TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS
Ask Raven
CEDARR
Raven wilt answer your questions
about problems associated with alco
hol, tobacco, and other drugs. You can
call in your questions to the numbers
below or mail them to:
Community Efforts Demonstrating the Ability
to Rebuild and Restore
July 11 • 5:30 p.m.
Siletz Community Health Clinic Conference Room
Raven
P.O. Box 549
Siletz, OR 97380-0549
We hope to see you there!
Dear Raven: I was recently told
that teen-agers who drink alcohol
might damage their brains. Is that
true? Unsigned
Dear Unsigned: This is a very good
question to talk about today. The reason
is that recently, scientists have learned
new things about the brain, especially
the adolescent brain.
What we now know is that the
brain’s frontal lobe, which is involved
in planning, decision-making, impulse
control, and language, undergoes a
major remodeling during the teen years
and up to age 24. Drinking alcohol dur
ing this period of growth can lead to
brain damage, especially for memory,
physical skills, arid coordination.
Most of that damage is because of
neurotransmitters, the things that send
messages to the brain. Alcohol injects
chemicals into the brain that affect the
important growing process.
The hippocampus is the brain struc
ture that is key to the process of recording
new memories. Adolescents, unlike
adults, are still forming connections
between nerve cells that play a role in
memory and alcohol can damage the
development of these connections.
This is just a brief answer to your
question. There is much more that a
Raven who is smarter and more knowl
edgeable than 1 am could tell you.
I have heard that we might be for
tunate to have some people coming to
the Siletz community in the summer or
fall to talk with us about this. 1 hope to
see you there!
Summer is a time when alcohol use
among teens is the highest. If you know
of any teens who drink, please give
them this information. And if you know
any adults who think it’s okay for teens
to drink, this would be good for them
to know about too.
Thank you for writing to me. I hope
you have a good summer! Raven
TLC Attitudes of Gratitude
First of all - Happy Fourth of July
to everyone! If you love fireworks dis
plays, I hope you get to see a great
one this year!
My “inner child” still rejoices at the
sight of huge, colorful starbursts in the
night sky and the loud cannon-like
booms that shake to the “core.” Some
drama in our lives is good, a fun diver
sion from everyday routine.
When “drama” becomes an every
day “life force,” however, we need to take
a look at what is happening. Are we
avoiding issues in our own life by be
coming immersed in others’ problems
and taking them on as are our own?
We all may have done that at some
point in our life, but to do it on a regu
lar basis is not healthy. It’s so easy to
slip into this behavior, to become lost
in the excitement of someone else’s
crisis without being consciously aware
that we are neglecting our own needs.
The adrenaline rush we get from
those encounters blinds us to our own
reality. We can forget that although
there are emergencies in life, life is not
an emergency!
We lose ourselves, we lose any se
renity we have in our life to the rush,
the panic, the anxiety that is brought
on by others’ problems. Then when it’s
all over, we are totally drained, ex
hausted, sucked dry of any energy we
may have had to face our own stuff.
If we are in recovery, living life on
an adrenaline roller coaster can be dis
astrous. We need structure, we need
quiet time and serenity, time to breathe,
SiletzTribal A&D
Programs
Prevention, Outpatient
Treatment, and
Women’s Transitional
Siletz: 1-800-600-5599 or
541-444-8286
Eugene: 541-484-4234
Salem: 503-390-9494
Portland: 503-238-1512
8
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Siletz News
•
General Council
Meeting
by Lynn Whitlow
July 2007
time to make appropriate choices for
our life. None of this can happen when
we are living on impulse and panic.
The good news is we can learn to
react in healthy ways to others' crisis. We
can help in ways that don’t get us sucked
into a whirlwind that leaves us spent and
unable to do what we need for ourselves.
None of us want to be callous and
uncaring when someone else is in need,
but we can evaluate the situation and
suggest other resources that may be more
appropriate than our own intervention.
That is where the gratitude comes
in: We can be grateful that we don’t
have to live a life of impulse and
frenzy, of crisis and drama. We can make
choices that are healthy for us, that
keep us on the road to recovery and a
life of inner peace, balance, and joy.
Attitudes of gratitude to those who
have given support to A&D and TLC
- to John Spence for the big chunk of
salmon, to Sandy Gordon and Lorna
Henery for clothing, and to Maintenance
for keeping equipment working up
here on the little hill. Thank you, Alice
and Stephanie, for your faithfulness.
Just a reminder that we hold a
Women’s Talking Circle at the TLC on
a monthly basis, usually on the second
Wednesday. We invite you to join us at
5:45 p.m. for potluck and at 6:30 for
Talking Circle.
We also can use new volunteers at
the TLC. Call me at 541-444-8238 or
1-800-922-1399, ext. 1238, for more
information.
Have a happy summer!
Narcotics Anonymous Meetings
Monday - 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
2315 N Coast Highway (101)
Newport
Tuesday - 7:30-8:30 p.m.
TLC - A&D Building
565 Old River Road
Siletz
Tuesday - 8-9 p.m.
St. Peter the Fisherman
Lutheran Church
1226 SW 13th St.
Lincoln City
Thursday - 8-9 p.m.
St. Peter the Fisherman
Lutheran Church
1226 SW 13th St.
Lincoln City
Friday - 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
2315 N Coast Highway (101)
Newport
Saturday - 6-7 p.m.
Siletz VFW
143 SE Eggbert St.
Siletz
Toll-Free Help Line - 1-877-233-4287
Aug. 4, 2007
Siletz Tribal
Community Center
Siletz, Oregon
1 p.m.
Agenda
Call to Order
Invocation
Flag Salute
Roll Call
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Minutes
Program Report:
Meth Program (CEDARR)
Tribal Member Concerns
Chairman's Report
Announcements
Adjournment
Time to Apply for
Student Incentive
Awards
It’s that time of year when many
of our tribal students will graduate or
be promoted in college, Adult Voca
tional Training, high school, middle
school, elementary school, kindergar
ten, and Head Start. The Siletz Tribe
would like to reward our students for
their accomplishments through the
Siletz Tribal Incentive Program, which
awards students the following incentives:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Head Start and/or Kindergarten
promotion - $5
Elementary School Promotion — $l()
Middle School Promotion - $25
High School Graduation - $50
Completion of Vocational Training
- $100
Completion of a Bachelor's Degree
- Pendleton Blanket
Master’s Degree - $150
Doctorate Degree - $200
To put in for an incentive award,
please send documentation of the pro
motion and/or graduation with name
and return address to your local edu
cation specialist and we will process
the incentive award as soon as possible.