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PREVENTION PROGRAMS
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CARECORPS
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Life Skills Training
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Poster Contest
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Safe Summer Camp
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Strengthening Families Program
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Sullivan County CARES COALITION
CARECORPS
Communities That Care (CTC) is a universal operating system whose strategy seeks to influence the social policies and norms that perpetuate alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse as an acceptable alternative. In order to achieve this environmental shift, the Council and Sullivan County Cares Coalition engaged in network development and coalition building. Of the 76,688 residents of Sullivan County, we are targeting two communities - Monticello and Liberty. Community specific prevention coalition(s) include representatives from prevention and treatment agencies, health and human service organizations, the criminal justice system, teachers, parents, clergy, and the financial and business industry. Coalition members will eventually be representatives of all the major stakeholders and will reflect the diversity of the targeted community.
CTC Members work towards bringing about an environmental shift by increasing awareness of the prevalence of ATOD and risk factors as well as the importance of protective factors. At least 75% of participants demonstrate increased awareness of risk factors and the importance of protective factors. Members also promote utilization of research-based effective prevention programs that reduce risk and enhance protective factors.
It is presumed that impactors have the capacity to successfully foster resiliency, understand key elements of the social development model, positively impact youth in helping them to avoid first use of ATOD, and develop positive alternatives and social norms which will minimize risk factors and enhance protective factors. CARECORPS, a CTC coalition, is working towards positive futures for all our children. It is a process that does not provide an "overnight fix" to the issues that have been identified. CTC is a process that builds on the strengths of the community to create a healthy environment for our youth.
Life Skills Training
This is a science-based universal intervention that has been shown to significantly lower ATOD use and delay the onset of ATOD in children. The primary objective of the program is to enhance the development of basic life skills, personal competence, and skills relevant to dealing with situations where students are exposed to social influences to use ATOD. While enhancing protective factors, this program also addresses risk factors reported as high on the recent Communities That Care (CTC) student survey -- friends who engage in problem behavior and favorable attitudes towards the behavior. The teacher/facilitator covers the 3 major components of the program:
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Personal self-management skills, such as decision-making and problem-solving skills, self-control skills for coping with anxiety, and self-improvement skills;
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General social skills, including skills for communicating effectively, learning to meet new people, and developing healthy friendships;
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Drug resistance skills and information designed to impact on knowledge and attitudes concerning ATOD use, perceived norms (i.e., perceptions of what others think and do related to drug use), and skills for resisting drug use influences from the media and peers.
Poster Contest
Drawing helps children get in touch with their feelings and dreams; the Poster Contest fosters classroom and youth group discussions about the problems associated with chemical dependency and express some feelings of hope for their future. The Recovery Center and Sullivan County Cares Coalition, as part of Alcohol Awareness Month in April, collaborate in sponsoring the Annual Alcohol & Drug Abuse Poster Contest. Children from schools throughout Sullivan County, grades 1 through 12, participate in the contest. With a new theme established each year, entries are accepted in both English and Spanish; each participant receives a Certificate of Participation. First, Second and Third Prizes are awarded in each grade category (Grades 1-3, Grades 4-6, Grades 7-9 and Grades 10-12) as well as the English and Spanish Grand Prizes. Winners are honored at an Awards Ceremony held in the Sullivan County Government Center in Monticello, NY. Copies of the Grand Prize winning posters are professionally reproduced and distributed across Sullivan County.
Safe Summer Camp
The Recovery Center and Sullivan County Youth Bureau collaborate in offering a unique one-week sleepover camp for 35 economically disadvantaged children, ages 7 - 12. The Safe Summer Camp is specifically designed to meet the needs of children from families with alcohol/drug abuse and/or who are experiencing chaotic living situations. The children are from all areas of Sullivan County. Safe Summer Camp fosters positive bonding with peers and healthy role-model adults in a structured, safe, challenging, and fun-filled environment. The camp provides an opportunity for youth to enhance physical skills and self-esteem and increase health and safety awareness by participating in a variety of educational and recreational activities each day, including Swimming, Water Safety, Arts & Crafts, Campfire Sing-Alongs, Hiking, Project Adventure, and Interactive Sessions on Safety & Healthy Lifestyles.
Strengthening Families is a
selective multi-component, family focused program that addresses family
management problems and attitudes toward ATOD use and problem behavior and
provides 14 sessions of prevention programming for parents of children aged
6-11 and 7 sessions to children aged 12-14 who face a variety of challenges
and risks. The program is designed to help parents with a history of
alcoholism/addiction and other problems improve their parenting skills,
reduce their children’s risk factors, and enhance the protective factors in
their lives.
Growing with Your
Pre-teens:
The Sullivan County Cares
Coalition will offer this selective program throughout the school year in
schools, community agencies, and/or churches/synagogues. We will
target 50 parents and 50 youth, ages 11-12, in 15 locations. This
program addresses family management problems, conflict, attitudes toward
ATOD use, and negative behaviors; it fosters conflict resolution skills and
family bonding.
Choices Program:
The Sullivan County Cares
Coalition Choices Program is a universal strategy; however, the students are
selected to participate in the program by teachers and/or guidance
counselors who also participate in the program.
The youth involved
volunteer their time to be involved in positive alternatives to ATOD.
The youth develop and improve peer leadership skills as well as actively
promoting a “no use” philosophy. They are involved in school and
community activities and act as role models to their peers (example:
French Club, Athletes Against Substance Abuse, SADD, Chapter and Honor
Society). In addition, many of the students who are not involved
in any club activity also want to become peer mentors.
CHILL (Changing
Hostility Into Listening & Learning):
CHILL is a selective
program that targets impactors who work with students who demonstrate
poor and irregular attendance patterns; students from divorced/blended
families who exhibit problems with discipline; and students who are
either children of alcoholic/addicted parents that are involved in
substance abuse, or some other type of family abuse.
The Cares Coalition’s
target is to train a minimum of 20 teachers and other professionals who
deal with children and who wish to be trained in the CHILL Program.
Essentially, the 20 impactors will learn techniques for “changing
hostility into listening and learning” and thereby reducing behavioral
problems, especially violence, among youth. At least 250 children,
pre-K through 12th grade, will benefit from the CHILL program.
