Family Dinner Day

In collaboration with the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition, the Marshall County Family Resource Network would like to invite all community members to attend the second annual Family Dinner Day. The event will be held on Monday, September 22, 2008 at Cameron Elementary School from 5-7 p.m. The menu will include a spaghetti dinner with a cost of $5 per person and children under 5 eat free. Please RSVP by September 17 at 845-3300.

More than a decade's worth of research has shown that the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, or use drugs. Therefore, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University launched Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with your ChildrenTM in 2001, which is a national movement that encourages parents to frequently eat dinner with their kids and be involved in their lives. It is celebrated nationwide on the fourth Monday in September.

To learn how you can further celebrate Family Day at your home, workplace or in your community, log onto www.CASAFamilyDay.org

Calling All Dragons!

The Anti-Drug Coalition will be showing the video "This Place" on Friday, August 29 at the opening pep rally for Cameron High School. "This Place" is a 15 minute film produced by the Face Project and dramatically captures today's youth drinking culture by showing the alcohol-saturated environment kids are exposed to and the impact of underage drinking. The video also offers a glimpse into communities that are taking action to reduce alcohol problems.

The Coalition is interested in hearing the comments of those Cameron High School's administration, teachers, and, most importantly, students that viewed the video.

What did you think?

Is Lowering the Drinking Age the Answer?

Recent media coverage surrounding the desire to lower the legal drinking age has sparked many interesting conversations in our area regarding underage drinking. According to their website, the Amethyst Initiative is comprised of chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States that have "signed their names to a public statement that the 21 year-old drinking age is not working, and, specifically, that it has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking on their campuses."

We believe it is important to note that the concern should not lie in the legal age, but should lie in the AMOUNT of alcohol people of all ages are consuming. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on at least one occasion, and statistics have shown that it is a problem for both adults and youth in Marshall County.

Marshall county is ranked as 1st in West Virginia as the worst county for binge drinking between the ages of 18-25, while the county is ranked 3rd in binge drinking for ages 26 and older. Based on these statistics alone, binge drinking is not only an issue with those under the age of 21, but the legal adult population appears to have a problem with it as well.

A "Booze and Cruise, You'll Lose" survey conducted by the law firm Gold, Khourey, & Turak at John Marshall High School in 2007 reported that 57.7% of those surveyed were in favor of lowering the drinking age. Interestingly, the same survey conducted in 2008 stated that only 34.8% of those surveyed believed the legal drinking age should be lowered, which demonstrates a significant drop in a one year period. Of the 463 high school students across the Ohio Valley that took part in this survey, 55.5% were NOT in favor of lowering the drinking age.

If a majority of students surveyed in our communities do not feel it is necessary to lower the drinking age, then why are adults trying to change the law?

Check out this article regarding what the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is looking to do to oppose this initiative.
http://www.cadca.org/CoalitionsOnline/article.asp?id=1959

August Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting Minutes

Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting
August 8, 2008

Members Present: Kimberli Scott (Other), Latrisha Whitelatch (Other), Kristen Carter (Other), Dara Pond (Youth Serving Organization), Carol Helfer (Domestic Violence Prevention), Mark Witzberger (School), Stacie Dei (Other), Vickey Battista (Other), George Bamberger (Business Community)

Members Absent: Rich Milbert (Fraternal Organization), Brooke Johnson (Youth), Marian Walton (Media), Cheryl Kaczor (Civic Group), Alicia Menendez (Youth Serving Organization), Kari Maury (Youth Serving Organization), Betsy Frohnapfel (Other), Jennifer Pickett (School), John Gruzinskas (Law Enforcement), Connie Veronis (Healthcare Professional), Eric Fecat (Business Community)

Others in Attendance: Josh Carter (Youth Pastor), Dave Haynes (Concerned Citizen), Phyllis Haynes (Concerned Citizen)

I. Introductions

II. Safe and Drug Free Communities (SDFC) and Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG)

- Kimberli Scott gave a brief overview of the Too Good programs. She also asked coalition members for some ideas for the labels for giveaways that will be provided to Marshall County youth at the Back to School Fun Fair on August 11.

- Latrisha Whitelatch gave an overview of the components of the SPF SIG project. She reported that the SPF SIG plan was updated and that the renewal application was submitted in July. She also indicated that the CLI is completed for this reporting period.

III. CADCA Mid-Year Institute Update

- Kristen Carter provided coalition members with an update about the CADCA Mid-
Year Institute. She discussed a variety of topics, including the world café sessions that
she and Stacie Dei attended.

