A Year of Accomplishment

The following was written by Latrisha Whitelatch, substance abuse prevention director of the Marshall County Family Resource Network to review the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition’s year:

Hello Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition Members and Concerned Citizens:

I would like to thank all of you for your dedication and commitment to the coalition's mission of reducing substance abuse among Marshall County residents, particularly youth, on a sustained basis. I know it can be very difficult for each of you to attend coalition meetings, since so many of you give your time to a variety of organizations. Please know that I truly appreciate everything that you have done to get to the root of alcohol and drug abuse in our community.

This year we have made great strides toward achieving our vision of a safe and healthy drug-free community, and I would like to recap our efforts and accomplishments. In January, two of our members attended the first of several required meetings for new federal Drug Free Communities grantees. The following month, as a result of our CMCA one on ones, we began advocating for a variety of legislative changes at the state level. We also started working on our media campaign designed to increase the number of parents talking to their children about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.

In late March, we began conducting our compliance checks, and in April, we implemented Project Sticker Shock. We also conducted a parent forum to wrap-up our media campaign, and we learned that, as a result of our efforts, underage drinking was no longer a status offense, but a delinquency offense. We had successfully changed state law.

In May, we decided to focus on improving our coalition. That month, we revisited and revised our mission and our vision (both of which are referenced above). We also started working on coalition bylaws. Additionally, May marked the start of Youth in Action team meetings for Marshall County youth.

In June and July, our Youth in Action team sponsored 2 events designed to give Marshall County youth something to do other than use drugs and alcohol. In July, our coalition blog celebrated its first birthday! We were extremely busy in August - we provided a substance abuse prevention training to Marshall County Schools personnel, hosted a CMCA advanced training, and started working with the WV Center for Civic Life on a project designed to increase public dialogue about the problem of underage drinking. We also adopted our bylaws.

In September, we were reawarded our SPF SIG and Drug Free Communities Support Program grants, and in October, we elected officers and hosted a community forum moderator training. In November, we implemented Project Sticker Shock again, and we had over 100 volunteers!

We also sponsored a resource day at John Marshall High School during the month of November, provided TIPS training for the employees of every fraternal organization in Marshall County, and completed our alcohol compliance reviews. In December, we learned that our alcohol compliance had improved dramatically from the previous year - we had a 12.6% non-compliance rate in 2009 versus a 93.8% non-compliance rate in 2008. We also launched 2 media campaigns - one designed to prevent underage drinking and the other designed to prevent binge drinking.

In addition to implementing all of these projects, we continued to conduct one on ones regarding youth access to alcohol, provided presentations and information to a variety of groups in Marshall County, and assisted with prevention education efforts in Marshall County Schools. We also added four new members and received accolades for our coalition blog. And we're not done yet, the Marshall County Winter Carnival, which we are sponsoring, will be held on December 31 from noon until 5pm in Moundsville.

Wow! We've done a wonderful job! And, I am sure that this list does not include everything that we've done as a coalition!! Again, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. I look forward to working with each of you in the new year. Please remember our first event, the community forum regarding youth and alcohol, will be held Jan. 8 at 11am, and our first meeting will follow at 12:30pm.