MINUTES

Kanawha Communities That Care Partnership

January 25, 2012, 12 – 2 p.m.

South Charleston Library, South Charleston, WV

In attendance: 

1. Michele Bowles – Kanawha Communities That Care
2. Connie Fitzgerald – Highland Hospital
3. MSgt. Michelle Barton – WV National Guard
4. Valerie Taylor – Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office
5. Judy Crabtree – Kanawha Coalition for Community Health Improvement
6. Margo Friend – AHI UWCWV
7. Patty McGrew – Adolescent Health Initiative
8. Tim White – Prestera Center
9. Debbie Hon – Automated Health Systems
10. Dennie Large – Tristate CW
11. Margie Sadler – MADD
12. Michele Baranaskas – Kanawha FRN
13. SSG Joseph Samples – WV National Guard
14. James Rollins – WV EEO
15. Samantha Pema – KCS Parent Community Resource Center
16. Viola Burchett – community member

Welcome/Introductions – Michele Bowles opened the meeting, welcomed everyone and began self introductions. 

Review of last meeting minutes – Everyone reviewed the minutes and they were approved by group consensus.

Board Officers for 2012 – Michelle Foster has stepped down as a CTC Board member effective as of the last Board meeting.  The Board will discuss potential candidates at the February meeting.  Recommendations from partnership members are encouraged. 

The new officer positions for 2012 are as follows:

• Patty McGrew – Chair
• Patty Deutsch & Jessica Hudson – Co-Chairs
• Michele Baranaskas – Secretary
• Judy Crabtree – Treasurer

Board Meeting Update– Patty McGrew

During the Board meeting, Michele Bowles provided the Board with the following updates:

• Elkview Middle School Counselor is scheduled to be trained in All Stars in February
• Another 24/7Club has started at the Boys and Girls Club
• The Kroger Card Contest has concluded with Valerie Taylor winning both portions.
• Project Director hours – the change has not yet taken place.
• Drugged Driving Campaign – the PSA was completed and aired by CW with funding deriving from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program and the testimonial deriving from a MADD victim.  The PSA is currently located on CTC’s website.

Michele is teaching Too Good For Drugs at The Boys and Girls Club in Charleston.  This will conclude with a family forum/town hall on March 26^th where awards will be presented to the participating children as well as resources and education offered to the families and community.

Financial Report – Judy Crabtree

Michele Bowles showed registers for both the checking and savings accounts along with reports for all grant activities.  Michele authorized the expense for the All Stars training and a payment to provide the Too Good For Drugs instruction, with appropriate paperwork in place.  There was discussion with regard to the reduction of Michele’s hours.  Tim White is working on this and hopes to have it taken care of by the end of the week.  The goal is for the difference in salary costs to offset costs of employee fringe/payroll taxes.

CTC Updates and News – Michele Bowles

• After submitting the Civic Affairs grant application, Michele was invited to speak at the following Civic Affairs Council meeting to explain in more detail about CTC and our activities.  Judy Crabtree attended this meeting as well, and both Judy and Michele feel it went very well.  The purpose of the funding request was to enhance CTC’s evidence based activities.  More specifically, we requested funding to assist with the CMCA interviews and to implement Keep a Clear Mind at the Boys and Girls Club in Charleston and in Pratt Elementary.
• A Sticker Shock Campaign is currently being planned with a church youth group from St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Nitro.  The target locations will be the 2 Cold Spots in Kanawha County.  They are currently working to determine a convenient date for the group.  Once that is provided to Michele, the date will be announced to the Partnership and to the Media.
• A 24/7 group has started at the Boys and Girls Club in Charleston and is currently working on a trading card activity.  They are working on creating/drawing a self-character for the trading card with 5 positive qualities about themselves to go on the back.  These will be distributed to kids at the West Side Elementary children (or an alternate location) along with positive drug-free messages.

DFC & Community Assessment:  The Drug-Free Communities Grant RFA was released on January 17, 2012.  CTC scored very well on last year’s application, so we really need to work on improving in the areas that scored lower.  One area that could use improvement is ensuring we have good representation of the community at large as well as making sure we have a process for attaining that representation.  The community assessment tool was used to identify key community members that would mutually benefit from partnering with CTC.  Partnership possibilities discussed were:

• Youth (SADD Chapters, St. Pauls youth group, Charleston Town Center youth group)
• Advocates for children (CASA, Daymark)
• Parents (Jane Shuman, Nancy White, Heather Miller, Jennifer Parsons, James Rollins, Viola Burchett)
• Business owner (Judy will talk with the Charleston Area Aliance)
• Media (Kathleen Moxley – WSAZ, Dave Benson – WCHS, Judy will contact Lori? And Zach? of Daily Mail and Gazette)
• School system representative (Robin Rector)
• Youth-serving organization (Girls Scouts)
• Law enforcement (KCSO, Charleston PD)
• Religious/fraternal organizations (KISRA, Rev, Janet Flanagan – Christ Church)
• Civic/volunteer group (St. Albans Rotary – Dan Cain)
• Healthcare professionals (Family Care, Janet Briscoe of the Kan. Chas. Health Dept, Mike Jarrett of KCEAA, Dr. Gupta of the Kan. Chas. Health Dept.)
• Senators/delegates (Dan Foster, Gig will contact someone regarding Drug Court, Nancy Guthrie, Skaff, Bonnie Brown, Meesah Poore, Asley Orr with Rockefeller’s office, shelly Moore Capito, Mayors and Magistrates in Kanawha County, Council for Agency of executives)
• It was suggested that it couldn’t hurt to have partnerships with higher education organizations as well, such as the Pharmacy Department of UC.

Update from the last break-out session -

• Wellness Council – Patty Deutsch (Michele Bowles)

Patty has provided 2 of the 4 Prescription Drug Presentations.  She also has one scheduled for May 5^th at the Hansford Senior Center.

• Underage Drinking – Valerie Taylor

Compliance checks were recently completed on January 6^th.  Out of 32 attempts, there were no buys, citations, arrests, or warnings.  Additional activities, which were to be funded by the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, have been put on hold until some reimbursement processes are more defined. 

Gig Robinson with ABCA also added a few comments related to Underage Drinking –

• SAMHSA has released a tool/approach to help parents engage with their children about alcohol.  This can be found on SAMHSA’s website (Samhsa.gov).
• Stephanie Southall, formally with the Prevention Resource Center, is now with the WV BHHF assisting with Radar, SADD Chapters, evidence based practices, among many other prevention related activities.
• The American College Assessment will be released in March which should have a lot of college student data and focuses on many factors including alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
• The EUDLE grant, in previous years, has awarded approximately $350,000 annually to certain entities to carry out underage drinking initiatives.  Since funding has been reduced this year to $76,000, ABCA has offered to not apply in order to allow city and county entities to apply.

Announcements –

Valerie Taylor needs letter of commitment from partnering organizations prior to submitting her grant application.  Please provide those to Valerie at your earliest convenience.

MSgt. Barton needs observers for their Stay on Track Program –

            South Charleston March 16-30

            Dupont February 1-19

The Special Olympics for Kanawha County Schools will be held on May 1, 2012.  Volunteers are needed.  For more information, contact Samantha Perna at sperna@kcs.kana.k12.wv.us.

The Teen Institute Bowling Bash is scheduled for April 14 at Galaxy Lanes in Kanawha City.  Door prizes/donations are needed.  Contact Margo Friend for more information mexlinef@yahoo.com.

The next Kanawha FRN meeting will be held (location TBD) on February 9, 2012 at noon.

Next meeting is February 22, 2012 @ 12 Noon at the South Charleston Library.  Brown bag lunch.