Challenges come up at annual meeting
By Marjorie Stromberg, Sentinel reporter, mstromberg@lewistownsentinel.comArticle Photos
LEWISTOWN - Mifflin County Communities That Care held its annual meeting Friday at the Lewistown Community Center.
Jeff Davis, president of Communities That Care Prevention Board, opened the meeting with a quote from Abraham Lincoln.
"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him," the quote states.
Davis went on to say he is honored to be a part of Communities That Care, which has successfully grown during the past years.
"I think it gets better every year," he said of the organization.
Nancy Records, Mifflin County Communities That Care mobilizer, then spoke about the group's top challenges, which include teens feeling disconnected from the community and their use of illegal substances.
"Alcohol is the No. 1 drug of choice for minors," she said.
Mifflin County Communities That Care conducted their 2007 youth survey in area high schools. The results show that 72 percent of youth surveyed don't drink alcohol, 80 percent don't smoke cigarettes and 91 percent don't use inhalants.
The group's youth surveys have been done every two years since 2000, Records said.
There has been a 15 percent decrease in alcohol use among teenagers interviewed, since the survey first was implemented, the report indicates.
A poll of more than 1,800 youth, conducted by Mifflin County Communities That Care in September, shows that the average teenager in Lewistown believes more than half of their peers are drinking and using drugs, Records said.
As a result, the goal of the organization is to change the perception of social norms among teens, Records said.
"We want to give them the truth," she said.
From this goal, the group launched the campaign, "72% Don't", which is aimed at giving teens in the community the correct perception about drug and alcohol use of their peers.
The campaign started by gathering information about youth in the area and finding a way to reach them.
The message, "72% Don't", was promoted throughout town, which intrigued people because they didn't know what it meant. One of the campaign's organizers said that peaking youth's interest was the first thing they wanted to do.
The campaign's next step involved a TV commercial, in which local teens who didn't drink or use drugs were displayed as role models featuring the message, "We've got better things to do."
According to one of the campaign's organizers, the commercial received a great response from the community because it used local faces instead of outside actors.
The next phase of the campaign was to further reach out to local members of the community with the rally message, "Stand up, Mifflin County." This campaign once again peaked interest in the community, and area residents listened to the message, according to one of the campaign's organizers.
Now that the messages have been heard, the goal of the campaign's organizers is to have area residents understand and believe their meaning, one of the organizers said. Another campaign is scheduled to launch in the fall.
After the survey and campaign presentation, two representatives of the Upper Bucks Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Coalition spoke about the youth campaign in their county.
Raymond Fox, a campaign organizer, and Nate Fosbenner, an eleventh-grade student in Upper Bucks County, told meeting attendees about the coalition's launch of its social norm campaign, "OMG."
This campaign was introduced after a survey was done in high schools across three districts in Upper Bucks County, Fox said.
The survey, which focused on underage drinking, showed that 65.8 percent of teens don't drink. That percent was broken down as two out of three teens, which then became part of the campaign, "OMG 2OUTTA3", Fox said.
The campaign was carried out entirely by the students, and giving them the ownership of the campaign helped them buy into the message it portrayed, Fox said.
"All of the young people made our decisions for us," he said. "It's pretty amazing watching their reactions."
Since the campaign, the latest survey shows the percentage of teens who don't drink has increased to 71 percent, Fox said.
