Tuscarawas County Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting
- ADAMHS Board Meeting Room
- Friday, March 5, 2021
Present:
- Briana Bobzien, Trinity Twin City Hospital
- Ron Bond, Tusc Co Farm Bureau
- Robert Bray, WBTC Radio
- Erica Dalton, JFS Caseworker
- Jodi Dean, MAOL Sunrise Vista Health
- Nicole Dorsey, Harcatus
- Teri Edwards, Twin City Chamber
- Bradley Fields, Lifeway Recovery Pastor
- Dick Gooding, Goodings Nursery
- William Harding, CIC of Tusc Co
- Brian Herzog, Tusc Co Public Library
- Al Landis, Tusc Co Commissioner
- Chris Lane, Wendy’s Owner
- Connie Limbacher, ADC Secretary
- Kayli Luthy, OhioGuidestone
- Kristin Macaulay, Community Mental Health
- Michaela Madison, Newsymom
- Alex McCarthy, Tusc Co HS and EMA Director
- Kerry Metzger, ADC Chairman
- Mark Murphy, Tusky Valley School District
- Jeff Neidig, Mediwise Pharmacy
- Autumn Poland Tusc Co Health Dept
- General Barrye Price, CADCA President and CEO
- Miles Riley, Community Mental Health
- Jodi Salvo, OhioGuidestone
- Jessica Sexton, OhioGuidestone
- Diana Smith, OhioGuidestone
- Kelly Snyder, Tusc Co Health Dept
- Veronica Spidell, ADAMHS Board
- Janice Strawn, Community Member
- Elizabeth Thomakos, Tusc Co Common Pleas Court Judge
- Robin Waltz, Tusc Co United Way Director
- Brock West, TCC Youth-to-Youth, Tusc Youth Advisory Board
- Adam Wilgus, Tusc Co Juvenile Court Judge
Meeting Summary:
Kerry Metzger called the Virtual meeting to order at 10:00 AM on Friday, March 5, 2021, with 34 members present. He opened mentioning how honored we are to have the new President and CEO of CADCA, General Barrye Price. He thanked General Price for attending the meeting. Jodi Salvo proceeded with introductions. Bill Harding made a motion to accept the March 2021 minutes. Jeff Neidig seconded and the vote was unanimous.
Committee Reports:
Executive Committee: Kerry reported on the February 8th Steering Committee meeting—the committee discussed the Twin City area as an identified “hot spot” in the county for drug overdoses. Jodi has been working with Superintendent Rentsch and a company called Apportis to develop a solution to support youth, families and school staff in the Claymont School District. Apportis has created an integrated platform that allows families to connect electronically to community and behavioral health resources. It is functional without broadband service. It is a culturally competent tool, customized to reflect the community that uses it. This app has the ability to geofence and assist with finding community specific resources like food pantries and kitchens, after school events as well as real time linkages to specialized services such as treatment appointments, support groups and crisis services. In addition, the app can be designed to support a library of valuable school and prevention resources that are available 24/7 on the Apportis App. It will be a pilot project for Apportis to use their services for children and families living in Appalachia Ohio to assist the area’s access to physical and behavioral health resources. We would like to fund the development and first year service to Claymont District and use these services to provide prevention information and resources to families and school staff. The cost for development and first year will be $7,000 which will provide platform to all students, families and staff—a cost of $.50 per student. The Steering Committee was in support of this new endeavor. We have the funding as normally we pay for the youth survey for the county but we were unable to survey our students because of the pandemic. Diana shared that along with this effort, the ADAMHS Board and OhioGuidestone received funds from a SOR Grant, and a portion of that is designated for the Twin City area because of their “hot spot” designation. Diana will be working one-on-one two days a week in that area to engage community and key leaders from the Twin Cities to strengthen the 922 Initiative, to address treatment and prevention needs. Efforts the 922 Initiative will be exploring is door-to-door with Naloxone and treatment and recovery resources, increase in take back efforts, information dissemination at grocery store, community awareness and education events, etc. Diana also reported that they have started to implement a safe place/person designation in the Twin City area and those businesses/organizations designated, as a safe place will be marked by displaying a handprint. Students in the Claymont school district are receiving education on the importance of safe people and reaching out for help when needed.
The website was also discussed. There have been some issues with the website recently regarding its “user-friendliness” and some information/data not being on the web page. The Steering Committee is going to take this up as a topic for discussion at its next meeting. We will be meeting with the developer to discuss these issues and find ways to improve the site. We are asking the ADC members to go to the website this weekend and examine it, and then send any suggestions to either Diana Smith or Jodi. The Steering Committee will be meeting this Monday, March 8th at 10AM to discuss the website. Then, the April Steering Meeting will be held Monday, April 12 at 10AM.
