COALITION NEWS

We're excited to announce the Prevent Coalition will be hosting a two day CADCA (Community of Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) Youth Leadership training. Click here to register.

Youth will participate in 1 day of key essentials including utilizing the strategic prevention framework to build capacity and implement prevention strategies, and 1 day photovoice training which teaches community assessment and using photography as a means for social change.

This training will be held virtually on April 7 & 8 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm. There is no cost for youth to attend. This training is open to all middle school and high school aged youth, no previous prevention experience is required.

LCB leadership wants to hear from you about how LCB's regulations and the products they regulate are impacting you and the communities you serve. There will be a roundtable discussion and Q&A session on June 3 from 2 to 4 p.m.

RSVP by May 21. Contact Sara Cooley Broschart at sara.broschart@lcb.wa.gov.

Community prevention coalitions, law enforcement and several partnering organizations are holding drive-thru drug take back events at six sites in Southwest Washington on Saturday, April 24th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Community members are encouraged to bring their unused and expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications for safe, free disposal to any one of the six event sites in Clark and Skamania counties. Prescription and over-the-counter medications including pills, liquids and inhalers will be accepted. Medications may remain in original containers and labels do not need to be removed. Medications not in original containers will also be accepted.

For everyone’s safety, participants will remain in their vehicles and use a drive-thru process to dispose of unwanted and expired medications. All event sites will follow appropriate COVID-19 safety guidelines for social distancing, face coverings, sanitizing and disinfecting.

Drug Take Back Event locations:

Clark County

• PeaceHealth Southwest Urgent Care, 33rd & Main (South Back Lot), Vancouver

• Kaiser Permanente Cascade Park, 12607 SE Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver

• Battle Ground Police Department, 507 SW 1st St., Battle Ground

• Washougal Silver Star Search & Rescue, 1220 A St., Washougal

• Cowlitz Indian Tribal Public Safety Department, 31501 NW 31st Ave., Ridgefield (La Center Exit I-5, south of ilani Casino)

Skamania County

• Skamania County Sheriff, 200 Vancouver Ave, Stevenson

Sharps and syringes
Noncommercial Sharps and syringes will only be accepted at the PeaceHealth Southwest Urgent Care event site. Use an approved Sharps container when transporting; if one is not available, use a rigid plastic container. WARNING-SHARPS DO NOT RECYCLE.

Vape pens and e-cigarettes

All event sites except Cowlitz Indian Tribal Public Safety Department will be collecting vape pens and e-cigarettes without batteries for safe free disposal. If batteries aren’t removable, check with large electronic chain stores to ask if they accept vape pens and e-cigarettes for proper disposal or contact your local Hazardous Material Transfer Stations for additional guidance on proper disposal.

Medicine take back events in Southwest Washington are funded in partnership by Washington State Health Care Authority.

For more information, visit bit.ly/DTBE42421 or email Kelley Groen-Sieckmann at kelley.groen@esd112.org.

Unable to drop- off your medicine for proper disposal at one of the six event sites on April 24th?

No problem! There are a variety of permanent community-based medicine disposal kiosks open all year-round. To find a kiosk in your area, visit the Convenient Locations section of Med-Project.org. Mail-back medicine disposal services are also available in Washington state. To order a free mail-back package, visit the Mail-Back section of Med-Project.org. Do not place medicines in the trash or recycling, and never flush them down the toilet. Medication not disposed of properly ends up in the environment and our waterways and increases the risk for accidental poisonings, misuse and overdose. Let’s work together to protect the environment, waterways and our loved ones by disposing of unused and unwanted medicine for free at convenient community-based kiosks or by using a mail-back service.

Click on links to download Event Flyers

• Clark County Events – English

• Clark County Events – Spanish

• Clark County Events - Russian

• Skamania County Event - English

If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction to opioids, now is the time to get help. Programs are available across Washington state to help you live an opioid-free life. Find out more at www.GetTheFactsRx.com.

Looking for a summer internship? Consider SummerWorks 2021.

