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Carter County Connects for Prevention
May 2020 Update |
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CCDP Steering Committee candidates in action.
Officer Elections
It is time for our annual officer election! Please choose up to FIVE candidates
using this form: https://forms.gle/gzSVbgUhGDZVEAab7
Candidates are:
Kim Crowder is the Facility Director at Kingsport Family Recovery Associates. She has a BA in English & Mass Comm from Emory & Henry and an MA in English from ETSU. She is CPRS certified, a CPRS trainer & a member of CPRS advisory board for TN, an ordained minister in the Alliance of Divine Love. Kim also serves on the Boards of Directors for SCAD, Red Legacy and AveNew (UWGK). Kim was born in Erwin, TN, grew up in Kingsport, TN and now serves the entire region with support, guidance and education through her wealth of knowledge and firsthand experience through addiction and recovery.
Angela Marie Hagaman serves as the Operations Director for the East Tennessee State University Addiction Science Center. In this role she provides administrative support to research faculty on a number of studies to include the NIH funded Diversity Promoting Institutions Drug Abuse Research Program (DIDARP), Community Pharmacist Engagement in HCV/HIV Prevention, and Fentanyl-Related Overdose Risk Among Central Appalachians. Ms. Hagaman also serves as the Principal Investigator on the TN Opioid SBIRT (TOS) project and coordinates a number of community-based prevention initiatives including targeted outreach to the business community, active engagement with anti-drug coalitions, and implementation of evidence-based curricula in schools and other youth serving agencies. She is currently enrolled in the Doctorate of Public Health program at East Tennessee State University and is a National Certified Counselor (NCC). She received a Master of Arts in School Counseling in 2007 at Appalachian State University, and a Bachelor of Science in English Secondary Education in 1995 also at Appalachian State University.
Kelly Kitchens is the Programming and Special Events Coordinator for the City of Elizabethton. She has lived in Carter County for over two decades and has worked for the City of Elizabethton for the last 19 years. Kelly has been part of the CCDP coalition for three years, serving on the steering committee for one and serving as the Chair of the PEAK Mentoring Program Board of Directors. Kelly is a member of Carter County's Community Advisory Board among other boards and organizations and has worked to bring innovative programming to Elizabethton for residents of all ages. Kelly has been invited to speak about the relationship Parks and Rec has with the CCDP Coalition at several nationwide and statewide conferences and events.
Jill Stott is the Northeast Regional Coordinator for the TN Commission on Children and Youth. Jill has been a member of CCDP for three years and has been instrumental in assisting CCDP's staff and leadership team to become trained in Building Strong Brains, Trauma Informed Care and building resilience. Jill holds a bachelors degree in Public Health from ETSU and is recognized statewide for her dedication to serving Tennessee's children and youth.
Ashlee Williams is the Children's Librarian at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library and coordinator for the CC Imagination Library. She holds BS degrees in Early Childhood Development (licensure) and FACS with concentration in Marriage and Family. In addition to serving as the Chair of the CCDP Steering Committee for the last year, Ashlee serves on the Board of Directors of Red Legacy Recovery, CCIL, Head Start and Telamon. Ashlee works to engage youth in our community through library, and out of library programs by reaching them wherever they are and meeting whatever needs they may have.
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The Prevention Alliance of Tennessee (PAT) is working to develop the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Planning Toolkit for Communities. The goal of this toolkit is to provide a comprehensive set of strategies for mitigating adverse childhood experiences and building community resilience. Strategies will span across the 12 community sectors and include individual, family, school, and community domains – which is why we need diverse stakeholder participation. In order to have the most inclusive set of strategies, we created a survey seeking input on how other organizations and professionals are addressing adverse childhood experiences. Once developed, the toolkit will be widely shared and free to the public. All questions are optional, and we greatly appreciate any feedback you are able to provide.
Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PAT_ACES_COMMUNITY
Additionally, PAT has a planning session scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 from 1:00 – 2:30 CST. If you would like to join us on this virtual planning webinar, the link to register is: https://pat_ace_toolkit_planning.eventbrite.com.
If you have any questions or would like more information on this project, you can email Leah Festa, PAT Director, at leah@tncoalitions.org.