Alcohol Committee: Veronica Spidell reported that the receipt of SAMSHA Communities Talk grant of $750 will be used to host a virtual training on April 7th with national speaker, Jessica Hulsey from Addiction Policy Forum. This will be open to community members, businesses, school districts and agencies. Topics she will covered will include: Alcohol related injuries, death, healthcare concerns, parental involvement in prevention, alcohol misuse and mental health, the cost to our community with underage drinking. This event will be free and includes CEU’s. Chris Lane is offering a free lunch coupon to Wendy’s restaurants in Tuscarawas and Carrol counties’ with registration. The Alcohol Committee will be launching the “Parents Who Host, Lose The Most” (PWHLTM) campaign mid-April, as some area schools will be hosting prom. PWHLTM It is a public health campaign to help prevent underage drinking in our community. The key message is help remind parents how unsafe, unhealthy and unacceptable it is to provide alcohol for underage youth. There will be banners and yard signs that will go up at our school districts and throughtout the county. We have 500 yard signs to that can be placed to saturate the message throughout the county. You can pick up your yard signs up at the United Way building. Please ask your agency/organization, co-workers, friends and families if they would be willing to post signs. Signage will be posted mid-April to June, to capture both prom and graduation season. Planning will continue at the March 15th committee meeting at 1PM. If you are interested in helping with this campaign, let Veronica know and she will provide the meeting link for next committee meeting.
Marijuana Committee: Alex reported that the Marijuana Committee met on February 22nd, and we discussed State/Federal, and local issues around the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana. Committee will be working to secure data to develop next steps. It was decided that the input of judges, prosecuting attorney and police chiefs would be helpful to better understand their position around marijuana to include thoughts on decriminalization and legalization. Information gained through these listening sessions will help guide committee next steps. Committee also discussed the importance of advocacy at the state level. March 3rd committee members met with Rep. Hillyer and March 4th, and met with Senator Hottinger to discuss marijuana issue and other concerns. Over the upcoming months, we are looking to educate local stakeholders on the issues of medicinal and recreational marijuana and the implications on our youth. Our next meeting is scheduled for March 22nd. Ty Sells is presenting for anyone who wants to hear “Clear the Air” on March 11tth from 9-10:30AM. This is free, but you do have to register. An attachment was sent to all members prior and it is offered by Prevention Partnership Coalition of Sandusky County. This is a presentation that can be used with high school students. If you are able to attend, we would like everyone’s feedback on Ty, as we would like to bring him to our county later this year, if we feel he would be an effective presenter. Kerry reported that he and Jodi met with both Judge Thomakos and Judge Ernest yesterday and will be bringing back information gained. They will be meeting with the other three judges in the next couple of weeks.
Youth: Brock West reported that the Youth Advisory Board students are planning to start doing podcasts and will be filming a video tonight on what parents need to talk to kids about. They have still been working with Dover-Phila Federal Credit Union (DPFCU) to start with their Bonzai Program mentoring—teaching young people how to save money and be financially stable. The high schoolers are going to look at the program and answer questions from students in elementary school about how the high schoolers spend their money, or what they would have liked to known, when they were younger. On Legislative Day with Representative Hillyer and Senator Hottinger, Brock and Kathryn Secoy attended and represented the youth voice. Brock was also the only Ohio youth that attended the federal appointments with Senator Brown and Portman during CADCAs Capitol Hill day. Brock represented Ohio youth well. Kayli Luthy explained that the students are working on a video that they wish their parents would talk to them about or other teens for National Drugs & Alcohol Facts Week (NDAFW). In addition, there will be a NDAFW Proclamation on the 15th at 9:30am at the Tuscarawas County Court House with the Commissioners. Jodi thanked the commissioners for all their support. Commissioner Al Landis welcomed anyone to attend. Brock was asked his feelings on having so many meetings with Senators and Representatives this month. He said he was glad to be able to use his influence to tell them how the funding helps the youth and their programs. He was also able to tell them the youth prospective and what they needed to be mindful of. Jodi expressed the ADC’s appreciation for his representation. Also, thanks to Kathryn Secoy. Kayli reported on the Youth survey. One of the schools with a larger Y2Y group decided to send out a survey to understand better what is going on in their school, what substances are being used, and perceptions around substances, to help them determine their area of focus. The 30 Y2Y students first took a survey to then compare with their thoughts and perceptions with their peers. Results from the Y2Y group showed that the top three substances of use were vaping nicotine, vaping marijuana, and then alcohol use. Least misused was prescription drugs. Survey revealed that most students thought others tried substances to fit in and curiosity. They think educational activities would be helpful as survey results showed a low peer perception of harm around substances. Kayli confirmed that the kids have very little knowledge on marijuana. They went in and played a Jeopardy game with them and realized they have very little knowledge on this substance and they really don’t think it is dangerous. Jodi went in and presented to them. General Price highlighted a couple of products that CADCA has put together on vaping devices and cannabis which are free tools that we can download from their website. He said, “The effects of Alcohol on Youth” is being put together and should be out in the fall, and the CDC is developing one on fentanyl that should be ready by the spring of 2022.
