I attended the Northfield LWV’s 4th Monday Forum at the library last night, where four members of the Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol & Drug Use presented (right photo, L to R: Joan Janusz, Kathy Cooper, Kathy Sandberg, and Susan Sanderson). About 15-20 people were in the audience. Part of the purpose of the meeting was to discuss what’s next.
Members of the Union of Youth staff and board held a planning meeting tonight at The Key, as a follow-up to their forum last week (notes from that meeting now blogged on their site here).
So let’s use this blog post as a place to keep track of what’s being planned and accomplished in the community as a response to the drug abuse issues that have been raised recently.
If you or your organization has related documents (PDFs, Word docs, Powerpoints, etc) that you’d like to make available to people, please try to get them posted on another website/blog and then link to them here. Otherwise, upload them to me via my website’s upload form here and I’ll post them here in the comment thread. It’s a good way to get your message out, as we’ve been getting between 200-500 people (unique visitors) per day for past two weeks.
I am copying my post from the “Feedback Wanted” column here because I feel it better pertains to this column. We are moving on and yes, Griff, trying to “pull together(!)”
The Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Drug and Alchohol Abuse was stated in the spring of 2006 because of the data that was collected by the State of Minnesota and the PCN surveys. Both of these surveys were given to Northfield students.
The Rice County Public Health Services began the Rice County Chemical Health Coalition (Project Prevention) to address the problem. This coalition began in 2004.
More information on both of these efforts can be found on the HCI website.
http://www.northfieldhci.org/
(See second paragraph on home page to click on PDF or Word document.)
After being at one of their meetings and hearing representatives from the Mayor’s Task Force speak at the League of Women Voters meeting last night, I have been very impressed by their efforts to collaborate with multiple resources and their implementations thus far. The ZAP program is one example. If you do not know what the ZAP program is, I encourage you to visit the HCI website and links to find out more.
Thanks, Christine. I do wish the HCI and the Task Force and the Rice Cty Chem Health Coalition would use the web more. Other than a couple of comments by Zach and Kathy here and a post on N.org, no one is really engaging with the kids and the community via online discussion. 15-20 people showed at the LWV/library event last night and none of that discussion got captured/can be leveraged easily. There’s probably over 1,000 people a day showing up here on LG and N.org combined and they’re not taking advantage of it.
Maybe you can influence them!
I will work on that Griff. 🙂
Here is a link to some more information about the ZAP program in Northfield.
http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/assets/c/Commons(Feb.).pdf
Sorry. That link does not work. Griff, can you help? It is the Feb. 2006 issue of the City Commons newsletter.
Here is another one. I hope this works!
http://www.northfieldhci.org/newsletters/03.07%20pcn%20newsletter.pdf
If not:
– Go into http://northfieldhci.org
– Click on “newsletters” in the top bar
– Click on the “March” 2007 edition
The other link I found from then City Commons is the first option that pops up if you google “northfield zap program.”
Hello-
I am a member of the Rice County Chemical Health Coalition Provider Team. I have been following the discussions on locally.grown but the reason I do not “blog” is because confidentiallity and respect for all views are the most important values I bring to my job. Members of the coalition are working very hard in Northfield to help people who are suffering from the disease of chemical dependency. As stated above, the website is a very valuable source of information
I just received this email.
Subject: SAVE THE DATE – AUGUST 9TH 7:00PM @ The Armory
Hello to all of you who are on the Key’s “drug” mailing list. I am asking you to please save the date of August 9th 7:00pm at the Armory for the next step in The Key’s drug discussion. The next step is going to be very action oriented. Details will be forthcoming in the next few days and expect a large marketing campaign to go with this. Tell any groups or people that you feel should be there and tell your friends and neighbors. This should be a community (action) meeting and we are hoping for a major turnout. Your task (and others) should be to think of a specific solution that would help deal with Northfield’s drug problem. EVERYONE will have a voice! Please forward this email.
Josh Hinnenkamp
Executive Director
Northfield Union of Youth (The Key)
Thanks, Christine. I fixed one link but your others are working fine.
Yvette, thanks for chiming in. Delighted to have you here. I understand the need to be careful for confidentiality reasons. But if information being tossed about here is in direct conflict with what you and Coalition believe, why not challenge it and then link to the documents/resources on your websites to encourage people to explore more?
Just a quick comment about what has been submitted recently. The Rice County Chemical Health Coalition and its Action Teams, including the Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug use are very eager to do what we can to help bring people together around responding to the issues of youth alcohol and drug use. As noted by others, the HCI website contains some good information: the resource directory, an update on all the Action Teams, and a way to find out other actions being taken and get involved. Because the Coaltion and its Action Teams are comprised of many people who are either volunteers or who add this work to their existing positions, and because the recent media focus on Northfield has created so much work, we are not always able to respond to every suggestion or every request as quickly as folks might like. What I would ask is that you bear with us and stay in communication with us. While we are very appreciative of the discussion being generated by Locally Grown, we often have to make choices about which of the miriade of requests we can respond to in a given day. Please know that the Coalition and the Task Force are eager to work with anyone who is interested in working for and with our youth on this important issue.
