The Incredible Years class offered

Parenting can be tough. So can being a kid.

The Children's Resource Center, Bowling Green, is offering two sessions of The Incredible Years training beginning in November. You can choose to attend sessions in either Bowling Green or Bradner.

At the Incredible Years parent training, parents of children ages 3 to 8 will learn how to:

• Increase children's self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Strengthen children's social skills
• Discipline effectively
• Boost academic success

The 12-week classes will be held each Tuesday beginning Nov. 9, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Bradner WSOS Head Start. To register for this session, contact Angie Patchen at Children's Resource Center by Nov. 3 at (419) 352-7588 or 1-888-466-KIDS.

Alternatively, you can register for the session that will be held at the Jordan Family Development Center in Bowling Green. That 12-week session will be held each Tuesday beginning Nov. 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Register for this session by Nov. 10 by calling Kristin Nagel or Cindy Eckel at Children's Resource Center at (419) 352-7588 or 1-888-466-KIDS, or e-mail debbieg@crc.wcnet.org

Classes are low-cost and space is limited. Child care is available. Light meals will be provided each week.

New Photos Posted

Hello everyone. I hope you are having a fantastic week as we enter Red Ribbon Week and a celebration of an alcohol-free lifestyle.

New photos of the Red Ribbon kickoff and the Perrysburg homecoming and float construction have been posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/WCESCPrevention.

More photos will be posted over the course of the coming two weeks of various Red Ribbon-related celebrations around Wood County, including the Teen Institute float in the Rossford Halloween parade, which happens Oct. 31, and photos of a special surprise that is coming to several schools for Red Ribbon.

Have a GREAT week and be safe.

Workshops in Wood County to Help Parents Improve Family Bonding and Reduce Risk of Teenage Drug Use

In a workshop series called Guiding Good Choices® being offered in communities across Wood County, parents will learn how to strengthen their bonds with their children and reduce the risk that their children will use drugs.  The five-week program is being offered by the Wood County Educational Service Center.  Each weekly workshop will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on respective days at the following sites.

Elmwood Middle School every Tuesday beginning October 19th; North Baltimore Middle/High School every Thursday beginning October 21^st; Eastwood Middle School every Monday beginning October 25^th; and Indian Hills Elementary in Rossford every Thursday beginning January 13^th.

Guiding Good Choices is an interactive program for all parents of children in grades 4-8.  In a lively and open atmosphere, parents will learn specific strategies to help their children avoid drug use and other adolescent problem behaviors, and develop into healthy adults.  Parents will learn to set clear family guidelines on drugs, as well as learn and practice skills to strengthen family bonds, help their children develop healthy behaviors, and increase children’s involvement in the family.

The Guiding Good Choices program, from Channing Bete Company, was developed by Dr. J. David Hawkins and Dr. Richard F. Catalano of the University of Washington.  Their research has shown that when children are bonded to their parents, school and non-drug-using peers, they are less likely to get involved in drug use or other behavior problems.

Studies of Guiding Good Choices have shown that the program is effective in strengthening parent-child bonds and preventing teenagers from starting to use alcohol and other drugs.

An alarming number of teenagers today will use alcohol or marijuana before leaving high schools.  According to the 2010 ADAMHS Wood County Youth Survey, 24% of Wood county high school seniors reported binge drinking in the past month and more than 15% report monthly marijuana use.

Workshop activities are based on Hawkins’ and Catalano’s Social Development Strategy, a theory of human behavior that identifies the factors that promote social bonding and positive behavior.  In a review of research conducted over the past 30 years, Hawkins and Catalano have also identified twenty factors that increase the risk of teenage drug use, as well as delinquency, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school, and violence.

The series is provided by the Safe Schools/Healthy Student Initiative through the Wood County Educational Service Center.  The workshops are free for attending parents.  Light refreshments, child care, and door prizes will be provided each week.

For more information contact Greg Bonnell at (419) 354-9010 ext. 228.

