Tuscarawas County Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting
- Zoom
- Friday, June 4, 2021
Present:
- Ron Bond, Tusc Co Farm Bureau
- Robert Bray, WBTC Radio
- Erica Dalton, JFS Caseworker
- Christine Daugherty, Director of Nursing, Trinity Twin City
- Bill Harding, Citizen Member
- Kierstin Heckel, 4-H OSU Extension
- Brian Herzog, Tusc Co Public Library
- Bill Houglan, Citizen Member
- Gail Houglan, Citizen Member
- Rebecca LeMasters, ADAMHS Board Ohio Regional Outreach
- Peggy Leslie, RSVP Harcatus Director
- Connie Limbacher, ADC Secretary
- Kristin Macaulay, Community Mental Health
- Michaela Madison, Newsymom
- Kerry Metzger, ADC Chairman
- Mark Murphy, Tusky Valley Superintendent
- Mary Ann Otte, Citizen Member
- Jeff Neidig, Mediwise Pharmacy
- Autumn Poland Tusc Co Health Dept
- Miles Riley, Community Mental Health
- Jan Rowland, Director of Outreach-Birthview
- Jodi Salvo, OhioGuidestone
- Gerald Sanders, Citizen Member
- Jessica Sexton, OhioGuidestone Youth Co-Coordinator
- Diana Smith, OhioGuidestone
- Kelly Snyder, Tusc Co Health Dept
- Veronica Spidell, ADAMHS Board
- Robin Waltz, Tusc Co United Way Director
Meeting Summary:
Kerry Metzger called the Virtual meeting to order at 10:03 AM on Friday, June 4, 2021, with 30 members present. Bill Harding made a motion to accept the May 2021 minutes. Mary Ann Otte seconded and the vote was unanimous.
Committee Reports:
Executive Committee: Steering Committee—No current report
Alcohol Committee: Veronica asked that those who still have the PWHLTM Campaign yard signs—return to the United Way building to be used again or let one of us know to come get them. We will now be working on the upcoming “Talk, We Hear You Campaign” coming up this August/September.
Faith-Based: HOPE Sunday—Jodi met with the Addiction Task Force to move HOPE Sunday to August 29th which is two days prior to National Overdose Awareness Day (August 31). Prior, Hope Sunday has been the last Sunday of September, which coincides with the county fair and is taxing on our volunteers. Moving Hope Sunday will alleviate the strain on our volunteers, as it will disperse volunteer hours over a two month time period. There will be two areas of focus for Hope Sunday—1. promote the new Hope Line, which is the single point of contact line for people to get SUD assistance, 2. promote an event in September called Field of Freedom. It is an effort to engage the faith community with community members that might be struggling with mental health and addiction issues. Field of Freedom will be a 3-day event with speakers & bands. The Hope Sunday video is being developed and it will invite the faith community to go to the event. The Friday night will be a call for churches & volunteers to come and get prepared/trained for the work that will happen over the weekend, Saturday will be the event itself, then Sunday will be more of a celebration, a time to come together and become energized to continue in efforts. Volunteers are needed for Hope Sunday efforts. Volunteers are needed to call churches and disseminate materials- pass out packet- which will include flash drive, bulletin, pastor scripts and flyer about Field of Freedom event. Josh Aul currently developing a Hope Sunday “Save the Date” flyer that will be mailed out to churches next week. If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to Connie as we need people to make phone calls and deliver church packets. Peggy said her RSVP volunteers we are ready to stuff packets when needed.
