Prevention coalition invites community to meeting

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The Fayette County Prevention Coalition and Fayette County Community Action Commission are inviting the community to join them for their monthly county-wide coalition meeting this month.

Last year, the Prevention Coalition created a unified community response to prevent youth substance abuse and to support the development of effective community programs to promote a safer, healthier and drug-free Fayette County. This culminated in many meetings, events and discussions, including the creation of two school coalitions led by students.

“Chuck Bennett will now take over the ‘Youth & Community’ coordinator position, which is the one who goes into the schools and works with the students,” Nina Rains, coalition coordinator, said. “I’ll be working on the environmental factors to try and change the community and promote a drug-free community. With this work, we do go into Miami Trace and we go into Washington City Schools to talk with students, but we want to start a county-wide coalition that joins the two.”

On Monday, Jan. 28 starting at 6 p.m. at The Warehouse — 313 Elm St. in Washington Court House — Rains and Bennett will be in attendance for people to meet, and the two coordinators will explain the results of a recent questionnaire. This is a perfect time to see the people involved in the coalition, learn about them, and learn about the programs involved with the coalition, too. Parents and students alike are welcome and encouraged to attend, as well as city and county officials.

“We wanted to have the county-wide coalition so that not only can we connect the two schools, but we can also include parents in the program,” Rains said. “This allows them to know who we are and it allows us to get a little more involved with the families. We do take students on trips in the coalition and this would allow their families and others to get to know us.”

The questionnaire that will be discussed includes information about demographics and some opinions on three questions from students. The first question seeks to identify the biggest causes of anxiety and depression in students, the second question asked the student what they think they can do to help the school and community reduce anxiety and depression, and finally, they asked how does the student reduce anxiety and depression in their life.

“I compiled all of the answers and correlated it all so that the three questions are eventually answered by all the students who filled out the questionnaire,” Bennett said. “The information shows how the answers change from the seventh grade students and when they get older.”

This information and more will be available during the meeting on Jan. 28.

Stay with the Record-Herald for more from the Fayette County Prevention Coalition. The information in this article was provided by Chuck Bennett and Nina Rains.

Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.

Fayette County Community Action building
http://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/01/web1_CommunityAction-1.jpgFayette County Community Action building

By Martin Graham

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