Parent Project begins Sept. 21

Most of us in the field, working with high-risk youth know that parent involvement is the key to behavior change with difficult, behaviorally disordered adolescents. Yet, effectively educating parents in basic behavioral strategies is time consuming and repetitive. The Parent Project® is a parent training program designed for parents of strong-willed adolescents (those sometimes referred to as oppositional defiant, or conduct disorder). Since 2003, nearly 250 parents have attended Parent Project in Wood County and they report that there is important information for all  parents of teens.   

Topics include reducing family conflict and arguing, improving school performance and attendance, identifying and intervening with alcohol and other drug abuse, interceding with negative peer associations (including inappropriate dating relationships up to and including frank gang involvement) and helping parents to set effective applicable limits. Many parents attending Parent Project® have had difficulty identifying appropriate limits and enforcing consequences consistently. Parents who attend the Parent Project® are more likely to see their child’s attendance at school improve, and to require less school-based disciplinary resources as parents find powerful interventions at home with which to bring about change in their children. The motto of the Parent Project® is “Parents are the answer … when they have the tools they need.”

Presented in an educational format, parents are trained for a low fee of $20 for the accompanying 180-page workbook “A Parents’ Guide to Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior.” There is no cost for the training itself. If the entire course is completed and the parent has attended all of the required sessions, the $20 fee will be refunded. Parents attend 18 hours of instruction for a cost of less than one session of private counseling.

The next session will be held Tuesday evenings from Sept. 21 through Nov. 16 at the Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N. Research Dr., Bowling Green. The first two classes will run from 6 to 9 p.m. The remainder of the classes run from at 6 to 8 p.m.

For more information or to register, contact Lorrie Lewandowski, Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N. Research Dr., Bowling Green, OH, 43402. Phone: 419-354-9010, ext. 113. E-mail: llewandowski@wcesc.org.

You also can find more information and register by visiting www.parentproject.com and click on “find a class in your area” in the top right-hand corner.

The local Parent Project program was featured in a radio news segment that was broadcast Jan. 27, 2010 on the Morning Show hosted by Dave Horger on WBGU 88.1 FM. Listen to the segment on BG Gizmo by clicking here.

Registration will be limited to the first 30 people responding.

The Incredible Years class offered

Parenting can be tough. So can being a kid.

The Children's Resource Center, Bowling Green, is teaming with Tender Age Daycare Center, located at 1249 Ridgewood Drive, Bowling Green, to offer The Incredible Years training.

At the Incredible Years parent training, parents of children ages 3 to 8 will learn how to:

• Increase children's self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Strengthen children's social skills
• Discipline effectively
• Boost academic success

The 12-week classes will be held each Monday beginning Sept. 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Tender Age Daycare Center.

Classes are low-cost and space is limited. Child care is available. Light meals will be provided each week.

Register by September 10, by calling Angie Patchen at the Children's Resource Center at (419) 352-7588 or 1-888-466-KIDS.

Alcohol prevention task force continues work

Hannah Jacobs (left) and Jessy Schulte (center) listen to Lorrie Lewandowski speak about the 2010 ADAMHS Youth Survey. Three of the New Cool campaign posters can be seen hanging on the wall.

The Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol Task Force, part of the Wood County Educational Service Center’s Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) program, heard good news about the fight against underage drinking in Wood County when they met Monday evening.

Lorrie Lewandowski, director of the Reducing Alcohol Abuse in Secondary Schools (RAASS) Grant, noted that according to the 2010 Wood County youth survey, not only has alcohol use declined, but it was the fastest rate decline between any two years since the survey began in 2004.

On Monday, task force members learned that during an Alternative Activities Subcommittee meeting, members discussed the idea that maybe one of the reasons youth resort to alcohol use is due to boredom. They also discussed the possibility that it may not by an issue of lack of alternative activities, but instead that teens don’t know what is available to them.

To address that, the committee invited Shelen Stevens, director of the Weston and Grand Rapids public libraries and the survivor of an automobile accident caused by a drunk driver that killed both of her parents, to discuss library calendars.

“Each one of our libraries have Web sites and newsletters,” she said. Each includes a calendar of events for community members of all ages. “I’m in the Otsego school district, so all of my events are forwarded to teachers.”

The library, she said, has proven to be a popular hangout for youth. The Weston library had 289 teens participate in the summer reading program. On a typical summer day this year, there were 48 students in the library.

