University/Schools Alliance Executive Meeting
September 9, 2009 @ 3:30 PM
at UD Cooperative Extension Office

Attending: Marie Allen NCCO Police/Heroin Alert
Harry Baetjer Tower Hill School
Rosemary Brooks Sanford Parent
Corp. Browning NCCO Police Dept.
Cindy Genau UD Coop. Ext/Traffic Safety
Howard Isenberg Open Door, Inc.
Yvonne Nass Parent Education Consulting
Libby Thomas DOE
Kathy Ward YMCA Resource Center

Staff Attending: Roberta Gealt USA Director
Mary Perno USA Project Coordinator

Discussions: The July minutes were approved.

USA Strategic Planning Meeting (August 5th): The August Strategic Planning meeting consisted mostly of small group work, resulting in recommendations. The data presentation which preceded the small group work will be posted on the USA web site. The data shows that binge drinking in Delaware extends beyond youth and young adults to age 45. Drug use is significant, but the most problems are related to alcohol use. This information will also be presented to the DDATA (Delaware Drug and Alcohol Tracking Alliance) on Tuesday, September 15th.

Opiates are the category of substance abuse responsible for the most adult treatment. Treatment for marijuana has increased in the past ten years, and it is also the reason for many arrests, but it is more difficult to documented other consequences of marijuana use than it is for alcohol or opiates (which includes heroin and prescription painkillers. The biggest impact on marijuana may be in the schools, but there is little documentation.

The charge for the small groups at the August 5th meeting was to develop ideas for policy initiatives to change the culture rather than specific programs to address specific problems in specific target populations.

· Stay in school –One suggestion was that teens identified as having a drug or alcohol problem not be suspended because that removes them from sources of potential services and places them in an unsupervised situation when they most need supervision. Bringing treatment in the wellness centers was discussed as well as using senior citizens as mentors and, in turn, give them a tax break for giving up their time.

· SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment)--This screening should be widely available for all ages. If the screen indicates the person is at risk, they may be referred to another office for an intervention or sent for treatment.

· Legal Accountability—Parents need to be held accountable, Delaware needs:

Social Host law

Dram Shop

Arrest Parents for supplying alcohol at parties to underage kids

· Parents Need—Parents and others need Prevention information and training should be available for whomever wants it at the level they want it.

Corp. Browning will e-mail Mary the law that is written about a parent giving alcohol to their own children.

Grants: DFC (Drug Free Communities) grant ends on Sept. 30th. The original plan was to hold a Policy Summit meeting by this time, but that isn't going to happen. Roberta will ask for an extension on the money, but doubts that it will be granted. We will have about $9000 to spend this month.

The Board would like to see USA posters in all of the schools to remind them that we are still around, purchase some fatal vision goggles for the schools, distribute Community of Concern booklets, including the USA brochure and a publicity campaign for USA. We already have programs such as Life Skills, Atlas & Athena, Parent to Parent and What Do You Know game?

Roberta had contacted governor Markell's office in August about having him attend the Policy Summit but has not heard back from his scheduling secretary.

Teen Dating Violence Grant, Teen Driving Grant and the STOP Act Grant—We will be notified by the end of September if we will be receiving any of these or not. For the Teen Driving grant, we have collaborated with Smart Drive to have a larger parent modular on their web site.

SPF-SIG Grant update: The SPF-SIG grant awarded to the state of Delaware started on July 1, 2009. It is currently in the very beginning of the organizational stage in which a Project Director and Project Manager will be hired. Then, there will be an initial meeting of an Advisory Council, which will create and approve a plan to direct the implementation of the grant. At that time, USA will have a clearer picture of the role it will play in the community-based implementation of this grant which will bring ten million dollars to Delaware for prevention over the next five years.

Events & Activities:

The Physicians/Pharmacists Initiative will not take place on October 31st because the CDC did not award Delaware funds to support this.

The YELL Conference will take place on October 28th at the Dover Sheraton. Contact Kathy Ward if you wish to attend (kward@ymcade.org)

The next USA meeting will be:

October 14th at 3:30 PM at

Arcadia University, 2nd floor