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Congratulations Eric Lee!

Youth Coalition Volunteer Eric Lee has been named WCPO's first student of the week in 2011!

Planting Promises for a Safe Prom and Graduation

Fairfield OH November 24, 2010 - In November, The Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield with the help of six J Kyle Braid student volunteers planted 750 red tulip bulbs to 15 community locations around Fairfield City and Township.

The red tulips are meant to symbolize hope and serve as a reminder to youth to stay drug-free. “We need to keep pushing for a safe and drug-free prom, graduation, and summer, and start all over next school year with the same messages. This work must never stop to ensure safe, healthy, and successful youth,” said Jen Campbell, Director for Coalition For A Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield. “Flowers alone cannot prevent substance abuse, but flowers can show we are a community that works together to provide the environment that will protect our youth.”

Each year the Coalition will select 15 community establishments to plant new tulip bulbs. As the tulips bloom the message will grow stronger and stronger. If you are interested in having the Coalition plant tulip bulbs at your business, church, school, or service agency this Fall please contact Jen Campbell at 829-3565 or email fairfieldcoalition.gmail.com. Become a friend of Coalition For A Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield on Facebook.

You must have an existing landscape bed for us to plant in.

Fairfield Middle School

Parent to Parent Program

The Fairfield Community Connection Group is again offering the Parent to Parent Program. It is a unique program that offers adaptable strategies to connect and inform parents about the challenges their young teen face in today's environment. For the last ten years, throughout the country parents have found this program easy to implement and effective in leading our children safely toward adulthood avoiding the "traps" along the way. The sessions will be held at the Fairfield YMCA, 5220 Bibury Rd. with the first session starting on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 from 6:30-8:00 PM. There is no cost but registration is required by calling 513-615-1917. The program runs for four consecutive weeks and will be repeated again in June, August and October. Topics covered include exploring the culture to which your child is exposed, being a proactive parent, lifestyle indicators, needed character traits, communicating family expectations, dealing with feelings, traps to avoid, and helping them reach their goals.

The facilitator is Tammy Simpson, a working single parent of 3 school age children. She has a BS in Education, experience working with children with Disabilities and for 6 years has been facilitating this program in Fairfield.

For more information see the flyer or visit www.thepassagegroup.com.

2009 :: Four Community Partner Grants Awarded

The Community Partner Grants coordinated by the Ohio Center for Coalition Excellence, an initiative of Drug-Free Action Alliance, with funding from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, provide an opportunity for community coalitions to plan and implement an environmental strategy in their community. These grants are intended to increase the number and quality of environmental strategies used among coalitions.

$1000 to Chemical Abuse Prevention Association located in Brecksville/Broadview Heights, Ohio (Cuyahoga County)

The coalition will provide Parents Who Host public service announcements at the beginning of each movie on 24 screens for 4 weeks. The coalition proposed an in-kind contribution of placing life-sized cutouts of prominent community leaders in theaters that include a Parents Who Host slogan.

$1000 to Coalition for a Safe and Drug Free Fairfield located in Fairfield, Ohio (Butler County)

The coalition will implement a youth led community norms project. The project will increase youth awareness that a majority of their peers do not drink, design a project to address access and availability to decrease alcohol theft in stores by minors and work with law enforcement, business communities and schools to monitor student behavior and enforce policies. The project will also include a media awareness project to influence festival planners to strategically position alcohol booths and advertising away from children’s activities. Finally, the coalition will educate parents and youth about the Parents Who Host campaign.

$912 to Edgewood City Schools located in Trenton, Ohio(Butler County)

This coalition will hire two Safe and Drug-Free School Coordinators who will be trained in environmental prevention strategies that they will initiate in their school community.

$500 continuation grant to ADAPAO located in Columbus, Ohio {Statewide)

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Association of Ohio (ADAPAO) will continue its progress of educating Ohio communities on its Marijuana as Medicine Position Paper by creating and distributing informational postcards and flyers and using electronic information dissemination.

Fairfield City Council Meeting

May 11, 2009 :: Councilmember Oler presented a proclamation to Jen Campbell of the Coalition for Safe and Drug Free Fairfield declaring May 2009 as “Parents Who Host, Lose the Most” Month in the City of Fairfield. Ms. Campbell stated the Coalition for Safe and Drug Free Fairfield recently got a big federal grant to start working with the community sector in providing a very positive healthy environment for our kids around alcohol and drug prevention. She explained the Coalition provided $2,000 to the Afterprom. She further explained that 25 kids from Fairfield High School were brought to the prom and graduation summit where they bring kids from the high schools in the county to plan strategies that the kids are going to implement so that youth do the positive thing and make the right choices. Sara Samples, participant of the prom and graduation summit, explained the activities and strategies to encourage high school students to make good decisions throughout prom and graduation.

May 12, 2008 :: Mayor D’Epifanio presented a proclamation to Pat Van Oflen, from the Coalition for Safe and Drug Free Fairfield, for “Parents Who Host-Lose the Most”. Ms. Van Oflen thanked Council for their support. She invited everyone to stay after the meeting for a call to action addressing the issues of underage drinking. Jenny Brodski stated Afterprom will be held this Saturday from 12:30-4 a.m. She invited everyone to attend the Preview Party this Saturday at 10:00. She noted they are still looking for volunteers and donations and are expecting over 1,000 kids to attend this year. Emily Bristol, President of Students Against Destructive Decisions, encouraged students to remember how much they have to lose and encouraged parents to prevent parties in the area to help save lives.

Drug-Free Cincinnati Awards Outstanding Coalition of the Year

April 14, 2008 :: The Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati has over 30 member community coalitions who work to prevent youth substance abuse in neighborhoods across the 10-county tri-state region. This year’s Outstanding Coalition of the Year award was given to the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield. Founded in 2003, and serving the city of Fairfield and Fairfield township in Butler County, Ohio, the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield was formed to build and strengthen the capacity of all within the community to create as safe, healthy, and drug-free Fairfield. They have been successful in expanding community involvement and partnerships, consistently making data-based decisions and plans, and braiding the asset development framework within their strategies and activities, resulting in their increased capacity to address adolescent substance abuse.

Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost Benefits Analysis

July 26, 2009 :: Looking to convince policymakers that they should fund your prevention program? The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has just released a new publication that can help you build a case for support. Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost Benefits Analysis "is designed to help policymakers and other stakeholders use the results of cost-benefit analysis as an information tool for decision making and for selecting the substance abuse prevention programs that best apply available resources toward addressing their needs," according to SAMHSA. The report details the extent of substance abuse among youth, costs of substance abuse to the nation and to states, cost savings that could be gained if effective prevention policies, programs, and services were implemented nationwide, and programs and policies that are most cost beneficial. The costs of untreated addiction also is examined, along with the anticipated return on investment in prevention programs. The report is available free online (PDF, 64 KB).

http://www.jointogether.org/news/funding/trends/2009/substance-abuse-prevention.html

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