Youth Leaders Commit to Being Positive Role Models

Approximately 40 youth leaders from schools throughout Wood County gathered at the Elmwood Community Center in Jerry City Ohio Saturday for the annual Teen Institute Winter Retreat. Students representing the Bowling Green, Eastwood, Lake, Elmwood, North Baltimore, Northwood, Otsego, Perrysburg, and Rossford school districts, as well as Penta Career Center, attended the event.

Teen Institute is a youth leadership initiative that empowers area youth to develop skills and strategies to send a strong “no use message” and impact drug use reduction in their schools and their communities.

Throughout the course of the Saturday event, youth attended education classes, leadership training events and fun filled drug free activities.  Margie Harris from the Arc of Wood County presented information on the only preventable cause of mental retardation, FASD  Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.   The youth also shared creative ideas for the Junior Teen Institute (JTI) retreat, which will occur March 19 in Rossford.  During that retreat, Teen Institute members will lead some of the programs and be role models for a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle in their schools. Funding for the retreat was made possible from the AHAMHS Board, Wood County Educational Service Center, and ODADAS. Prevention Specialists from the Wood County Educational Service Center Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) Prevention Program organized and chaperoned the event.  

Media campaign meeting

Everyone -- including adults and students of any age -- is invited to attend the media campaign meeting.

The meeting will be held Feb. 22 at 3:30 p.m. at the Wood County Educational Service Center.

During the meeting, we will review new art concepts from graphic designer John Haskins.

Your input is important! See you there!

Parent Project on WBGU radio

The Wood County Educational Service Center's 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.

The Parent Project® is a parent training program designed for parents of adolescents who act out. 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.

Listen to the segment on BG Gizmo by clicking here.

We want your opinions!!!!!

The Wood County Educational Service Center Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD) Prevention Program needs your help.

We need Wood County parents to complete a survey about parents' views of at-risk behaviors.

We have developed an online survey for parents asking their opinions and beliefs about at-risk behavior in teens.

This very short survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete. We do not collect any personal information.

Please take the survey and ask other parents you know to take it. Tweet it, put it on your Facebook wall, e-mail the link to friends. Spread the word somehow!

Take the survey by clicking here.

Thanks for your input!

Parent Project times have changed

The times and location for the winter/spring session of Parent Project have changed.

The Parent Project® is a parent training program designed for parents of adolescents who act out (those often referred to with the labels of oppositional defiant, or conduct disorder).

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 26 hours of instruction for a cost of less than one session of private counseling.

The Parent Project® will be held at Rossford High School on Wednesday evenings from Jan 27-March 17. The first session will take place from 6 to 9 p.m., while the remaining sessions will take place from 6 to 8 p.m.

Rossford High School is located at 701 Superior St, (route 25). Meetings will be held in room 129. Attendees should park at the rear of the school and use the rear entrance. There will be a sign saying "Parent Project."

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: wcesc_ll@nwoca.org.

Parent Project starts Jan. 27

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 acting-out adolescents (those often referred to with the labels of oppositional defiant, or conduct disorder).

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 26 hours of instruction for a cost of less than one session of private counseling.

The next session will be held Wednesday evenings from Jan. 27 through April 4 at the Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N. Research Dr., Bowling Green.

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: wcesc_ll@nwoca.org.

Conflict Resolution conference offered

The Global Issues Resource Center at Cuyahoga Community College and its partners are hosting the 3rd International Conference on Conflict Resolution Education (CRE), Building Infrastructures for Change: Innovations in Conflict Resolution Education (CRE) and Justice Initiatives in Cleveland, Ohio. The conference will take place March 26-27, 2010, with pre-conference workshops on March 24 – 25. Presentations and workshops will focus on innovations in the fields that are making broad impacts in collaboration and research on issues related to the development of CRE and justice initiatives in local, state, national, and international communities. Participants will exchange best practices, evaluation methodology, creation of policy implementation structures, consideration of obstacles to success, and new and innovative use of training, resources and technology. Conference participants will be drawn from the local, state, national, and international community.

· Pre-Conference Training topics include: sustained dialogue, restorative justice, project citizen and youth for justice programs, exploring humanitarian law, and peace and values education.

· Keynotes include: Hal Saunders, Former Secretary of State and one of the negotiators of the Camp David Accords and a mediator of the Egyptian –Israeli Peace Treaty; Mr. Kevin Jennings, United States Department of Education Deputy Secretary of Education with a state government education policy panel representing New York, Maryland, Ohio, and Minnesota facilitated by the national Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; Jimmie Briggs, author of Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War; Judge Linda Teodosio, “Rerouting the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Innovative School-Court Collaboration”, Charlotte Cole, VP of International Education, Sesame Workshop; John Marks, President and Founder of Search for Common Ground, and many more….

· Credits offered: Graduate, Social Work, RCH, CEU, CHES
· Save! Early Registration due February 26th, 2010!

Conference and meeting publications are available http://creducation.org/cre/goto/3rd

For more information, please contact Global Issues Resource Center, Cuyahoga Community College at 216-987-2224.