatre
Tuesday, February 2
Community Education and PR Work Group: 11:30 - 1:00pm at the FTCTC offices.
Thursday, February 4
Dalene at Maine Inhalant Prevention WorkGroup Meeting: 10AM - Noon @ AdCare in Augusta
Monday, February 8
Board of Directors Meeting: 8:30 -10:00AM @ CTC offices. (Executive Committee Meeting begins at 7:30AM)
Wednesday, February 10
Meeting with Midcoast Community Chorus re: benefit concert: 10AM at FTCTC offices
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Conferences and Trainings
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Is anyone interested in attending the BluePrints Conference in San Antonio, TX (April 7-9)? Take a look at the conference site and let me know if you are interested in attending. I will need to add people to the reservations before the end of February to get the cheaper rate. UW has arranged for me to attend a CTC Training of Trainers (TOT) event in Pennsylvania on February 11th and 12th. I will be driving down, and UW will cover my hotel and meals. This will allow me to get a bit of experience with the Training of CTC Trainers event, so that I can be certified to deliver this level of instruction. (Right now I am certified to DO the community trainings, not teach other people how to do the community trainings.) Also attending will be a representative of the group in Manitoba who may want me to help train their communities. |
SuperBowl Survey with Drug Free Action Alliance
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We have gotten the go-ahead from all of the local middle schools and the high school to do the SuperBowl mini survey. Kim could use a few volunteers to help make copies and to drop them off at the schools...any takers?
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DFC News
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The Year Three DFC application is due in February. I will need the Board to read the plan and budget carefully before it is submitted. Be on the lookout for it! Also, if I have asked your WORKGROUPS to provide materials related to the YEAR TWO work, please get those to me ASAP. There is a webinar on Wednesday, February 3rd to help answer any questions about the reapplication process. It might be good for another person to view this with me, so we would have more than one person "in the know" about this important grant. If you are willing to sit in with me on this, let me know asap.
Please remember to log your volunteer hours! We need to make sure we those documented each month. If you need new log sheets, let me know.
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Guiding Good Choices |
Sheryl is now putting together the final details to get a GGC session ready to roll beginning on March 2nd, facilitated by Rob and Julianna Pfeiffer. We will be mailing to all area parents of kids 9-14 and putting the word out online and in the newspapers. Please let any parents YOU know of the opportunity, and encourage them to contact Sheryl if they have questions, or need a registration form.
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Quarterly Coalition Meeting
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The January 2010 Coalition Network Meeting went well, with Korah Soll of the Zenith Program delivering the keynote on low commitment to school. You should be getting a quick synopsis of the meeting next week, along with photos of our two Youth Advocate Award winners (Jennifer Curtis and the Zenith Program). For those who did not make it to the meeting, there were almost 40 people in attendance, including two folks who are on staff at the Maine Office of Substance Abuse (Melanie Lanctot and Anne Rodgers).
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Quick Updates
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--> I am working on an amendment to our Conflict of Interest Policy which will include the provisions dealing with employment of relatives of staff or Board members and the exclusion which will allow us to have Ken set up the retirement plan for us. By the way, all staff and Board members should sign a copy of the COI each year. If you haven't, see me!
--> Amy Power has been helping with a few administrative tasks that have been backing up. She is desk sharing with Sheryl a few hours a week. It has been great to have an extra pair of hands to take on some of these tasks that keep getting ignored!
--> The Funding Work Group met Friday. They are working on plans for a fall event, perhaps a Harvest Hootenanny. Sounds like loads of fun...more details as they develop!
-->I received a note from Ted Tomita (who was here for our National Town Hall Event) from Freeport, IL asking for copies of some of the video clips of our local folks talking about CTC. I am going to try to get those to him by the end of the week.
--> I sent a preliminary letter to Abel Ortiz of the Annie E. Casey Foundation this week, to see if there is indeed any interest in testing STAR in some of the Foundation's communities. It would be great to be able to test how well the program works in communities with more diversity and which have fewer resources.
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From Maine's Office of Substance Abuse: |
FYI: I have applied on behalf of FTCTC for these funds. These are the monies Anne Rodgers mentioned at the Coalition meeting.
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The Maine Office of Substance Abuse (OSA) received notice that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will be funding the Preventing Underage Drinking Town Hall Meetings to take place beginning April 2010. OSA also was granted approval to do a different format in Maine as a result of the development of our new resource:"Table Talks: Parents Connecting for Alcohol Free Youth - Facilitator's Guide." For the 2010 SAMHSA Prevention Underage Drinking Meetings, rather than using a traditional town meeting format, Maine community based organizations that wish to participate in this initiative will be using a small meeting format, using the "Table Talks - Parents Connecting For Alcohol-Free Youth" model.
Using the small meeting format rather than the large open meeting this year is a fundamental shift, and important one. A piece of the comprehensive approach to preventing underage drinking is educating parents about underage drinking prevention and connecting them with other parents for support to address this issue in their homes and communities. Working with law enforcement, retailers, schools, and other community and state level stakeholders are also part of the plan, something that Maine has been promoting through our SPF-SIG and Block Grant initiatives.
