University/Schools Alliance
Executive Minutes
May 7, 2008
3:30 PM at UD Coop.
Ext. Office
Attending:
Cindy Genau Cooperative Extension
Kathy Ward YMCA-Resource Center
Jo-Ann West Salesianum
School Nurse
Rosemary Brooks Home & School Association, Head
Kristen Blanchard Sodat, Delaware
Liz Dubravcic Parent, Tatnall School
Yvonne Nass Parent Education Consulting
George Meldrum Nemours Health Prevention Services
Dana Sawyer Office of Prevention and Early
Intervention, Dir.
Staff Attending:
Roberta Gealt, Mary Perno
Discussions:
Roberta received a Cesar Fax today stating that parents are even
less likely to suspect younger children
of cigarette and alcohol use (when they actually are using) than they are
teenage children, but they are equally clueless about marijuana use by younger
and older children. The fax stated that
there is a need for parent-oriented substance abuse prevention programs. The fax was handed out to attendees.
Town
Hall Meeting Report: Rosemary Brooks said that Sanford had about 50 people attend their
meeting. Roberta asked that each school that held a Town Hall Meeting send her
a summary of who spoke, what went on during the meeting and any changes or
outcomes because of the meeting. Yvonne
said that she would be interested in knowing what the schools or parents have
actually changed since the THM. Rosemary
stated that, as head of the Sanford Home & School Association, they have
now re-written their policy regarding events paid for through Home & School
Association funds to preclude serving of alcohol. Liz suggested that we award distributors if
they something good for the cause of underage drinking, but since there are
only two alcohol distributors in Delaware,
this might not be practical.
Logic
Model: Roberta stated that the logic model has two
purposes; one is to reduce substance use and the other is to create and
maintain support systems for the coalition.
USA’s Strategic Planning Meeting:
Our strategic planning meeting was held on April 3rd at Buena Vista Conference Center. One of the topics of discussion was that Delaware prevention
services have a significant gap because there is no longer any regular, low
cost training available to youth prevention workers due to the fact that OPEI
no longer has an annual forum. USA decided
that it would be a good move to partner with OPEI to hold a forum next
April. When Roberta spoke to Dana Sawyer
about it, Dana told her that they already plan to do a forum for 2009, and might
be willing to discuss possible collaborations.
Some of the areas for training discussed at the planning meeting
included training tracks for healthcare professionals, for School Resource
Officers, and for other groups not previously addressed by the OPEI Forum.
Sophia
Slides: Roberta did a presentation for the Kids
Caucus of the Delaware State Legislature today in Dover.
The slides currently include information on substance abuse, violence,
sexual behaviors, and also physical activity and obesity, and nutrition. The slides also included the cost of underage
drinking to the state, which was of great interest to the legislators, who
discussed talking to Delaware’s
two distributors to see what can be done.
Another area of discussion was parents who are hosting parties and
serving alcohol to anyone under the age of 21.
One of the legislators suggested a possible tax on alcohol to fund
prevention programs.
NCCCP
and NCCPD: New Castle
County Community Partnership and
Roberta met since our last USA
meeting. Nellie Frazier is the new
Executive Director. NCCCP is
restructuring to be more effective, and is starting with fundraising, something
that USA
has never been very effective at. Nellie
is planning a golf outing and had a Job Fair already. They both agreed that we
need to collaborate with each other more often.
NCCCP serves parts of Wilmington and other communities that USA does not reach very well. During this meeting, another meeting was set
up for Roberta with the New Castle County Police Department. At this latter meeting, discussions revolved
around getting support for a grant USA was submitting on underage
drinking, possibly collaborating to update NCCPD programs including SLAM and
Heroin Alert, and possible collaboration
on the Parents Who Host, Lose the Most .
Family
Day: USA is going back to supporting
Family Day (Sept 22nd).
George suggested that we contact Yvette Santiago and possibly get
Nemours to be our sponsor if we promote healthy eating. He also suggested that
we contact Ann Farley, Director of Community Affairs for New
Castle County, about
providing some information to parents at a county program held at Carousel Park in the summer, called “Sleep Under
the Stars”.
Grants
Submitted: Building Bridges (Newark HS) wrote an
application for a Drug Free Communities grant this year, but was unable to
electronically submit it. They were,
therefore, included in a Mentoring grant for $75,000 submitted by USA to work with Building Bridges and also with a new coalition
in Middletown,
currently being helped by Howard Isenberg. Roberta also submitted a STOP act
grant for underage drinking. That is
$50,000 per year for 4 years. We won’t
know until sometime between June and August if any of these grants will be
awarded.
Smart Moves, Smart Choices:
Jo-Ann West told us that the National Association of School Nurses is
promoting this program on prescription drug abuse, targeting school-aged
students. There are four 5-6 minutes
spots to show in a classroom. There is
also one for parents. Information about
the program, which had its east coast premier by Postlethwait
Middle School in the Caesar Rodney
School District last
week, is available at the link to the program is http://www.macneil-lehrer.com/thenews/themedic/
Site Visit:
We have not chosen a date for the next USA
meeting because we are waiting for confirmation for the USA site visit
in June from our Drug Free Communities Project Officer.