IV. Coalition Elections: Chair and Vice Chair

- Stacie Dei informed the coalition that she was stepping down as coalition chair. She asked for any nominations for a new chair. Carol Helfer nominated Dara Pond as the new chair. George Bamberger seconded. No other nominations were made.

- Dara Pond nominated Carol Helfer as the vice-chair. Carol declined the nomination. Stacie Dei nominated George Bamberger as the vice-chair. George declined due to other work-related commitments that may interfere with his ability to attend meetings on a regular basis. Kristen Carter indicated that several members were missing, and George Bamberger suggested that the election of a vice-chair be tabled until the next meeting.

V. Coalition Committees

- Latrisha Whitelatch listed the existing coalition committees which include
Community Input and Involvement Workgroup, Youth Input and Involvement
Workgroup, Recruitment Team, Legislative Action Team, and Comprehensive Plan
Workgroup. In an effort to increase ownership of the coalition, she asked coalition
members if they thought these workgroups should continue to exist or if new
workgroups should be created. George Bamberger indicated that he felt that the
coalition’s focus was spread too thin. Dara Pond asked Dave and Phyllis Haynes what
they would have liked to have seen when they walked through the door to attend the
meeting? Dave and Phyllis indicated that they would have liked to have seen more
community people. Dave indicated that he felt that the coalition was Marshall
County’s best kept secret. He has a family member who has struggled with addiction,
and he has asked multiple people, including local law enforcement and Moundsville
City Council, for their assistance in reducing drug availability/abuse. No one had ever
referred him to the coalition. It was only once he had seen an article about the coalition
in the Intelligencer that he knew it even existed. Phyllis Haynes indicated that she and
Dave were willing to do anything that coalition members suggested, including going
door to door to tell other citizens about the coalition, in order to help. Dave suggested
that citizens be provided with statistics about the extent of substance abuse problems in
Marshall County.

- Carol Helfer indicated that, in addition to statistics, testimonials from local families
whose lives have been affected by substance abuse would help increase citizen interest in the coalition.

- Mark Witzberger asked if the coalition had ever asked city council members to
become coalition members. Latrisha Whitelatch indicated that all city county members in all five cities in Marshall County have been sent personal invitations to become involved in the coalition’s work. Mark then asked if anyone from the coalition had ever gone to city council meetings to extend the invitation, and Latrisha said no. Mark suggested that a coalition member attend council meetings to invite city officials to either become involved themselves or select a citizen representative to attend on the council’s behalf.

- Latrisha indicated that coalition members need to take this kind of action themselves
and not just rely on grant-funded coalition members to do it. She gave the example of how a Marshall County school counselor had gotten she and Stacie involved in updating school policies and how they had subsequently rewritten these policies with the permission and encouragement of the administration. However, now that the policy work is done, the school administration has not yet returned Latrisha and Stacie’s calls to meet and discuss the changes. Latrisha indicated that if more coalition members were urging school administration to actually make the changes, it would be much more effective than anything she or Stacie could do alone.

- Josh Carter indicated that concerned community members and coalition members need to turn up the heat on elected officials and local law enforcement regarding substance abuse issues.

- Dara Pond made the point that the act of turning up the heat would best be done by community members serving on the coalition not grant-funded program coordinators who must partner with these individuals.

**A discussion also occurred during this portion of the meeting regarding the possibility of moving the coalition’s meeting location, changing meeting times, and holding meetings at different sites throughout the county. The notetaker did not record who made these comments.**

VI. Agenda Suggestions for Next Meeting

-Dara restated many of the recurring themes that she had heard from coalition
members. She noted that she was hearing that the coalition needs to focus on raising
awareness of the coalition’s existence and on coalition recruitment, and everyone
agreed that awareness and recruitment would be the focus of the next meeting.

VII. Adjournment

- Next meeting: September 5 at noon

1-on-1 Interviews

Community organizing is about getting "real people" involved and mobilized, not creating staff driven initiatives. Our Coalition is currently working on a new endeavor in order to raise awareness about our community’s issues regarding youth access to alcohol. In order to find out the views of those who live and work in Marshall county, Coalition members are conducting a series of one-on-one conversations about youth access to alcohol through the Communities Mobilizing for Change (CMCA) curriculum. If we talk with community members who have some expertise and concerns about youth drinking and sales, the Coalition will gain a better understanding for what the community's concerns are, and what has been done thus far regarding the issue.

If you would like to participate in these one-on-one interviews, or if you would like to become a part of the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition and its efforts to reduce substance abuse in our community, please contact us. We eagerly anticipate hearing from and working with you!