Marijuana Committee: Kerry reported that the committee met on May 24th. They are planning to host countywide school assemblies (MS/HS) for Youth Marijuana Education. We have been given the permission to use the PAC for free. The date for the presentation with Ty Sells has been set October 5th. 9AM for middle school then 12:30PM for high school. Each district can send an 8th grade class and a high school class of their choice. Emails were sent out the week of May 17th and we have received a few responses so far (at least 500 students expected so far from school commitments. PAC capacity is 1000). We are looking at other ways to reach students: We are allowed to livestream the assembly to attending schools, although, we are not allowed to record it. The committee is also looking at providing parents, on the evening of October 5th, an additional marijuana education presentation. Sheriff Campbell will provide $500.00 towards the assemblies and gave a promo to send to the schools. The Sheriff will be introducing him at the assemblies. We will be soliciting businesses to help sponsor the presentations. Ty is Orvis’s favorite speaker. He engages with the kids and will draw them out with why marijuana should be legal then will show their faulty thinking without them realizing they are making the decision. Marijuana Committee Brochure. Mary Marshall and Jodi will work on narrowing the brochure content down alongside Josh to bring back to the committee at the June marijuana committee meeting. Our goal is to have the ADC Board approve it at the August meeting of the full board. Efforts to educate city/village councils and township trustees. This is an ongoing effort by the committee to create an educational marijuana presentation to our elected officials. We would like to see Prevention Action Alliance help us attack this issue. Since dispensaries have more than doubled—this is the game plan used to gear up for recreational marijuana. There is a lot of activity and work to be done by the Marijuana Committees, if anyone is not already committed to a committee—this committee is looking for more active members. If interested, please let Connie, Jodi or Kerry know. SAM Community Training effort. SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) have training programs where you can bring in a speaker from SAM to talk to our community about marijuana. In October the committee discussed focusing on youth marijuana at the beginning of the month; then doing a community event at the end of the for the community members, elected officials, and businesses, college students and parents with a speaker from SAM. We would make October 2021 Marijuana Education Awareness Month and look into using KSU-Tusc Founders Hall for the evening SAM presentation. We would make it a high press event and possibly live stream it, as well.
Media Committee: Michaela reported that she had a conversation with an individual who runs Drug-Free Stark County our counterpart and was told that Tuscarawas County ADC is at the top tier, we are the example for coalitions and drug-free initiatives. Great job everyone! As for media, we had a couple of press releases go out in May. We talked about the new Menthol band that was created and we had one on National Prevention Week. This month we have already had one go out about Information/Safety and Resource Day at Railroad Days in Dennison combining it with the Handprint Project & the 922 Initiative. Michaela is working with Jodi to get ahead a little bit as she will be going on maternity leave soon. HOPE Sunday press release along with a mention/reminder of the Field of Freedom event taking place in September, and one on Music on the Square in August and referencing that any funds donated at that event that the ADC will be the beneficiary for the PAC event that is taking place in October. We are going to do one on the 922-yard signs that will go out and probably a post press release for the PAC event—maybe an invite to media, to see if we can get a couple media reps to it to cover the event and use some photos, etc.
Prescription Drug Committee Jeff said that if the opportunity arises with speaking to councils and cities, the committee would like to piggyback on efforts and request consideration of hosting Drug Take Backs at their community events as these start opening back up (example: Strawberry Festival in Bolivar or Railroad Festival in Dennison). Requesting that local events consider requesting local police to host a 2 hour take back during events. Pharmacy RX bags—The committee has been working to design and purchase pharmacy medication bags that promote safe use, safe storage and safe disposal. The bags promote the use of Deterra bags, permanent drop of boxes and April and October National Takeback days and Hope Line information. The bags will be dispensed to the 14 pharmacies in the county the 30 days before national take back days. The committee just needs to approve the design by Josh. The committee is also working on the development of a dry erase board concept that would be available for our Deterra distribution partners and healthcare providers, to promote upcoming takeback opportunities. Diane showed what they looked like. Jodi suggested asking Stark, Wayne Tusc Recycling in the future regarding grant money for these items. Their logo is on the bags.
Tobacco Committee: Catch My Breath status report–Autumn reported that Dover School Policy Update: they have updated their policy, so there is now only one school in Tuscarawas County that is not receiving a 100 percent compliance of a tobacco free policy. “Catch My Breath” Update—we completed trainings-Autumn, Jodi, Diana, Kayli & a couple of others provided the CATCH My Breath program to all students at Claymont Middle school. We received some great feedback from the kids with a survey that was done at the end of the program about their future choices. Tobacco Committee Action Plan—Autumn did get her first podcast recorded- please take time to listen and share podcast widely. The podcast is with staff from Claymont middles school around youth vaping. Upcoming Events—we plan to attend the Atwood Beach Party on Tuesday to pass out tobacco cessation, secondhand smoke, and Quit line information. Autumn asked that Connie send out a tobacco survey to ADC listserv and asked that everyone take the time to take complete survey. It is a requirement for the community readiness scores for this grant cycle. It measures where we are at and what we know but at least one person needs to complete per sector.