The Key’s August 9 event at the Armory should be well worth going to. It will be very action oriented. I, too, encourage anyone who wants to get involved in solutions to come.
To reiterate, it is my substantiated understanding that the plan for this meeting is to move from debating the issue to proposing and begin work on solutions.
[…] the paper. It seldom is grist for frenzied blog commentary and city-wide speculation as is, say, a drug controversy or intrigue at city hall or other social squabbles. Perhaps this is why people sometimes ask […]
Hey, I think I found out a way to revive a conversation! This is from the July archives. Let’s see if this comment gets “sensored.”
I know how politicians get accused of creating ” new news” that will take the focus away from them when they involved in a controversy. It seems that, in our case, the “new news” that has taken the focus away from the drug issues in Northfield is about political controversies! Hmmm.. It makes one wonder who is really in power, the pushers or the politicians.
Seeing as we seem to have become so good at speculation, I could not help adding this.
For a positive spin, maybe it’s best that the heat has turned down a little, because it will help us move to the action stage and avoid so much of the hysterics. This is perfect, because the Key is hosting a solutions meeting next week (as mentioned above).
Here are more details from an invitation just sent out:
Thanks for you post, Alex. I was not trying to create more spin. After all, the title of this conversation is “Community Response to Drug Abuse: What’s next?” Maybe one of the reasons there have not been more posts is because the question does not provoke “spin.” Your posting from the Key is exactly what we need to keep constructive conversation active.
I will do my best to report on the efforts of the Mayor’s Task Force.
Because there is so much to do, and most of the work is done by volunteers, I know it is very difficult to get the information out at times. Still, I would encourage any group working on the issue to make a post.
Thanks, Alex, for taking the time to remind us about the meeting. 🙂
This is just a reminder about the meeting at the Armory tonight at 7:00 hosted by the Key.
Thx for that reminder, Christine. Details in Josh’s blog post here:
http://www.unionofyouth.org/archive/key-to-host-drug-meeting-at-armory-august-9th
Skulls and Flowers
by Bright Spencer
She painted skulls and flowers
Around her neck and face.
She had waited many hours
Which turned into many days.
Although her life was slower
It was never all that bleak
Til she met a man who showed her
The way to the streets of grief.
He said, “Come here, sweetheart,
Let me show you my wares,
“I’ve got crack, horse, candy,
They can take away your cares.”
“All the lonely nights will fill up
With people just like you, yes, yes,
They’ll all come back to me for more,
You see, they always do.”
If only she could be truly free
From the things that grab her head,
If only she would take care
Of her own fragile world instead.
She could move past many problems
That would wound her ’til half dead.
No, it’s not about what the man said,
It’s not about the lies we are fed.
Today’s Nfld News: Schools won’t use drug dogs right now, officials say
In tomorrow’s Strib South: Heroin outcry has Northfield stepping up drug prevention: The changes: More counseling, an updated health curriculum and tips for parents.
We haven’t heard what, if any, efforts are being made by the colleges. Nor, have we heard whether or not the colleges believe that they have a drug and alcohol problem.
According to the Strib, in the article linked below, Chaska has passed the state’s first ordinance making people criminally liable for allowing underage drinking on their property.
I was under the impression that the ZAP program, used a couple times lately here in Rice County does the same thing. It appears that the distinction is that the ZAP program goes after the adult providers of alcohol, whereas the Chaska law is aimed more at those who allow drinking on their property, and isn’t so concerned with where the alcohol comes from. Can anyone clarify this? Does Northfield/Rice County have a need for such a law?
http://www.startribune.com/west/story/1415671.html
Curt Benson posted a great summary of what’s been done in response to the heroin problem in a some unrelated discussion so I thought I’d replicate it here.
Griff, thanks for reposting that summary in a better place.
There is another thing to add to the list. I got an email from Zach Pruitt this morning announcing an adolescent outpatient treatment group for Rice County youth ages 13-17 dealing with substance use issues. It is starting on November 6th. You can call Omada Behavioral Heath Services for details. I recall that one of the suggestions at the Key meeting was to have meetings away from the school available, as some students felt self conscious about being seen going in to see Sara Shippy at the school. This group will be meeting at Omada after school.
Anne, you commented in another thread about the need for more publicity about these efforts and included some helpful suggestions. You’re right, of course. I know efforts are being concentrated in that area now, and you’re sure to hear more about the positive responses that Northfield is making soon.
Curt, I saw the poster for the Oct 30 meeting with Carol Falkowski from Hazelden. Is the PDF of that poster available on the web for us to link to it, or can you email it to me so I can post it here?
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