We had a good turnout last night in Valentine at the Minnechaduza Foundation for our first meeting. North Central District Health Department's prevention coordinator Camille Ohri talked about the importance of (admittedly dry) statistics was followed by Paula Hunke-Davis relating the painful experience of losing her son Brandon in an alcohol-related mishap. This touched everyone deeply and we appreciate Paula's courage to share with strangers this story of a preventable tragedy. Public Health nurse Veta Hungerford, also with NCDHD, provided a coalition-building overview with an outline of possible next steps. There was good discussion throughout and passionate conversation during the last half-hour revolving around:
1.) Yes, there is an underage drinking problem in Cherry County! Attending teens commented that they were aware of many instances of peers in 6th grade drinking, primarily in rural homes rather than city, often initiated with older though still not 21 siblings.
2.) Presence and involvement of Law Enforcement is crucial to the success of any underage drinking reduction effort. In the 9-county (Cherry, Keya Paha, Brown, Rock, Boyd, Holt, Knox, Antelope, Pierce) area where first meetings have been held, LE has attended only in Rock and (one other?). As Project Extra Mile puts it, "LE (of existing law) is prevention".
3.) There was an observation and agreement that "kids don't get in trouble when breaking the law," meaning that LE seems to turn a blind eye in a lot of situations, and even when LE & prosecution follow through, parents pay the fine or otherwise "take care of it". There was also concensus that to get LE to the table, trust must be built and "finger-pointing" or blaming must not occur.
4.) Kids need help with goal setting, which will help build and sustain high self-esteem.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think the hardest thing you're going to have to deal with is getting those kids who don't drink involved in this. They are probably the ones who will have the most influence over their friends, but they will probably also be afraid to say anything. There's always the fear of being "shunned." But once you get a solid population of youth involved, things will be much easier. I'd say concentrate on that for now.
Post a Comment