DECEMBER 2009 BOARD REPORT

ATOD School And Community Based Prevention Program

2009 Dialogue Nights Completed at Wood County Schools Dialogue nights offer teens, parents, and community members a chance to spend an evening together talking and sharing ideas about relevant topics they might not have discussed in an inter-generational format. The expected outcome of dialogue night is to increase communication among teens, their parents and community members. Dialogue Nights have been held at Lake, Bowling Green, Northwood, North Baltimore, Perrysburg, Rossford and Eastwood. The events have grown as more people are beginning to understand what Dialogue Night is all about. We hope to build on this experience and reach more families by scheduling more dialogue nights this spring.

Parent Project Classes A Parent Project class will be held from January 27 through April 7 at Fort Meigs YMCA Adventure Center, 210 E. South Boundary in Perrysburg. 2008/2009 Parent Project evaluations show significant improvement of parent’s appraisals of their abilities on the following dimensions: ability to listen to my teen in an understanding way, willingness to discuss feelings with my teen, consistency when it comes to setting rules or boundaries, and ability to control anger/frustration when speaking to my teen. Results also suggest improvement in parents’ ability to accept expressions of affection with their teen and from their teen, to communicate effectively with their teens, and to express love to their teens. Parents also cited improvements in their children’s behavior: more effective and less argumentative child-parent communication, less aggression or violence, better use of listening skills by both parent and child, and more affection in the parent-child relationship. Any parents interested in Parent Project information please call Lorrie Lewandowski 419-354-9010 Ext 113.

Expect Respect The Expect Respect curriculum is being offered at Lake High School and additional courses have been scheduled in Northwood, Elmwood, Eastwood and other Wood County Schools. This curriculum is made possible by a collaboration among the WCESC School and Community Based Prevention Program, Family and Child Abuse Prevention Agency and Wood County Schools.

Joel Penton to return Former Ohio State University defensive tackle Joel Penton will return to make up time he missed at Penta Vocational School. Details about the visit are still being worked out, but he may also visit some other schools that were missed during his first two visits. During those visits, Penton brought his message to “Stand Your Ground” to parents and students alike.

Drugs and Alcohol in the Media On Dec. 10, ATOD prevention specialists will attend a conference titled Under the Influence: The Intoxication of Pop Culture. The conference is being held at The Community Partnership in Toledo. This workshop will examine the effects of popular music, film and literature on today’s youth. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to positively integrate the energy expended into pop culture as a prevention tool. Participants will explore messages behind the media, commercial messages, slang dictionary, and music.

Cultural diversity lesson being added A new lesson about cultural diversity will be added to the already popular 12-lesson curriculum through the Wood County Juvenile Detention (JDC) prevention program. The prevention programming at the Juvenile Detention Center provides incarcerated youth the opportunity to participate in workshops centered around important life skills in order to build developmental assets. Overall, after completing sessions, the majority of youth were able to successfully answer questions designed to help them apply the material to their own life. Some of these skills include: listing two personal strengths, listing two personal values, listing two consequences of their risky behavior, listing two influences on their behavior, listing two examples of assertive behavior, identifying important positive qualities in a friend, identifying and practicing ways to stay in control when angry, listing two examples of responsible behavior and two possible consequences of irresponsible behavior, listing two ways alcohol can be harmful, reporting the danger of binge drinking, listing two ways marijuana can be harmful, listed two risks associated with drug use, identifying two facts about alcoholism and two behaviors that typically co-occur with alcoholism, generating an appropriate, achievable goal and identifying at least 2 sub-goals, listing two sources of stress and possible reactions to stress, and providing one positive and effective way to reduce stress.

Communities Mobilizing for Change in Alcohol (CMCA) Task Force Based on results from the CMCA Task Force meeting held Nov. 11, a media campaign featuring “The New Cool”(TNC) is being planned. Matt Ivoska, Debbie Marinik, and Lorrie Lewandowski are working on details regarding this campaign to present to the Task Force through the Reducing Alcohol Abuse in Secondary Schools (RAASS) grant. So far, the plan for the media campaign is to reach teens in the school setting. Our goal is to show them that it is cool to be drug-and alcohol-free. The community is invited to the next CMCA task force meeting, on Jan. 26, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the WCESC to discuss the media campaign and other initiatives identified by the group.