“A lot of it is word of mouth,” she said. “And I fed them. I let them help out and help the little kids”

The task force will be working on ways to use the library to find alternative activities for students.

Task force members also learned that The New Cool media campaign it helped to create is now up and running in Wood County schools. “The new cool is changing the perception of what is cool in a youth’s life,” said RAASS grant community organizer Debbie Marinik. “It’s a very positive approach to alternative activities for youth.”

As part of that positive approach, inspirational posters are hanging in schools and are making their way into Wood County communities with the help of the task force members.

“The more we can get these posters in the communities, the more this will become a recognized message.”

Task force members also learned that the CMCA Street Team was active at area fairs and festivals during the summer months. Street team members include current and former high school students who talked with community members about their attitudes regarding underage drinking. To gather this information, Street Team members encouraged residents to gather surveys.

Street Team member Jessy Schulte said that a lot of people who filled out the survey talked openly about their answers. At the Wood County Fair, 91 percent of those who filled out the survey viewed underage drinking as a problem.

“We’d get a range from ‘it’s fine in our house’ and ‘if you can be in the military, you can drink,’ to ‘if you’re not 21, you aren’t allowed to drink,’” said Schulte.

‘There were a lot of people who said they allowed their kids to drink but only at their own house,” added Street Team member Hannah Jacobs.

The next task force meeting will be held Nov. 15, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Wood County Educational Service Center.

Teens join effort to reduce underage drinking

 The Wood County Educational Service Center’s alcohol prevention program had a display booth at the Wood County Fair to survey attendees on their perception of underage drinking in Wood County.  

The surveys were conducted by the Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) Street Team. This team is comprised of teen leaders from Wood County schools who are promoting the media campaign, The New Cool. This campaign, which will go into full swing with the beginning of the school year, is designed to engage youth to make positive choices as alternatives to underage drinking.

Fun giveaways and coloring pages were also part of this booth that had lots of participation from Wood County children, teens and adults throughout the day.

Jayden Haylett, age 6, of Bowling Green; and Brenna DeVall, age 8, of North Baltimore, colored signs featuring the New Cool logo and finished the sentence, “My cool is…”

Breanna wrote that she likes cats and gymnastics, and is good at swimming.

“I like Lions,” wrote Jayden. “I like gymnastics.”

Other youth who finished the sentence this week wrote said they enjoy swimming, going to grandma’s house, fishing, camping, going to the fair and walking. The idea of the worksheet was to get youths to think of ways to enjoy life while alcohol-free.

Melissa Haylett, of Bowling Green, said she doesn’t see a lot of underage consumption.

“I think it was a lot worse when I was growing up,” said Melissa Haylett, of Bowling Green. She is Jayden’s grandmother and Breanna’s aunt. “I think the schools are getting more involved and making more of an issue out of it.”

“It appears she’s right,” said Debbie Marinik, the community organizer for the Reducing Alcohol Abuse in Secondary Schools (RAASS) grant through the Wood County Educational Service Center, which funds  CMCA and the street team. “From the latest alcohol survey this year, alcohol use from grades 7 through 12 is definitely down in Wood County in comparison to national figures. But we still have a lot to do.

People who took the survey were invited to be a part of the Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol Task Force to work on the problem of underage alcohol use in Wood County. The next task force meeting will be held Aug. 30, from 6:30 to 7:30.

The street team is an important segment of the New Cool campaign.

“I heard about Teen Institute and I went to the meetings,” said Kelsey Long, who will be a sophomore at Eastwood High School. “I just kept going,” and became more involved in leadership roles, including The New Cool Street Team.

“I have been involved with TI since my freshman year,” said Tyeler Mazey, a senior football player at Lake High School. “I can be on the street team during the summer and most of the school year.”

“I like to make a difference,” he added. “The less underage drinking, the less the chance for anything (negative) to happen.”

The New Cool Street Team will also have a booth at the Pemberville fair.

Jayden Haylett, age 6, left, and Brenna DeVall, age 8, participate in youth activities at the Wood County Educational Service Center’s Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol booth at the Wood County Fair Sunday.