2006 Youth-Created PSA Competition Update, November 7, 2006
The PSA competition is officially closed. I have completed applications from
Petersburg, West Virginia Children's Home, Roane County, Marshall County, Mason
County, Moorefield High School, and Jefferson High School. Many groups sent
in more than one script, and a few counties had more than one group.
Judging will occur this Friday, the 10th of November. Announcements will be
made the following week.
2006 Youth-Created PSA Competition Update, November 2, 2006
There has been some confusion surrounding the required date for submission of contest
applications. Because of this, I am extending the deadline to Monday, November 6th.
The way the mail works up here, that means that as long as applications are mailed
today (Thursday the 2nd) or tomorrow (Friday the 3rd), I should receive them on
Monday. Mailing them on Saturday is too late- I wouldn't receive them until Tuesday.
I have received four applications so far, and I'm anxiously awaiting the rest!
2006 Youth-Created PSA Competition Update, October 10, 2006
The competition is open, and announcements have been distributed to county school
systems, Safe and Drug Free Schools Coordinators, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston,
both state homeschool associations, the PRC staff, and all SPF SIG recipients.
If you would like an application, please contact your local
Community Development Specialist, or
download one here in
MSWord or in pdf.
Role-Playing in Oceana
Update from Matt Smith
On Wednesday, October 25th, I took the trip down 119 from Charleston to Oceana,
in Wyoming County. I left early so that I'd have time to go over my papers for the
evening, and to speak with the local champion of prevention, Tammera Cook. As it
turned out, I got there way too early, so I ate lunch and took a nap. I
met with Tammy and discussed prevention in Wyoming County over some coffee, then
we drove over to One Voice to get an update on faith based initiatives in the coalfields.
When 6:00 rolled around, we went up to The Spot (Wyoming County's new Freedom Youth
Center), to meet with area youth. We discussed the ongoing PSA competition, and
several youth decided to go ahead and come up with a script and action plan. I then
passed out a set of folders and we got down to business: a training on power.
In this activity (a role-playing exercise called 'Power Play'), participants were
split into three groups: organized students, concerned parents, and the three-person
school board. Each group had its own objective to attain, each of which was related
to a very unfair drug testing policy. The organized students were supposed
to get the policy rejected, the school board was trying to pass the policy, and
the parents just wanted to understand the policy and make the best decisions for
their kids.
Let me digress a moment and say that my original intention was to have the youth
participating and their parents watching. However, there were only ten youth present,
so I asked two parents to participate as school board members. I have to say that
I was impressed by the way that Wyoming County youth just latched on to the activity.
In fact, only the youth read the policy! We had to stop the exercise for ten minutes
to allow the adults to read the policy!
The exercise went very well, and we had a ten minute debriefing session afterwards.
We discussed the relationships between knowledge, power, and leadership- and the
students made plans to attend a real school board meeting soon. It was a very exciting
evening and I'm glad I made the trip back down to the coalfiends.
As a sidenote, I have been informed that the Wyoming County Youth Coalition is trying
to drum up support in McDowell County to run this exercise again as a multi-county
affair! I'm going to go ahead and start writing up a new scenario, hoping that support
develops.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY REPORT on DELIBERATION & ACTION
Featuring a section on WV. The impact of public deliberation can manifest itself
in multiple formats. The creation of citizen task forces, improved coordination
among agencies that participate in deliberations, the provision of public input
to policy-makers, and the implementation of recommendations emerging at public forums
are but some of the indicators of deliberation?s impact in the public sphere. Besides
yielding very tangible consequences, public deliberation can also have powerful
transformative effects at the individual level. Many of those who participate in
deliberative forums report becoming more aware of the complexities of issues, respectful
of others? opinions and open to listening and dialogue. However, since the consequences
of personal transformation are more complex to gauge, we focused our analysis on
impacts that could be more directly attributed to public deliberation, such as increased
civic engagement, implementation of deliberative resolutions, and influence on public
policy.
To read the entire report,
click here.
October 23-31 is Red Ribbon Week
Message from the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage
Drinking (ICCPUD)
During the last week in October, Americans who are dedicate to preventing substance
abuse participate in Red Ribbon Week. In recent years, many organizations participating
in Red Ribbon Week have addressed underage drinking as well as the use of illicit
drugs.
There are sample materials available from several ICCPUD agencies that may be helpful
to you in making underage drinking prevention a part of Red Ribbon Week, and for
use throughout the year, in your States and communities.
For more information about these materials and how to obtain them, please call 240-747-4754
or email stopalcoholabuse@shs.net
. You can also call
Matt Smith at 304-746-2077 x25.
For a list of ICCPUD agencies and a complete list of available materials, please
visit www.stopalcoholabuse.gov
.
2006 Youth-Created PSA Competition Update, October 4, 2006
Production time has been scheduled for the week of December 4th at WVAH Fox 11 and Admix Broadcasting. An official announcement will be distributed next week.
As mentioned before, all West Virginia youth are encouraged to participate- public schools, Catholic schools, and members of both state homeschool associations. Application forms will be available by the end of the week and will be due by 5:00 on Friday, November 3rd. Contest winners will be notified on the 15th of November and will come to Charleston for a day during the week of November 20th for a tour of the production studios and a review of their scripts. If you know of any youth groups that would like to participate in this year's competition, please contact your local
Community Development Specialist.
After writing your scripts, your group should plan at least six months of prevention or awareness activities. These plans will be due at the same time as your scripts. For ideas on specific action steps, please ask your community development specialist to put you in contact with your local prevention partnership.
Do You Want to Be a Star?
Win a chance to create a TV or radio public service announcement (PSA), have fun, and gain valuable experience! The contest is open to all WV students. Winners will be selected based on script concepts. The PSAs will be used by communities across WV to raise awareness about the impacts of underage drinking. Four TV and four radio scripts will be selected to have their spot professionally produced and distributed to TV, radio, and communities across the state. Visit www.prevnet.org/ru21 to view previous winners and to see more details about the contest under “Youth Created Messages”
April is Alcohol Awareness Month
This year’s theme is “Together, We Can Stop Underage Drinking.” For more information visit http://www.ncadd.org/programs/awareness/aamk2005.html
Celebrate REACH OUT NOW!
Parents, teachers, and caregivers play a vital role in influencing children’s attitudes and behaviors. They can provide the knowledge children need to recognize why they should not be drinking and they can help children build the practical skills to reject alcohol use. Clear and consistent messages that alcohol use is unacceptable both at school and at home support and reinforce the child’s ability to make healthy decisions.
To further alert children, parents, and teachers about the dangers of underage alcohol use, and to reinforce messages in school-based materials, SAMHSA is encouraging national, State, and local leaders to conduct teach-ins for fifth- and/or sixth-grade classrooms nationwide during the week of April 18–22, 2005, the third week of Alcohol Awareness Month. The already-prepared teach-in curriculum focuses on the lessons in the Reach Out Now materials.
For REACH OUT NOW materials, visit http://www.teachin.samhsa.gov/default.htm |
