On December 19th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., youth from across Adams County will be working with local licensed beverage distributor - Lil’ Deb’s High Street Brews - to spread “Sticker Shock” waves throughout Adams County. The youth are joining forces in Project Sticker Shock, a statewide youth-led initiative to educate the public and change attitudes about selling and serving alcohol to anyone under 21.

Facebook is announcing a new service that harnesses the power of social networking and crisis support to help prevent suicides across the nation and Canada. The new service enables Facebook users to report a suicidal comment they see posted by a friend to Facebook using either the Report Suicidal Content link or the report links found throughout the site. The person who posted the suicidal comment will then immediately receive an e-mail from Facebook encouraging them to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or to click on a link to begin a confidential chat session with a crisis worker.

It hardly seems possible that ten years ago a small group of community minded individuals, concerned about the health and wellbeing of the children of Adams County, learned the same public health planning process that had been successful in reducing various forms of cancer and heart disease, could be applied to preventing problem behaviors in youth. And, that by bringing the community together to reduce risks and build assets, this prevention process would prevent youth substance abuse, youth violence, delinquency and school dropout, while promoting positive youth development and building strong families.

Since then, this group of people has expanded to include hundreds of individuals and organizations from throughout the county… school districts, businesses, government, law enforcement, clergy, young and old all working together utilizing proven public health models to improve the outcomes for youth and families in our county. Healthy productive youth growing up in safe, nurturing and stable families are the foundation for building strong communities in Adams County.

The President signed The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act on Friday.  Casey Family Programs released a press release through PRNewswire that provides further detail on the bill, and a link to the press release and some excerpts from it are below for your information.

Link to the full article:  Passage of Federal Foster Care Law Will Help Improve The Lives of More Vulnerable Children and Their Families Across The Nation

New research from David DuBois, Ph.D., and his coauthors confirms that mentoring programs not only seem to improve outcomes for young people in the areas of academic achievement, behavior, and social and emotional health, but they also can improve these outcomes simultaneously.

DuBois is a member of MENTOR's Research and Policy Council, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a nationally-recognized researcher in the youth mentoring field. His coauthors on this recently-released study are Nelson Portillo, Ph.D., of the University of Central America in San Salvador; Jean Rhodes, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Boston; Naida Silverthorn, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago; and Jeffrey Valentine, Ph.D., of the University of Louisville.

The research comes from what is known as a meta-analysis. DuBois and colleagues reviewed more than 70 evaluations of mentoring programs from the past decade and analyzed their findings into an overall report that has been published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
In addition to the ways mentoring improves outcomes for youth, the research suggests that establishing an effective mentoring relationship can happen for young people of all ages. As DuBois noted, these findings "speak to the universal importance of caring relationships for us as social animals, whatever our age."

What exactly is “service-learning” and how is it relevant to community-based programs that don’t operate schools? While it’s true that the roots of service-learning are in the education sector and are often tied to curricula, the concept of engaging youth through real and meaningful experiences that allow them to explore their abilities while making a difference goes well beyond the classroom walls.

The National Youth Leadership Council offers an array of resources and information to assist you. Begin by visiting their home page and clicking the tab “What is Service Learning”; an interactive media that fully describes the “service-learning” approach. Youth and young adults often feel disconnected from their communities and feel there is nothing “there” for them. Service-learning is just one strategy that can provide them with an alternative perspective.

Click here for more information.

Click here for an IMPORTANT MESSAGE about prescription drug abuse.

On Saturday, October 29, 2011, local and state police are partnering with Collaborating For Youth, local government and environmental agencies, and area health organizations to sponsor the third Adams County medicine "TAKE BACK” from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at several locations throughout Adams County.

Local father, Phil Bauer, shares the story of his son, Mark, who died from abusing prescription medications with anyone in an effort to keep this from happening to others.  Click on the link below to watch Phil as he advocates for changes in prescription drug legislation on a statewide level and as he shares Mark's story.

Mark's Story 

Since kindergarten, Hannah Fernandez's day hasn't ended at 3 p.m.  After school, there's Girl Scouts, band practice and so much more.

The New Oxford High School senior said she currently has about 10 activities she participates in.  And sure, there are times it's a bit overwhelming, she admitted. Especially while maintaining her straight A's.  But she said she wouldn't stop playing in the high school band or serving as a youth leader with Collaborating for Youth for anything.

In another measure to address prescription drug abuse, Drug-Free Action Alliance has teamed up with The Cardinal Health Foundation. Learn more about the Generation Rx Initiative by visiting: http://www.pharmacy.ohio-state.edu/outreach/generation-rx

Drug-Free Action Alliance Introduces SOLACE
 
SOLACE is an acronym for Surviving Our Losses and Continuing Everyday… The mission of this group is to reach people who have lost loved ones to drugs, to help the addicted make changes to their lives and to prevent future pain in the addict and family members. This initiative is one of tragic loss and wings of hope, arising out of a mother’s grief over her beloved  son’s death.
 
For more information on SOLACE, please visit: DrugFreeActionalliance.org/SOLACE.

Based on just two questions from a newly released guide, health care professionals could spot children and teenagers at risk for alcohol-related problems. “Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide” is now available from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Developed in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, clinical researchers, and health practitioners, the guide introduces a two-question screening tool and an innovative youth alcohol risk estimator to help clinicians overcome time constraints and other common barriers to youth alcohol screening. “Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide”, and its accompanying pocket-sized version, can be downloaded or ordered from the NIAAA website at www.niaaa.nih.gov.  It can also be ordered from NIAAA by calling (301) 443-3860

Welcome to our new website!  Collaborating For Youth (CFY) is excited to share what we hope will becomes one of your most visited websites (feel free to bookmark us now).  As you search through our site, you will see the many projects and program CFY collaborative partners offer throughout Adams County.  The site is still under contsruction, so make sure to stop back frequently.  Some of the things to be added in the next few weeks include a resource area (front page) for each of the following: schools, families, practitioners, and youth. 

In addition, CFY has spent months researching and collecting information of over 800 various resources in the county and will soon be connecting this information to the  "Adams County Directory" module you see in the upper left hand menu on the our website's front page.  This cache of resources will feature not only agency/organization/program basic information, but specific information parents and youth need to know whether or not the service fits their needs, such as: eligibility requirements, bi-lingual services, insurance carriers, sliding fee scales, and more.