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\u201cTeens are our greatest asset,\u201d says the Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community\u2019s Project Coordinator, Deborah Tomey. \u201cOur CAT (Community Action Team) is made up of teens from Wilmington who are committed to remaining substance use free so they can be examples to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, the Wilmington Coalition\u2019s teen-focused approach is making a positive impact on the incidence of underage drinking, marijuana and other drug misuse. The Wilmington Coalition, located along the famous Route 66, is about 50 miles south of Chicago, Illinois. It is a small rural, blue collar\/farm community of 6,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized a number of years ago that we didn\u2019t have a solid platform where we could talk with our community about underage drinking and other drugs, coupled with the fact that we don\u2019t have a lot of resources to address these issues,\u201d says Tomey. \u201cAfter extensive meetings with the school system, we affirmed that we needed to start educating our children \u0434\u043e<\/em> they reached high school, and engaging teen leaders to do the educating was the ideal approach.\u201d<\/p>\n This focused strategy began with teen participation in the Cebrin Teen Leadership Institute (CGTI) in 2011. CAT students created a Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), and the SPF has driven activities ever since. With 12 high school students serving in leadership roles, the CAT crew:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re proud of our students and the outcomes that have been achieved,\u201d says Tomey. \u201cWe now have a closer relationship with our school district, a more engaged community and a higher level of communication with our police department and all other sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n The data speaks for itself. Among Wilmington\u2019s 12th graders there has been a:\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\u201cOur approach is holistic, emphasizing connections across mind, body and spirit, and we believe that placing our teens front and center provides important opportunities to pay it forward to the next generation and the adults in our community who support them,\u201d concludes Tomey.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cTeens are our greatest asset,\u201d says the Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community\u2019s Project Coordinator, Deborah Tomey. \u201cOur CAT (Community<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13809,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17397","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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