SummerWorks connects motivated young adults tobusinesses for paid summer jobs! Paid internships available for young adults ages 16 - 21 that are currently enrolled in school, meet IEP or 504 eligibility requirements, and live in Clark, Wahkiakum, or Cowlitz counties.

Professional development opportunities are provided to prepare you for job placement. Participants are placed with an employer that is the best fit for them.

To get involved contact the staff below or visit www.nextsuccess.org.

Clark County:

Becky Mohagen

becky.m@nextsuccess.org

360.952.3453

Cowlitz & Wahkiakum Counties:

Christine Katon

christine.k@nextsuccess.org

360.355.3119

Love Your Life is a positive community norms campaign created by Unite! Washougal to promote safe and healthy choices for Washougal residents. Because…you can choose to love your life.

Love Your Life Video Contest:

What: Record a short video that demonstrates a safe, healthy and fun activity you choose to participate in that demonstrates our theme “Because…you can choose to love your life”.

Eligibility: This contest is open to all residents of the Washougal community.

Awards: One award will be given to the winning participant in each age group. Elementary, Middle School, High School and Adult

Prizes: $50 Barnes & Noble Gift Card—1 for each age group

Rules: Videos must be submitted to washougalunite@gmail.com by 11:59pm 4/12/2021.

Videos can be in any style (e.g., testimonial, comedy, drama, documentary, animated, still art, or live action). Videos should be at least 15 seconds but no longer than 2 minutes.

Click here to learn more and enter the video contest.

Prevent is proud to release a new podcast, "Prevent Coalition Podcast." The two hosts, Jesse and Christopher, share stories and strategies to help coalitions/organizations reach their full potential.

Listener at preventcoalition.podbean.com. The podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, the Apple Podcast app and other familiar streaming services.

• Episode 0 - Welcome
• Episode 1 - Rural Network
• Episode 2 - Policy Change

Have a topic for the hosts to discuss? Email comments and inquiries to preventcoalition@esd112.org. Episodes archived at preventcoalition.org/events/news/.

An excerpt from the ESD 112 Media Release:

This year, the Southwest Washington Regional High School Art Show was held virtually on Facebook Live on March 31, 2021. ESD 112 Superintendent Tim Merlino welcomed guests to the first-ever virtual event. Viewers had a chance to see award-winning pieces in addition to hearing from participating artists and teachers as they explained how they creatively adapted to at-home teaching and learning this year.

“We are so pleased at the level of participation we received for Southwest Washington’s first-ever virtual Art Show,” said Amelia Holmes, ESD 112’s Art Show Coordinator. “The success of this year’s show is a testament to the resilience, passion, and creativity of the art students and teachers in our region, and we are so grateful for the amount of interest they showed in participating, despite having to do so virtually,” she added.

The 2021 ESD 112 Virtual Art Show can be viewed here.

Winners of the Regional Awards will compete against entries from around Washington State in the Virtual State Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Art Show in Olympia. The Virtual Artwork Gallery will be on display April 8–May 20 and the Virtual Awards Ceremony will take place online on May 20.

In addition to the recognition from ESD 112, several student artists received scholarships from Central Washington University (CWU).

Click here to see the gallery of all award recipients.

Vancouver’s Prevent Coalition has initiated the development of a second phase of its Locks Saves Lives campaign, which encourages families in Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties to keep their loved ones safe by storing their prescription medications in a locked location at home.

Whereas the campaign’s initial phase largely focused on the dissemination of medication lock boxes to parents, grandparents and guardians with youth grades 6-12 in the home, this new phase focuses on developing relationships with local single and multi-family residential builders, property managers and other real estate professionals who, after learning of Locks Save Lives, will agree to provide residents with a secure location to store medication by purchasing and installing one locking cabinet or drawer in each residence they build or manage.

“Encouraging safe medication storage and making it accessible by equipping every house and apartment with locking storage options benefits every person’s health and well-being,” said Kelley Groen-Sieckmann, community prevention project specialist for the Prevent Coalition.