"Connecting for Alcohol-Free Youth: A Parent Discussion" was developed in Maine and piloted in Maine communities. This guide was a joint effort of Maine's Office of Substance Abuse (OSA), 21 Reasons, and Maine's Environmental Substance Abuse Prevention Center (MESAP) at Medical Care Development. Based on the "Tupperware" model, each discussion is meant to be friendly and relaxed, held in a home or a similarly comfortable community setting-for example, a local coffee shop or a meeting room in the public library. While designed primarily for parents of 5th- 8th graders, these discussions are appropriate for parents with younger children as well as older teenagers. These discussions are designed to help you provide local parents with an opportunity to connect with other parents in a way that establishes shared monitoring strategies to prevent underage drinking, relationships and a support system. SAMHSA was so impressed with the discussion guide and this concept that they requested to post the guide out as a resource for communities to use nationally. An electronic copy of the guide may be found at: http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/osa/prevention/adult/tabletalks/index.htm
Community based organizations who are coordinating these discussions in their communities are eligible to receive a $500 stipend from SAMHSA. With a suggested budget of $50 to $75 per discussion for materials, refreshments, and stipends, this would result in up to 10 parent discussions per community. These discussions are designed to reach 8 - 12 parents at a time, which means that every Community Based Organization that receives a $500 stipend from SAMHSA could result in -up to 120 parents engaged, actively participating, and connecting with other parents.
OSA will provide:
·The "Table Talks: Parents Connecting For Alcohol-Free Youth - Facilitator's Guide," which can be ordered from the OSA Information Resource Center (IRC) or downloaded online (link above)
·Supplementary handouts to use with the discussion guide, mostly OSA materials from www.MaineParents.net
·Train the Trainer Facilitator trainings, to be held early March The training will be offered in two different locations: Portland and Bangor:
9:45 AM-3:00 PM, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at the Italian Heritage Center, Portland, ME
9:45 AM-3:00 PM, Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at the Spectacular Event Center, Bangor, ME
these will be provided by OSA's Technical Assistance Provider, Maine's Environmental Substance Abuse Prevention (MESAP) center.
·Technical assistance for participating organizations; this will be provided by MESAP and Maine's Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse (MAPSA)
Community based organizations will commit to:
·Use the "Connecting For Alcohol-Free Youth" model to organize 6-10 parent discussions to take place between March 2010 and June 2010
·Participate in a general orientation to the guide via conference call Jan/Feb TBD.
·Recruit local facilitators to lead these parent discussions
·Send facilitators to a 5-hour Facilitator Training to take place in late early March Train the Trainer Facilitator trainings, to be held in Portland and Bangor:
9:45 AM-3:00 PM, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at the Italian Heritage Center, Portland, ME
9:45 AM-3:00 PM, Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at the Spectacular Event Center, Bangor, ME
·Keep track of basic information such as the number of meetings held, dates/locations, and number of participants per meeting
·Complete and submit a brief report to MESAP at the end of the project, along with copies of feedback forms from facilitators and participants.
·Complete and submit any evaluation / reporting forms from SAMHSA.
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From Rusty Brace at UMCC |
Dear Agencies,
Bangor Savings Bank is asking community members to vote for their favorite organization. This is a generous cause on behalf of the bank and we are asking that you and as many of your co-workers, friends and neighbors vote for UMCC by following the web link below that will take them to the voting ballot. To vote for United Mid-Coast Charities, scroll down to the Mid-Coast section of the ballot check the 'other' button and enter United Mid-Coast Charities in the blank area provided.
More votes means more changes UMCC has to receive a generous contribution that would go a long way in helping those in need in your local community. So, please take the time to vote yourself and pass this on with encouragement to as many people as possible. Thank you!
GO TO:
http://www.bangor.com/youmattermore/voting.aspx
Rusty Brace
President,
United Mid-Coast Charities
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Life Skills Training |
There is now an online training option for LST. To read more about this, visit: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com/training_overview.php
We may want to explore offering this for our CRMS teachers currently implementing the program, or anyone from the other schools who wishes to explore implementing it.
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in closing...
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Board member Peter Russell celebrated a birthday this week. Be sure to
give him your birthday best wishes when you see him next!
Also, Dick
Strong has returned from his cruise in warmer waters (he even brought
me a beautiful glass fish to remember his cruise by)!
Sorry if I have been a bit distracted. It was a bit of a rough week for me personally, as we lost my 38 year old cousin to breast cancer on Wednesday. Services are this weekend.
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Dalene Dutton
Executive Director
Five Town Communities That Care
219 Meadow Street, P.O. Box 1135
Rockport, ME 04856
www.fivetownctc.org
dalene@fivetownctc.org Office: (207) 236-9800 Cell: (207) 322-9262
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