Media Committee: Michaela reported that there was two press releases that went out in January. One focusing on how “Addiction Hijacks the Brain.” The second was around the value and resources on the ADC website. She said we spent a lot of time and energy creating this website, so we want to promote it to the community. She said there is a ton of resources and tool kits and links to the website. On a side note— she said the podcast page is neat. You can open that site up before you drive and listen to them. Also in February, we had three press releases go out. The regular ones about ADC members attending CADCA (General Price was the star of one of these), one highlighting all the things the ADC was able to accomplish during the pandemic. Things covered included the launch of a weekly podcast, launching an awareness program in the middle of the pandemic with Project HOPE, HOPE Sunday, etc. This press release helps create awareness about the work of the coalition. This month releases will include, Legislative Week, Commissioners Proclamation of NDAFW, and we can consider one about the student’s survey project once completed. We can also consider a press release around the financial program that DPCU is doing, if Pover-Phila Federal Credit Union does not send one out. Other future considerations would be the Claymont School District and Apportis project and the judicial and law enforcement perspective on marijuana legalization.
Prescription Drug Committee: The committee met on February 18th. Jeff Neidig submitted written proponent testimony on House Bill 9 regarding Dextromethorphan (DXM). DXM is an over-the-counter cough suppressant. It has been known to be a stimulant and abused by youth. The testimony we submitted in support of HB9, to make it so persons under age 18 cannot purchase without a prescription. Therefore, the stores would require a driver’s license of 18 years or older to sell. It passed the House and is currently in Senate committee. Jeff will submit written testimony to the Senate, as well. In addition, the committee continues to identify several distribution partners for Medication Safety Boxes. These are funded through SPF RX. The other project the committee is exploring is the design; purchase and dissemination of prescription drug bags which they hope to have for the October National Drug Take Back day. These bags will include our ADC messaging in regards to our permanent drug boxes throughout the county, the Deterra Bags and the National Drug Take Back Days in April and October. The Needle Disposal flyer has been created to give out during the Drug Take Back events so people will know what to do with their needles. We are working with the Solid Waste District on the proper way to dispose. The next National Drug Take Back Event is April 24th. The Prescription Drug Committee meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 10:00 AM. We are looking to develop a Partner in Prevention program to engage businesses and other groups in our prevention efforts, i.e. realtors. We are passing out medication safety boxes to school nurses and to juvenile court.
Tobacco Committee: Vaping Task Force Update: Autumn Poland thanked Nicole for leaving things so she could pick things up so well. Autumn is getting trained on the “CATCH My Breath” program. Jodi is working with Claymont doing a podcast that the school can share and provide the CATCH My Breath program to students. The Task Force is working on the development of a vaping button that will go on school’s websites to get a quick link to the Ohio Quit line. The task force is also working with schools to ask them to consider updating school tobacco policies. The next Tobacco Committee meeting will be March 17th at 1PM. Jodi offered Mark Murphy an offer to do a podcast for Tusky Valley and other vaping info. Mark expressed that the school nurses are probably the best to involve.
Faith-Based Committee: There was no report today.
Old Business: None
New Business:
General Price, President and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA):
General Price thanked the coalition and said that we really represent the coalition motto. He said, not only do we have newsprint and radio media in our coalition but it is very rare to have a superintendent of schools, even rarer to have members of the clergy, and even to hear that we have a Faith Based Committee which is really mind blowing. You have two judges and an elected official, the commissioner and your youth, Kayli and Brock, I really enjoyed their report outs. I’ve visited thus far with more than 120 coalitions and I will tell you, you guys really have your stuff together. This has been really, really enlightening and to see that your youth are not a fixture or an appendage to the organization, but much of what you are doing is centered around the youth is very impressive. Especially to hear about the Bonsai Program and financial readiness or literacy for youth is tremendously important. Especially youth going to college. Because in college, they inundate these youth with credit card opportunities and they don’t have any economy and they find themselves coming out of college with credit trouble already, so that is a game changer. General Price was an inspiring speaker.
General Price will be speaking at Coalition Rising this year on April 19th, as will Jessica Hulsey. This conference will be free to all coalition members and we will send out information on registration in the near future.
Kerry expressed that our coalition is what the DFC funding can do. We are proud of our coalition and what we are doing.
Chris Lane made a motion to Adjourn and all voted yes at 11:50 AM.
Next Board Meeting will be a virtual meeting on April 2nd from 10:00-11:30 am.