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Check out Mean Tweets: Recovery Edition! |
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Parents of Addicted Loved ones (PAL group) was founded by Mike Speakman for parents whose children battle addiction. It is open to any adult with an addicted loved one- be that a spouse, child, niece/nephew, grandchild, etc.
Jessica Broyles will be holding this support group through
zoom meetings on Thursdays at 6pm for the first three weeks of the month and then an in person meeting at CCDP the last Thursday of the month from 6-8.
Jessica is a 36 year old mother of two. Her oldest will be 19 in September. His addiction started when he was around 15 years old and went from cigarettes all the way to methamphetamine. He finally ended up with an amazing probation officer a few months before his 18th birthday who got him into rehab. When he came home from rehab, he relapsed initially. Jessica decided to help in way she could. She attended training to become a PAL facilitator and started holding meetings. In helping others, she was also learning about how best to handle her son's situation and things started changing within her family.
Jess's PAL classes at CCDP have helped dozens of people in our community throughout the past year and we are excited for their return. We are so grateful to Jess for her committment to supporting families in Carter County.
If you need more information, contact:
Jessica Broyles
423-512-1509 (for text messages only)
Jessbroyles.pal@yahoo.com
www.palgroup.org
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We recently partnered with MADD to offer their Power of Parents and Power of You(th) webinars to community members. These webinars were designed to help youth and parents learn how they can help kids make good decisions about alcohol!
The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is to end drunk driving, help fight drugged driving, support the victims of these violent crimes and prevent underage drinking.
More information for youth can be found at Power of You(th)
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National Prevention Week
National Prevention Week is May 10-16! The theme for this year is Prevention Happens Here. The events will be a little different with social distancing in effect so the majority of the events will be online or through social media. The Youth Coalition has been hard at work with brain storming ideas to ensure National Prevention Week is a success! Want to be a part of this campaign? Share a post about anything related to either how substances have affected your life or why you don't use them and be sure to use hashtags #preventionhappenshere and #NPW2020!
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Social Media Training with Beyond Engagement
Our Youth Coalition learned new tools and tips to better manage our social media! |
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Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA, founded Beyond Engagement – Social Media Solutions in January 2012 – and hasn’t slowed down since. She has a passion for assisting small businesses grow their engagement levels with customers online with social media marketing.
Valentina shared strategies for our social media prevention messaging, assisted us to understand analytics provided by both Facebook and Instagram and helped us to choose images and branding that would best reach our target audience. Members of both our youth and adult coalitions joined this call.
To reach Valentina, email her at equineval@gmail.com
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Self Care: Emotional Freedom Technique
We were excited to provide a training for our coalition partners on EFT. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It’s also referred to as "tapping" or psychological acupressure.
People who use this technique believe tapping the body can create a balance in your energy system and treat pain. According to its developer, Gary Craig, a disruption in energy is the cause of all negative emotions and pain.
Though still being researched, EFT tapping has been used to treat people with anxiety and people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
We truly enjoyed and benefitted from this workshop and encourage anyone interested in learning more to reach out to Morgan Clark, Spirit Momma to schedule a training or 1:1 session. She can be reached at mc@spiritmomma.life.
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PEAK Progress: Spotlight on Mentoring
During this current health situation, the world is facing. We need PEAK Mentors more than ever to help kids going through this adverse time. The vision of the PEAK Mentor Program is to help children develop healthy, strong relationships with caring adults and negate adverse childhood experiences (ACES). With that said, the PEAK Mentor Program has moved to a virtual platform so we can continue to build positive relationships with children in Central Appalachia. The mentor program needs caring adults to develop positive relationships with children. In order to become a PEAK Mentor, you must be at least 21 years of age, make a one-year commitment, provide a Social Security card, have a valid ID, pass a background check, and attend 3 mentor trainings over the one year mentee match period. The benefits of being a PEAK Mentor is having a sense of fulfillment, increase confidence, gained leadership skills, gained recognition in the community, and personal growth. The PEAK Mentor program is advocating healthy relationships for the young people in Central Appalachia to instill qualities such as respect, trust, honesty, and friendship in today’s youth. If you are interested in becoming a PEAK Mentor, please email elizabethtonmentors@outlook.com and we will provide you with a virtual mentor training guide and mentor training video that go hand in hand. If anyone has any questions, feel free to email or call/text 423-791-8674. Thank you for the support and we look forward to hearing from you.
