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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2011)
vernonia prevention coalition july26 2011 The content on this page is provided by the Vernonia Prevention Coalition 15 Be a Piece of the Puzzle: Positive Spin on Prevention Vernonia Prevention Coalition -Year 3 Kids Can Eat FR EE 5 days a Week Prevention is about three things: Preventing people from experimenting, reducing the experimenta- tion time, and lessoning the long term damage if engaged in abusive behavior. To provide support and influ- ence positive community norms, Ver- nonia Prevention Coalition (VPC) has partnered with over 20 organizations to improve collaboration and partnerships. This year alone, children have had the opportunity to participate over 7500 times in school programs and events on bullying, healthy relationships, leader- ship, ATOD Prevention on campus, sup- port groups, career exploration, personal development, curriculum enrichment, mentorship, summer meal programs events, after school programming, plays, etc… Additionally, adults in our com- munity have been exposed over 44,000 times either actively or passively, to articles, ads, programs, volunteer train- ings, best practice information, coalition meetings, planning events, attending events and more. Vernonia 47J School district administrators, staff and volun- teers have had participating Safe School initiatives, emergency response training, bully intervention and prevention. This has all been in effort to improve services to our children. Behavior modification curricu- lum has been purchased by the VPC to be used in both elementary classrooms and groups. These programs help ad- dress the social and behavioral issues faced by young people today so they can be better equipped to deal with negative community norms surrounding ATOD abuse in their communities. Since Octo- ber 2010, 150+ young students between k-6th grades participate in these pro- grams weekly. To counteract the sharp increase of experimentation of ATODs by stu- dents in middle school, supportive ma- terials and training has been provided to the staff of the Vernonia schools. EV- ERY seventh grader has participated in the Project Alert program that reinforces resistance skills when it comes to peer influence. Student’s role play resistance skills and team teach on the dangers ex- perimenting and benefits of never using ATODs. Further, EVERY eighth grader has participated in healthy relation- ship building and resistance to physical abuse. In response to the increase suicide ideation in Columbia County, suicide prevention and intervention programming has been increased. To empower our youth to work with their peers, over 60 teens have been trained in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Suicide Intervention training. VPC sponsored the High School leadership class to at- tend conferences highlighting issues that confront kids today: Bullying, positive school environment, leadership in tough times and student body interaction. Ad- ditional efforts were made to help many groups to attend programming outside of school so they could bring back informa- tion to benefit their school. OSSOM has continued and is bigger than ever. This year 30+ students hosted a Teen Health week in April 2011. Over 500 students attended a health fair designed and implemented by teens. The staff was overjoyed at the informa- tion shared and the kids reported back it was a good thing. These kids met up to three times a month to ensure planning and preparation was completed for this Summer Meal Program June 20th — August 19th Vernonia Middle School Cafeteria Breakfast Scheduled Activity 8:30 Adults $1.25 9- 11 11:30 All REGISTERED volunteers & staff are provided a meal on the day they participate Over 1 4 00 Youth Meals Served to Dat e! te la Choco k Mil e am Ice Cr s Friday Pizza Wedn esday s Waffle Breakfast ull You Can Eat Salad bar August 5 Any questions please contact Cathy Meyer (503) 429-8033 or (503) 522-5311 USDu and the State of Oregon are equal opportunity Providers and Employers 1-800-273-TALK (8255) suicidepreventionlifeline.org Are you feeling desperate, alone or hopeless? Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline a free, 24-hour hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Your call will be routed to the nearest crisis center to you. Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Press 1 Summer Meals Program Vernonia School Cafeteria Breakfast 8:30 Lunch 11:30 Vernonia Talent Show/Fundraiser Washington Grade School 7—10pm August 5-7 Jamboree and Logging Show August 8-9 Echoing Evergreen Day Camp The Vernonia Summer Meal’s Program committee has agreed to provide a set of guiding principles that help ensure the sanitation and safety of the whole Participant Standards All youth under the age of 10 must be with an older sibling, parent or care provider (ORS 163.545) Any youth, under 10, without a chaperone WILL be fed and sent home if they cannot provide name of older care provider All participants WILL have shoes and shirts ( T-shirts available to borrow) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline y l d n e i r F y l i m Fa Adults $2.00 staff person. The VPC is a collaboration of individuals whom represent 12 identi- fied sectors to give voice to community needs. But it doesn’t stop there. It is the purpose of these sector representatives to speak to their peers and gather infor- mation that actually formulates the plan for the year. Questions are asked about how individually they see a healthy and safe community working. Even further, it is asked of individuals to measure that success. It is the mission of the VPC is to develop safe and healthy neighbor- hoods through collaborative planning, community action, policy advocacy and enforcement. If you would like to know more about the VPC, please con- tact DeAnna Pearl, Director, @ 503 369 7370 or DeAnna@vernonia-or.gov. rt Our Youth o p p u S t a h T ts n Upcoming Eve August 1-19 Lunch week of education for their peers on the dangers of ATOD’s and the long term ef- fects it can have on their health. Every 15 Minute program was again included in the weeks happening as well as a school town hall to highlight the dangers of underage drinking. This year the VPC has stepped up even more in an effort to connect free services to our kids. With the direct help of Heather Lewis, Resource/Volunteer Coordinator, resources and connections have been greatly enhanced between school, community programs, schools of higher education, health resources and much more. This is to provide addition- al opportunities to engage our children and increase protective factors of their lives. The greater the number of protec- tive factors increases the opportunity for young adults to make informed healthy choice for their future. This is the actual environmental change that is needed to ensure a healthy community. Further, in partnership with nu- merous agencies, St. Helen’s School district, churches, programs, volunteers, parents, students and paid staff, the First Annual Summer Meals Program has been a resounding success. On average, the meal site provides over 85 meals a day to children between 1-18 years of age. Sports camps, summer school, summer bible school, daycare and families are utilizing this FREE program. Serendipi- tously, adult meals are being purchased on an average of 5 a day. Even greater, over 40 registered, back ground checked and approved volunteers are fed on the day they work! Next time you see Nic Welch, thank him for being the greatest SMP Volunteer Coordinator there ever was! All this is not done by one lone August 24 August 30 Vernonia, Oregon Camp Wilkerson, Columbia County Park Vernonia Night Out Anderson Park Fun Begins at 4:30 5th Tuesday Coalition Meeting “Bullying: What’s New” 6:30 —8:00 pm Be a Piece of the Puzzle Volunteers Keep It Together!
