University/Schools Alliance Executive Minutes

August 13, 2008 1:00 PM

Crossroads Restaurant (USA bought lunch)

Attending:

Kristen Blanchard Sodat, Delaware

Linda Brasel Arcadia University/Building Bridges

Karen Busby Smart Drive

Nancy Chase UD Wellspring

Fred MacCormack DHSS Wellness Centers

Erica Melman Office of Prevention and Early Intervention

Yvonne Nass Parent Education Consulting

Janet Ray Delaware DOE

Dana Sawyer OPEI

Libby Thomas Delaware DOE

Kathy Ward YMCA-Resource Center

Jo-Ann West Salesianum School Nurse

Staff Attending: Roberta Gealt, Mary Perno

Discussions:

The minutes from the May meeting were distributed and reviewed. There has not been a meeting since June as we were waiting to be told a date for a site visit in June from our Federal Project Manager, but since that never happened, a regular schedule of meetings will resume and will be sent out with these minutes. There were no changes to the minutes.

Grants: The Drug Free Communities continuation grant has just been renewed for USA. It will start on October 1, 2008 and continue for one year; in January, USA will apply for a final year of Drug Free Communities funding. A Sober Truth on Prevention (STOP) of Underage Drinking grant for $50,000 was also applied for to work with the New Castle County Police and others on the Parents Who Host Lose the Most programs, addressing parents who supply alcohol to youth. A Drug Free Communities Mentoring grant was also applied for to help USA mentor the Building Bridges Coalition of Newark and the new Middletown Community Coalition. There were 45 applicants and 15 will be awarded. Grantees for both of these programs will be announced by the end of the first week of September.

USA Meetings: USA is in need of a permanent meeting place. The places that were suggested are: National Guard

American Lung Association

Cindy Genau’s office

Arcadia University

OPEI

Salesianum School-but Jo-Ann would always have to check.

USA Minutes 8/13/2008

Linda Brasel called Mary on Thursday, August 14^th with an approval from Arcadia University for USA to use their conference room or a classroom, depending on how much space is needed. This would be a central location for everyone and is easily accessible from the highway.

The September meeting was changed to September 17^th because Roberta will be out of town on the 10^th. Roberta asked Jo-Ann (as a school person) when the best time would be to hold our Strategic Planning Meeting. Jo-Ann thinks that early August would be best.

Roberta has revised the logic model for this year because we have so many plans. There will also be a one-year action plan developed.

Family Day: This year, Family day will be on Monday, September 22^nd. We are asking families to sign into our USA web site to tell us how they celebrated Family Day. The school with the most families participating will receive a prize to be determined, but we are requesting use of $1000.00 of funds remaining in the Drug Free Communities grant, which will end September 30th. USA will designate guidelines as to how this money may be spent.

Parent Chats: USA only held two Parent Chats last year. Roberta suggested that we use a game show format for the chats this year. We can purchase the game format, but we will need to develop questions pertaining to prevention. We can still use our panel of experts to declare the answers as correct or incorrect and explain why. The new format could be applicable to youth, adults, or mixed groups.

Town Hall Meetings: Four schools participated in these meetings last April. Each school hosted 70-100 people each. USA has decided to hold Town Hall Meetings on Underage Drinking again in 2009, again offering to support school communities who wish to participate rather than holding a single county-wide meeting. OPEI may be able to support these in some way from the block grant money. The meetings will be held the last week in March-23^rd to the 26^th or March 30^th to April 2^nd.

OPEI Forum: The Office of Prevention Annual Prevention Forum will be back in 2009 after a short hiatus. Erica Melman will be the best contact for the forum (erica.melman@state.de.us). It will be held in April and will be 1 or 2 days in length. It will probably be held in Dover again since that is centrally located for the state. USA would like to partner in the Forum and offered some suggestions such as training SRO’s and other school staff on how to train parents to be chaperones and party hosts. Also suggested was a track specifically for school staff on how to use data to determine prevention priorities, and possibly a workshop on the sexual health/habits of Delaware youth, and possibly one on youth nutrition, physical activity and obesity. OPEI is looking for suggestions for a Keynote speaker.

