University/Schools Alliance Executive Meeting
at Arcadia University
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 3:30 PM

Attending: Kristen Blanchard, SODAT Delaware
Linda Brasel, Arcadia University & Building Bridges
Rosemary Brooks, Parent at Sanford School
Sandy Clark, OPEI
Cindy Genau, UD Coop. Ext. & Building Bridges
Fred MacCormack, DE Wellness Centers
George Meldrum, Nemours Foundation
Libby Thomas, DOE Consultant
Kathy Ward, YMCA Resource Center
Jo-Ann West, Salesianum School Nurse

Staff Attending: Roberta Gealt
Mary Perno

Discussions: The September minutes were e-mailed out prior to the meeting. Minutes were approved without any changes.

DFC Grant-Year 8 of the 10 year Drug Free Communities grant ended on 9/29; Year 9 started on 9/30. The past year’s budget ended with over $6000 still remaining because we did not hold the Policy Summit meeting and we had to cancel some programs and meetings. Once we submit the final budgets and receipts, we will be able to submit a request to carry over the remaining funds for specific purposes. Roberta is looking to use the balance of the money to host the Policy Summit meeting and the Physicians/Pharmacists Initiative.

STOP Grant-Was not awarded to University/Schools Alliance.

Teen Dating Violence and Teen Driving Grants-Still waiting to hear if these have been granted.

SPF-SIG-The first meeting of the Advisory Council for this grant will be held on October30th, and will be primarily informational.

OPEI Youth Summit-This took place on August 8^th at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Wilmington. About 900 people registered and 700 showed up. OPEI collaborated with Duffy’s Hope and Delaware Teen Idol. The Idol competition was held on Friday night, the Teen Summit was all day on Saturday and the celebrity softball game was held at Frawley Stadium on Saturday night. The theme of this year’s youth summit was “Hollywood Invades Delaware”. The workshops that were offered were beneficial; they were about prescription drugs, social networking and one called snitches & stitches (about violence). The workshops were facilitated by youth (with supervision). Raven Simone was the key speaker. She spoke a lot about her image and not being the “perfect” size. Evaluation forms were completed, but a report has not been compiled as of yet—however, most of them were positive. The theme was very popular, and will likely be repeated again next year. The date will depend on when the Blue Rocks baseball team is away and the stadium is available for 2010. This year, scheduling was possible only 2 months in advance. Kristen suggested the event be posted on Face book and Twitter. This year, it was advertised on several radio stations that the kids listen to. The News Journal covered it both before and after the event.

USA/DDATA Policy Summit-This event did not take place this year due to scheduling difficulties. Roberta will call on the sub-committee, consisting of George Meldrum, Yvonne Nass, Howard Isenberg, and Janet Ray to meet again. Individuals from other agencies have voiced interest in being included in the planning of this event. George Meldrum will see Mrs. Carla Markell on Friday and will ask her is she might be interested in joining us at the policy summit. Mrs. Markell is already a member of the leadership group of first ladies focused on reducing underage drinking, so her interests are aligned with USA’s.

OPEI Forum-Will be held on April 21, 2010 at the Dover Sheraton. It will be based around the Strategic Prevention Framework. It will be for one day only. The SPF is the framework that all grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are based upon. The steps include:

· Needs Assessment-depends on the level of substance abuse

o Resources-making call to staff to see what we have

o Readiness-some people are in denial, some think they are ready to implement

· Capacity Building-building infrastructure

· Planning-short & long term objectives-vision & goals

o Outcomes to get your objectives

· Implementation

· Evaluation

Physicians/Pharmacists Initiative-This event is on hold because the application for funding didn’t receive a grade high enough. The original budget allowed for $22,000 to hold this event. This amount includes staffing, Pharmaceutical donations and in kind from Christiana Care Hospital System. Linda Brasel will put together a meeting with Roberta Gealt to try to lower the budget and get some funds together. Physicians and Pharmacists who attend will receive credits for attendance. Roberta has to submit a plan for carry-over funds within 90 days from September 30^th.

Data Trends

School Survey Data and other Data-Joan Chatterton (Aquila Founder & Executive Director) presented a workshop at the Division of Child Mental Health on drug trends in this region. She gathers information through interviews and also works with DEA. The information she is collecting parallels trends developing in the school surveys. A grid of drug consumption and consequences, used for identifying priorities by the DDATA group, was discussed. The chart shows that substance use is not confined to youth and young adults in Delaware. Binge drinking is high among men through middle age and among women of child-bearing age.

Alcohol, marijuana, heroin and cocaine are a big problem. Heroin is an expensive problem among a small population, but is responsible for more adult treatment need than any other drug. Alcohol, on the other hand, is also an expensive problem, but affects a much broader population.

Roberta read the alcohol law that was discussed in the last meeting to confirm that parents may legally serve alcohol to “family members,” including their own children, in their own home. Corp. Browning was not in attendance to discuss different interpretations of this law.

USA Notes-Drafts of three newsletters were circulated. Two will be mailed before the end of October, and two monthly after that. They will be e-mailed to the USA contact list, school principals, Legislators, school nurses, and maybe the driver’s education teachers and guidance counselors, with the help of Jay Lynch, who has extensive e-mail lists.

USA-has been a coalition for 10 years now and we still do not have any by-laws, no leadership, or assigned responsibilities for our members. Should we do this by a sub-committee or assign 15 minutes at each of the USA meetings to take care of this business? It was approved to devote 15 minutes to each USA meeting.

The Town Hall Meetings will get support from USA, OPEI and hopefully, from the Federal Government for 2010. These meetings will focus on alcohol and youth.

The next USA meeting will be on Wednesday, November 11^th at 3:30 PM at U of D Cooperative Extension Office, room 144.