January 2011 off to a great start....

Jodee Goche – summary for January2011

The weather has caused us to alter many plans this month but we continue to accommodate our members and reschedule meetings as necessary.   We were scheduled to be out of town for our quarterly
AC4C meeting but the weather did not allow that to happen.  We will be meeting next month and during that time we will be discussing the current issues regarding substance abuse.   Members from AC4C will also discuss the status of Social Host at the state level and current bills addressing salvia and K2.  These are issues that continue to affect our youth and work to educate our communities with current information.  Please let us know if you are interested in being added to our AC4C mailing list. 

The Services Provided group continues to recruit members and email information to the media and other sources.  We have presentations for groups if you are interested in various topics.  Our PACT 360 for parents has local data and can be presented to any group regarding drugs and alcohol.  We can present on specific topics like marijuana, alcohol, energy drinks, salvia, and other topics. 

The Resources Generated group has been working to make our coalition more visible and on ideas for the Caddyshack.  We are working on building relationships with our hole sponsors at the Caddyshack so they can advertise that they are hole sponsors.  We discussed packets for those who become sponsors.  We are going to work with Kyle at the library to advertise current trends and our organization.  Kyle was going to post our calendar and/ or newsletter at the library.  Kyle also asked the hospital to post our information. 

Our Community Changes group will be working to highlight the businesses regarding local policies – we have had difficulty meeting due to the weather and other commitments.  We will be meeting at 11:30 prior to the coalition meeting February 3^rd.   We will be working with local businesses to discuss policies and regulations regarding alcohol distribution and advertising.

I was contacted by Joanne Roepke Bode to be part of the health fair at KRHC in March.  We will be using our fatal vision goggles to demonstrate the effects of alcohol at various BAC levels.  We will be having participants do various activities to see firsthand the difficulty in carrying out simple tasks.  We will also offer information at our booth about timely current trends and data.

We are moving! Our new location will be the past location of Curves on Thorington Street and offers us the room that is needed for our growing needs.  We are very excited to have the opportunity to expand our projects and be more visible in the community.  If you are interested in helping us move, give us a call.  We will be moving throughout the month of February and would appreciate your time.  

This new space will allow us to have meetings, conduct trainings and a space for our Cinderella’s closet dresses to be viewed in an easier manner. 

Cinderella’s closet is open for business!  We are currently taking dresses and scheduling appointments for young ladies to come check out the dresses.  We would love to add to our inventory so if you have dresses from the past couple years to donate we would appreciate adding them to our supply.  Morgan Coleman, Senior at AHS, and Morgan Schonert, 7^th grade student at OB Laing Middle School, spent an afternoon with me and they cleaned and organized.  Morgan Coleman has been placing posters around school and advertising for Cinderella’s Closet.  We have also had information on Facebook and sent out emails to organizations.  Let us know if you would like to donate dresses or make an appointment.

Brooke Preston, youth member from NSK high school, became interested in a service project that she viewed while we were at a youth conference in San Jose last year.  There was a One Warm Coat organization that collected coats in the San Jose area and distributed them to area shelters and other needy organizations.  We worked on posters and plans for distribution and the project will be taking place through February 15^th. You can contact our organization to donate coats – youth, men’s and women’s will be accepted.  The Care Team will benefit from the donations that are collected.  Other drop off sites include Sentral School in Fenton, First United Methodist Church – Algona, Faith Assembly of God – Algona, and Kossuth Connections.  If you are interested in donating, you may contact our office to make arrangements.

Our annual townhall meeting will take place on March 1, at our new offices.   We will be conducting this through a panel style presentation and world café.  There will be tables with various information and youth and adults speaking about their organizations and causes.  We will open our doors at 6 p.m. for the public.  Please let us know if you are interested in having materials or a table at our event.   We will have the latest information from the state and Federal level and share the events going on in our coalition.

                                       On April 30^th, we will be conducting our first drug drop in Kossuth County.  In partnership with the DEA and Kossuth County Sheriff’s office, we will be hosting a site for anyone in the area to bring prescription medications for disposal.  This project is part of a national initiative and the second annual efforts of the DEA to properly dispose of prescription medication in our country.  Prescription drug abuse is on the rise in our country and it is believed that having access to proper disposal can greatly reduce the risk of abuse.  Sheriff Steve Kollasch will be at our coalition meeting February 3^rd to discuss the part of the Sheriff’s office in this event.  The Sheriff’s office and the DEA will be supervising this event and Kossuth Connections will help organize volunteers to assist with the process.  If  you are interested in volunteering for this event, please contact our office.  The location and time is yet to be determined but will be posted through media sources and our social media sites.

The Evaluation group met and discussed our evaluation system and the reports the reports that will be produced.  I have kept track of all in-kind match through volunteer hours, meeting locations, and money or other items donated.  It is very important that we keep track of the hours to produce reports showing our match.  This is required by our grant and our system will be an excellent way to show others what their efforts are doing for our coalition.  I will be collecting hours at our coalition meetings monthly.  If you are unable to attend our meetings, please contact me if you have done any coalition work for the month.  This time includes phone calls, emails, meetings, material items (donations, advertising), and any time that you have spent as a volunteer on behalf of our coalition.  We appreciate your time and efforts for our organization.