To support the second phase of the campaign, the Coalition has formed an 19-member stakeholder committee. Composed of members representing home builders, property managers, real estate, healthcare and education, the committee is tasked with creating a series of resources that can be used to inform and promote Locks Save Lives in a sustainable fashion.

Stakeholder committee members include:

• Tracy Doriot, Doriot Construction
• Angela Riddle, West Van for Youth Coalition & Vancouver Housing Authority
• Kim Salvesen-Pauly, Windermere Real Estate Columbia River Gorge
• Craig Lyons, Milestone Property Management
• Aideet Pineda, Molina Healthcare
• LeeAnn O’Neil, Amerigroup, WA
• Marcy Sprecher, Rocksolid Teen Center & Prevent Together Battle Ground Prevention Alliance
• Jim Jensen, SWACH
• Kris Soske, La Center United
• Mercedes Zahler, La Center United
• Karen Douglass, One Prevention Alliance
• Anasha Gates, Coalition for Preventing Abuse in Klickitat County
• Katherine Zavala, Central Vancouver Coalition
• Jennifer Kirby, Prevent Together Battle Ground Prevention Alliance
• Margaret McCarthy, Unite! Washougal Community Coalition
• Vitali Turlac, Unite! Washougal Community Coalition
• Joy Lyons, ESD 112
• Nick Shanmac, ESD 112
• Kelley Groen-Sieckmann, Prevent Coalition

“There’s a real opportunity to impact lives with this campaign, and we’re really energized by the work that’s ahead of us,” said Tracy Doriot, chair of the stakeholder committee, owner of Doriot Construction and president of the Building Industry Association of Washington. “My company is proud to commit to installing cabinet locks to save lives; it’s a small investment with infinite returns.”

Funding for Locks Save Lives is provided by a State Opioid Response Grant from Washington State Health Care Authority. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.preventcoalition.org/lockssavelives.

Congratulations to the 733 community coalitions who received grant funding from the Drug-Free Communities Program in Fiscal Year 2020! View the full listing of DFC grantees on CDC’s website.

The 2021-22 Washington State Legislative Session is still under way. We encourage you to establish a connection with your elected officials, and share your voice for matters important to you. Please know that every day, new legislation is introduced and this is not in any way a comprehensive list of policies to monitor.

Tools or Updates:

• Liquor & Cannabis Board Annual Report
  
• Accessing the Legislature Remotely
• How to Testify or Submit Comment Remotely
• How to Locate & Contact Your Legislators

Relevant Prevention Policies:

• Eliminating youth purchase, use and possession laws for Tobacco.
• Regulating Vaping & Tobacco Products
• Allowing Adult Residential Marijuana Agriculture (Home Grows)
• Establishing & Allowing Craft Cannabis License
• Taxation Changes to Medical Cannabis
• Establishing Health Equity Zones
• Clarifying WA Clean Air Act
• Replacing the Term "Marijuana" with "Cannabis"
• Concerning Possession of Vapor Products by Minors
• Arrest Protections for Users of Medical Cannabis

What do rural communities look like?

What does it mean to be rural?

What are the greatest strengths in your community?

We would like to capture all of the above, and more, in photos of rural communities across the state. We're building an online "stock photo library" of pictures that rural community members, like you, submit to us.

There is a significant lack of representation in marketing and promotional materials that accurately reflect rural lifestyle and culture. We would like to address this together so that our partners, supporters, and members can use appropriate images in prevention campaigns, fliers, posters, social media, and more.

Click here to submit your photos!

All images will be reviewed by our Toolkit Workgroup committee before being included in our online toolkit. The online toolkit should be published in June of 2021. Any images of youth or minors will require a permission form that can be signed online by parents and guardians at the time of submission, or at a later date.

The Rural Network is gathering stories of success and innovation to create an online gallery of ways people have overcome obstacles, adapted prevention materials, or created new implementation strategies for prevention.

Take the five question survey to help us get a sense of what's working in your area.

