June... So Soon? Coalition Updates!

Hopefully you are enjoying the warm summer weather as graduation parties, picnics and other outdoor celebrations abound. Now that school is almost over, our Community Educator's work implementing prevention education in the schools is at an end and she will start training to become more familiar with the staff roles for Drug Free Communities (DFC) Grant as the coalition’s Strategic Prevention Framework-State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG) which currently funds prevention education will end this September. We have been working hard in the coalition office to take on some much-needed “housekeeping” as we organize over 3 years of files, order promotional items for outreach, and last but not least…. the truly exciting joys of grant reporting. We look forward to having a clean and organized office so that we can get out and focus on increasing our community collaboration to prevent & reduce substance abuse!

As always, we try to keep you in the loop with coalition activities throughout the month of June and the rest of the summer. Hopefully the warm weather will inspire us to get out and do some much needed assessment to inform our prevention efforts in Ohio County! We are very excited about organizing a Prescription (Rx) Drug Take-Back event with Wheeling Police Department- more details soon! We can plan out the logistics in UPS (Underage Prevention Subgroup) and the media advocacy in SMarT (Social Marketing Taskforce). In the meantime, mark your calendars with the following important coalition and community event dates:

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Saturday June 5: Wheeling Chili Cook-Off at Heritage Port in Wheeling (12pm-5pm)
• Monday, June 7: Social Marketing Taskforce (SMarT) meets at YSS at 12:30pm to develop our coalition media plan, discuss Take Care WV media campaign
• Wednesday, June 9: Leadership Team meets at YSS at 12:30pm to act as steering committee & strengthen shared coalition leadership efforts
• Wednesday, June 16: Underage Prevention Subgroup (UPS) meets at YSS at 12:30pm to re-visit/update taskforce charter & plan for community assessment
• Saturday, June 19: YSS Steak Fry (6pm-midnight)- come out & support this fundraiser (tickets are $20) for YSS’s annual Celebrate Youth 2010 festival
• Friday, June 25: International Day Against Drug Abuse
• June 25 – June 27: Ohio Valley Black Heritage Festival at Heritage Port in Wheeling
• Wednesday, July 21: **OCSAPC Quarterly Meeting at YSS at 12:30pm** (lunch provided- please RSVP for food count!): Evaluation of our March 2010 Rx Drug Summit, Special Rx Take-Back presentation by the WV Rivers Coalition
• July 23 – July 25: Italian Festival at Heritage Port in Wheeling
• Aug. 1-Aug. 6: National Coalition Academy (Week 3) in Des Moines, Iowa (**Contact Julia to participate in this valuable training opportunity!**)
• Tuesday, August 3: National Night Out Against Crime in Wheeling
• Thursday, August 12: Celebrate Youth 2010 (YSS) at Wheeling Park (11am-5pm): FREE food, wristbands for the park & entertainment for youth & families!

For more updated event information, visit the City of Wheeling Events Calendar. Also see the latest edition of OV Parent Community Calendar for a list of fun things to do this summer. We hope that you can make time to get involved, or (if you are already an active coalition member) STAY involved with community-based prevention strategies. Your help is needed and does make a difference to youth and families in Ohio County. Thank you for all you do to focus on preventing substance abuse in our community.