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Community Projects Are Strengthening Community Capacity to Improve the Lives of Children and Families Living in Wahkiakum County!
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Community Capacity is more than just “individual” or “organizational” capacity to implement prevention programs. It includes shared focus, collaborative leadership among a set of widespread community partners, innovative strategies based on learning from changing conditions, and result-based decision making.
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| LEADERSHIP TRAINING |
| One element of Wahkiakum Community Network's capacity building is our Youth Leadership Initiative. Developed in 2008, this initiative strives to connect youth with leadership training, skill building, engaging youth in prevention and increasing youth volunteerism. |
One source of leadership training is assisting local youth volunteers to attend CADCA's National Youth Leadership Conference. The Forum brings together more than 2,500 participants representing community anti-drug coalitions from all regions of the country, government leaders, youth, addiction treatment professionals, researchers, educators, law enforcement professionals and faith-based leaders. In 2011, eight youth and two adult's attended the conference. Youth participants settled on reducing student marijuana use as their primary concern for Wahkiakum County....learn more. |
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CADCA’s National Leadership Forum is a 4-day conference packed with opportunities to learn the latest strategies to fight substance abuse and from nationally-known experts and policy makers.
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ENGAGING YOUTH IN PREVENTION |
Each biennium, Wahkiakum Community Network hosts the Healthy Youth Summit where local middle and high school students get together to review the results from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, a statewide student survey to assess the current risk and protective factors relevant in youth's lives.
In February of 2010, Wahkiakum Community Network met with every class from 7th - 11th grades to present the local data, engage youth in identifying prevention priorities, and assess if there are any up and coming issues of concern not yet revealed in the data. Residual benefits of hosting the summit also include improving the quality of the data collected in the future and increasing the youth believe that they are valued in the community.
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Students reviewed trends from six years of data, prioritized risky behaviors, discussed protective factors, and brainstormed major topics of concern. These include issues such as youth violence, substance abuse, and community laws and norms. |
The event was facilitated by Julia Dilley, Epidemiologist from Washington State, who presented detailed data from the survey that included statistics regarding risk and protective factors which compared local schools with statewide data. In addition, time was spent recapping accomplishments resulting from the 2005 Healthy Youth Summit that ultimately led the Network to select Community Norms as its primary focus to reducing underage drinking when the youth identified alcohol as their number one concern in 2005.
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| SKILL BUILDING |
Over the past years, Wahkiakum Community Network has sponsored multiple summer youth employment opportunities. Most recently, Wahkiakum youth participated in the national American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Summer Youth Employment Program. This program offered local youth 180 hours of paid
work experience and training during their summer break. This was a collaborative effort of Wahkiakum Community Network and Wahkiakum County Port 2 as was part of a multi-county effort.
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The goal of the summer youth employment projects are to expose youth to work readiness training
and connect youth to local resources, community leaders and increase exposure to local career opportunities. Topics included work ethic,
appropriate workplace attire and behaviors,
financial management, communications and
conflict resolution, team building, leadership, and
workplace rights and policies. |
RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF VOLUNTEERISM IN OUR COMMUNITY |
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Each biennium, Wahkiakum Community Network volunteers spearhead Brag Night, a local event created to recognize the value of volunteerism in Wahkiakum County. Held on Wahkiakum Community Network's anniversary in April, nearly 100 people get together to honor the power of volunteerism. In 2011, the event was held at Skamokawa Grange and opened up with a welcome speech by Network Coordinator, Tammy Peterson, praising the efforts and importance of volunteerism in Washington State. Youth volunteers led the night with the debut of their film to honor volunteerism in Wahkiakum County, a film developed by the participants of Wahkiakum Community Network sponsored Youth Leadership and Media Project, a collaboration of the Network and WSU Wahkiakum County Extension. Our 2011 focused on youth volunteerism and the awarding of the Distinguished Youth Award!
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COMMUNITY NORMS CHANGES ON DRINKING AND DRIVING |
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Each year, just before high school prom Wahkiakum Community Network collaborates with Wahkiakum and Naselle-Grays River School Districts to implement a Drinking & Driving Prevention Pledge Drive, a student lead annual project to help our make sure our youth have a bright future ahead of them. The week before prom youth volunteers host a pledge drive to encourage their peers to sign a pledge to not drink and drive or ride in a car with someone who has been drinking.
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| COMMUNITY EDUCATION THROUGH BOTTLE TAGGING |
In June of each year, just before high school graduation, Wahkiakum Community Network, Wahkiakum Sheriff’s Office, local merchants and local youth volunteers collaborate to implement Wahkiakum Community Network's Bottle Tagging Project to help educate the community on the penalties for providing alcohol to minors. Volunteers visit all the different local retailers such as the liquor store, convenient stores, and retail markets over the course of the afternoon and distribute Bottle Hangers and stickers throughout Wahkiakum County.
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Please protect our Youth =
Don't supply Alcohol to Minors =
It's a Crime! RCW 66.44.270
This project was modeled after Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) Sticker Shock Campaign as an awareness project to inform people about the laws surrounding underage drinking. Stickers and bottle hangers were designed, developed and then placed on packages of alcohol indicating that it is illegal for adults to purchase alcohol for minors. Learn more about MADD www.madd.org |
| COMMUNITY NORMS PLEDGE DRIVE STARTS WITH ME! |
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Healthy Community Pledge Drive: Making changes in our community must start within ourselves. This was the pledge signed by 136 youth and community members on July 21, 2007 including individual adults, groups of teens, families signing together, community leaders, fair princesses, school administration, business owners, and generations young and old.
Wahkiakum Community Network youth lead the way at a prevention booth at the Bald Eagles Day festival in Cathlamet as a way to engage families in the Network’s effort to reduce underage drinking by creating a community pledge wall. The pledge committed participants to become positive role models, influence peers in a positive way, and pledge to obey the law.
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Participants who signed the pledge were offered a free tile imprinted with their hand and signature. All the tiles were collected, glazed and fired by Ruth Doumit Designs, to be framed into an art mural and placed on the east wall of the Doumit Building in downtown Cathlamet as a testament to the community’s commitment to living a healthy lifestyle.
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