Eventually, all submissions will be available online in a gallery that will help members and prevention practitioners become more innovative in their approaches to this work.

Rural Network Meeting

Tuesday April 27

NEW TIME just for this meeting: 3 - 5 p.m.

Click here to register in advance and receive a meeting link.

Click here to access meeting minutes from March.

In April, Dave Shavel, a coalition trainer from the CADCA program (Community of Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) is going to host an organizing session with us consisting of mini listening sessions. It will help us understand where we are now, where we want to go in the future, and how to get there.

Questions?

Email preventcoalition@esd112.org or learn more and to subscribe for meeting reminders.

• Photo Toolkit: We're developing an online library of rural photos. These will be used for prevention campaigns, media, flyers, and more. Submit photos today! Click here to access the submission form.
• Story Toolkit: We're developing a collection of success stories, lessons learned, and ways for adapting programs to rural areas. Click here to take the five minute survey.
• Website: Our designer is currently making a password-protected toolkit page that will host everything toolkit related. To be released by June 2021.
• Map: Visit the map of coalitions across Washington. Did we miss someone? Let us know! Also, it is on our next year's Action Plan to update the original maps outlining rural areas of Washington once we have public access to the 2020 Census results.
• Assessment: Click here to access the second part of the Needs Assessment, which includes a sample of Healthy Youth Survey from rural areas across Washington.
• Organization Training: During the April and May monthly meetings, we're hiring a CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) trainer, Dave Shavel, to support our network in planning for the upcoming fiscal year and building capacity within our membership.
• Recruitment: We are working on a variety of ways to make it easier for our members to talk about the Rural Network and share our opportunities with peers. These include remodeling our website, making custom coalition "Post Cards," and hosting more Orientation Trainings as we did in January and February.
• Action Planning: Your Steering Committee is creating a new action plan for the upcoming Fiscal Year. This is due to our funders by the end of April. We plan to continue the majority of our current action plan, in addition to also implementing health equity practices, hosting a Rural Network Gathering or Conference, and more. Have an idea for our future action plan? Email staff as soon as possible or connect with one of your Steering Committee members.
• Evaluation: During the June monthly meeting, our members will participate in a coalition assessment to understand how the Rural Network can improve, evaluate if we've met our goals, and more.

For a full grant progress timeline visit www.preventcoalition.org/rural/our-work/.

Prevent Coalition events:

CADCA Youth Leadership Key Essentials

Tuesday April 7 and Wednesday April 8

Online from 1-3 pm

For youth volunteers across the state interested in becoming prevention leaders.

Locks Save Lives Phase 2 Stakeholder Committee

Wednesday April 21

Online from 10-11:30 am

For stakeholders of the campaign and opioid prevention partners.

Coalition Coordinators Meeting

Thursday April 22

9:30-11 a.m.

Online conference call.

For Coalition Coordinators & staff in SW Washington.

Drive- Thru Drug Take Back Events
Saturday April 24

From 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Various Locations

Rural Network Meeting

Tuesday April 27

New time --> 3-5 p.m.

Online conference call.

For rural volunteers, representatives & leaders across Washington.

Click for full calendar of coalition and community events.

Relevant events not sponsored by Prevent Coalition:

4/9 Webinar: Effectively Serving the LGBTQ+ Community

4/21 Webinar: Ending Vaping the Way It Starts: A Social Cessation Solution for Teens

4/21 Prioritizing Equity in Public Health Leadership Summit

4/28 Webinar: Adolescents, Young Adults and Opioid Use: When Is It a Problem? What to Do?

Our mission is connecting and supporting communities to build resilience and prevent youth substance use. We envision a healthy, thriving community free of substance abuse.

Forward this newsletter to a friend, colleague or youth leader. You may also pass our news link along: bit.ly/preventnews.

Email: preventcoalition@esd112.org
Website: www.PreventCoalition.org
Location: 2500 NE 65th Ave., Vancouver, WA, USA
Phone: 360-952-3457
Facebook: Facebook.com/PreventCoalition
Twitter: @supportyouthnow