922 Initiative—Handprint Initiative—We’ve had quite a bit of press around efforts and it this initiative has been well received in the Twin Cities. At the Railroad Festival, some booths had handprints posted (fireman’s and police) indicating that their organization/booth was a safe place for youth, so as the kids were walking around the festival they knew those were safe places that they could go if they were in trouble. It was nice to see them out at the booths. Launch Silhouette campaign & mailers—we are waiting to place the silhouettes and yard signs until the mailers go out. Uhrichsville Council meeting—Diana did attend the city council meeting to provide information to the council about the 922 Initiative and the purpose of committee. Council is very supportive of committee and efforts. There were 20 different agencies present for the resource blitz at the Railroad festival, even with the rain. Everyone from transportation to treatment- great variety. Salvation Army talked with Diana and brainstormed, as they did not realize what an issue transportation was for the area. They made plans to partner with the 922 Initiative and will bring their Mobile Meals truck down monthly, and setup for an hour in Uhrichsville and an hour in Dennison. The will offer a free sack lunch, diapers, food box and personal care items. They will go to the hardest hit places first and hand out the Mobile Food Boxes on June 20, July 18, & August 22, 1-1:30PM-Uhrichsville and 1:45-2:15PM-Dennison. Each month a different area of the cities. Future distribution will depend on the response. That was a huge win. CEO of Trinity Hospital was present and Diana was able to take him to each booth for introductions to agencies, organizations and efforts in the county. It appears that he really cares about this area and was impressed to see agency/organization representation at event. Christine Daugherty said that he was listening and taking notes on how Trinity Hospital can come to the plate and help more. He has only been in position3 months but it appears that he will wants to partner and make a difference in the area. Connie and Michaela commended Diana on all the thought and work she has put into the 922 Initiative. It was a large undertaking and so well received. Kerry mentioned that currently 922 is an ad hoc committee until our by-laws are revised to make them a committee. They will be having a report at each meeting.
Legislative Updates: Federal Safe Banking Act Jodi met with Senator Hottinger—the biennial Budget is currently being developed which has to be introduced on July 1, 2021. There has been a little problem on the prevention end, which comes down to the Student Wellness dollars, so they have taken 2 pieces of legislation and have tried to merge them. What this has done is made 25 choices on how schools can spend their dollars and this many choices has the potential to water down the effectiveness dollars going to prevention. Jodi met with Senator Hottinger and Prevention Action Alliance to voice some concerns. Jodi advocated for primary prevention to all students using evidence based and informed practices and programs. It seems that many feel prevention efforts should target “high risk” communities without understanding that every single child needs protective factors and life skills to make healthy choices. If anyone is interested in advocating, please let Jodi, Kerry or Connie know so we can get the training that is needed to be effective at the state level. Kerry reported that it is currently at the Senate has introduced their version of the bill, their bill, of what they feel they want in the budget. One of the things Kerry read was that wellness dollars was put back into the budget but at half of what it was before, so we need to look at that piece. Therefore, the House version is watered down but the Senate version at least contains some prevention dollars.
Old Business: None
New Business: Discussed needing volunteers to help with parades and booths as these start up again. A link has been set-up so volunteers can sigh-up. The following is the current needs. As others arise, they will be added to this link. June 17—Atwood Beach Party 5-8PM; June 19—Bolivar Strawberry Parade 2:30PM line-up; June 26—Newcomerstown Cy Young Parade 4PM line-up; July 2—New Town Days Parade (New Phila) 6PM line-up; August 21—New Phila Music on the Square booth (ADC featured organization). Please sign-up so we can get you a T-shirt for the event.
Youth: Jessica reported that they have been doing a lot of finishing-up projects, and focusing on the end of the school year parties. It has been a lot of fun and finally able to interact with the students in a more fun way, rather than social distancing, etc., but with Strasburg we were able to complete the school survey and we are in the process of tallying up results, and we will hopefully be able to report out results at next meeting. Students participated in the Dover Canal Days Parade. We are hoping to host two fun meetings a month thru the summer with the students. They are tired of Zoom! We are looking to expand the Y2Y program in Claymont to the Middle School. We will be meeting with Grades 6, 7, and 8 separately and then all grades will meet together at a once a month meeting.
Connie asked again for volunteer hours especially for special functions. Jeff commented about a possible volunteer app. Kerry asked that Jeff remind him to put this on the next Steering Committee Agenda for discussion.
Kerry announced that there will be NO July ADC meeting. A discussion was on a possible hybrid meeting in the fall. Peggy Leslie made a motion to adjourn and all voted yes at 11:12 AM.
Next Board Meeting will be held on Friday, August 6th from 10:00-11:30 am.