USA Minutes 8/13/2008

OPEI Youth Summit: This was held on August 2^nd at the Doubletree Hotel in Wilmington by the DPNA-which is mostly community centers. There were 650 people in attendance-mostly youth 12-18 years old. The Summit was planned in only 1 month’s time, with the help of a group of youth who developed the agenda of a keynote speaker, workshops and a panel of celebrities to interact with the youth. Duffy’s Hope had planned a celebrity softball game at Frawley Stadium, so Delaware Prevention Network Alliance picked up on that date and collaborated to provide a large event. Hill Harper from CSI New York was the keynote speaker. He was excellent, very engaging for the audience. He is the author of two books, has two masters degrees and a Harvard Law degree. Sandy Clark is in the process of planning the second Annual Youth Summit for next August, at which time there will hopefully be more opportunity for youth to interact with the panel of celebrities. OPEI is also putting together a youth coalition, which USA would like to partner with.

“What are you working on now?”

Janet & Libby: Developing a Youth HIV Prevention Strategic Planning meeting. The meeting will be on August 22^nd from 9-4 PM in the Community Services Building in Wilmington. Data will be presented from the Delaware Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the School Health Profiles, statewide priorities will be established, and strategies selected.

Nancy: The University of Delaware is planning to have a comedian come for National College Alcohol Awareness week the third week in October. They will also be introducing the Buzz Quiz game—students will be able to form teams and compete on alcohol-related topics.

Karen: Smart Drive is headed into its 4^th year with 70 or more high schools. The youth program will start on 1/1/2009. This gives the students DUI information as well as information about safe driving. Smart Drive plans to hit parents harder this year, stressing that the parents ARE in charge of their children and are responsible for their decisions and behavior, and for seeing danger signs and acting on them. Karen stated that for Smart Drive to have USA as a partner is very important for both, providing information for Smart Drive and exposure for USA. On October 5^th, there will be a Smart Drive concert in Dover. The music directors from WSTW and WXCY radio stations only plan events 30 days out, so the bands are not yet known. USA members are all invited to attend. The Sydney car will also be there. Smart Drive wants to use the concert to put out the information on substance abuse prevention. The artists who will be chosen for this concert will reinforce the positive attitude for prevention.

Kathy: The annual YELL conference will be at the Dover Sheraton on October 29^th. Grant Baldwin will be the keynote speaker this year. Next week, Kathy will be going to Nashville, TN for an OJJDP conference. She has had an increase in interest in the Sydney car, which simulates a DUI experience. Kathy also participates in the State

USA Minutes 8/13/2008

Alcohol Awareness Task Force, which has successfully gotten legislation to close gaps in the youth DUI laws. Kathy also said that funding was cut for YELL for this year.

Jo-Ann: Jo-Ann supported the idea of school collaborators for the Town Hall Meetings on Underage Drinking and also for the quiz game, and suggested working through school nurses to reach out to counselors and others in the schools, including health teachers, who could offer classroom-related incentives to youth who attend, and could recap the information in the classroom.

Yvonne: Yvonne is connected with the Wilmington Initiatives, which has a large focus on parenting, identified as a priority by a series of focus groups. She will be helping to design a curriculum, initially for parents of children under age 5, but there are already needs expressed for curriculum for parents of adolescents.

Linda: Building Bridges has been off for the summer. They didn’t get to submit the application for the DFC grants because of a computer glitch, but they will try again next year. One of their main goals is to work with the city of Newark to open a community center for kids. They met recently with Chief of Police Tiernan and City Councilman Paul Pomeroy to discuss their activities and their goals. They will apply for the Newark block grant for youth activities for next summer.

Kristin: SODAT is an outpatient treatment facility. They do prevention programs at Tower Hill School and the SCOPE schools downstate. At Tower Hill, they do 4 days in the English classes of 7^th graders. Upper schools read a book called Just Say Know by Wilkie Wilson. They also bring in a speaker that students can relate to and provide a neutral resource for students to talk to.

Fred: School based wellness centers have had the summer off. This coming school year, they will focus on teen pregnancy in collaboration with Christiana Care Hospital System to provide education on responsible sex. The targets will be Wilmington and Sussex County. Michelle Baker from CCHS will coordinate this effort. The Teen Pregnancy Board is putting together a package for state legislators keep them aware of the issue—they will provide them with the cost of teen pregnancy in Delaware. It is hoped that the booklet will be complete by November, after the election.