Thank You,
Shannon Payne
PEAK Mentorship Program Coordinator
CCDP/City of Elizabethton
Parks and Recreation Dept.
Check it out! To ensure physical distancing does not mean social disconnection, leading experts on mentoring launched the Virtual Mentoring Portal. The Virtual Mentoring Portal is a safe and monitored mentoring platform for mentors and mentees to continue their relationships while they may be separated due to COVID-19. Visit the MENTOR website to access these resources and learn more.
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Falling, Falling, Falling Apart
By Grace Crews
Hey guys! Grace here! This story has been the hardest to write and I’d like to warn you since we are SADD club, we do deal with alcohol and drug use. They are the villains in this story. Drugs have a debilitating effect on your body. They shut everything down. Drugs in medicine are helpful, as long as you don’t take more than the package or your doctor says. NARCAN is a real overdose reversal nasal spray. If you think a person is overdosing, you can give them NARCAN. If it turns out they aren’t, NARCAN won’t hurt them. Please call an ambulance as well. On to the story!
I watched my best friend fall apart. Hi, my name’s Gianna. My best friend, Sean Patrick, and I had been friends ever since I dumped applesauce on his head in first grade. We were now in 10th grade. Ever since 6th grade, I had noticed changes. He’d wheeze. He was constantly hungry; even more so than our other guy friends, and we have many. He’d get sick more often. His hands trembled. His voice dropped deeper than expected. He grew stick thin. He’d forget what he had learned in the morning. He blacked out quite a few times. It all came to a point sooner than I expected.
“Morning Sean!” I slid into my normal seat. Sean rubbed his eyes.
“Morning G.” He groaned and thumped his head against his desk. “It’s too early...” “Sean...are you ok? I’m worried about you.” He laughed and waved his hand.
“I’m great! Now let me sleep.”
“Ok then...” Just then, the teacher walked in. Class started. I hated Algebra Two,
but I must’ve been good at it since I had a B-. I took notes though, because Sean was snoring softly.
The day passed quickly. I was just about to leave when I got a call from Anthony, one of my friends.
“Hey, can you come to the football field? Something’s wrong with Sean.” Tony’s voice was shaky. He was scared.
“I’m on my way.” I ran to the football field. Sean was on the ground, convulsing.
He was foaming at the mouth. “Tony! I need you to answer these questions for me, quickly and honestly.” Tony nodded. “Does Sean drink?” Tony paused then nodded yes. Ok, this was bad. “Does he do drugs?” Tony nodded again.
“I tried to get him to stop but he must’ve had too many right before practice.” This was worse. Luckily, I kept NARCAN in my backpack.
“Call an ambulance!”
“I already did.” Jack jogged up. “They’re on their way.”
“Ok, step back please.” I pulled the NARCAN out. I sprayed it into one of his
nostrils and rolled him onto his left side. He didn’t respond after a few minutes so I administered NARCAN to his other nostril. The ambulance pulled up soon after. They took him to the hospital. I texted my mom to let her know what happened and that I was going to go to the hospital with Sean. I caught a ride with Jack.
It was a long therapy process but, eventually, Sean made a full recovery.
Drugs are so dangerous, kids. They almost took my best friend. Remember the story of Sean Patrick.
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Make sure you vote in the steering committee election! Please choose up to FOUR candidates using this form: https://forms.gle/gzSVbgUhGDZVEAab7
Our next monthly coalition meeting will be June 3, 2020 at 3pm via Zoom.
Topic: CCDP June Meeting
Time: Jun 3, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88563462203
Meeting ID: 885 6346 2203
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,88563462203# US (New York)
Our speaker will be: StrongWell
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Carter County Drug Prevention is an anti-drug coalition designed to bring together diverse organizations, factions or constituencies who agree to work together to achieve a common goal.
VISION: To create a safe and healthy Carter County.
MISSION: Reduce substance abuse through collaborative planning, community action, and policy advocacy.
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