Band Jams, Movie Nights and our first ever 4 student caravan to CADCA's Summer conference! All of this kept the Youth Action Board students busy this summer. Whether they were setting up for a band jam, passing out pop-corn at a movie or working a community assessment in a group training session in Kentucky, our students had so much fun!
We want to congratulate our Battle of the Bands winner The Blue Effect -- a high school and college band but with a very seasoned sound! Thank you to Michael King for your generous donation of a recording session with the winning band!
Thank you to all of our talented high school bands who came out with their fans and provided some really good music all summer long: The Blue Effect, The Jam Society, Don't Play with Guns, Magic Firewater, and The Chill Factor.
Thanks so much to the City of Birmingham, Birmingham Concerts in the Park, The Principal Shopping District and Birmingham Parks and Recreation.
Michelle Bartoshuk, Senior at DCDS and YAB Co-President spent a week in Palm Springs, CA at the CADCA mid-year Prevention conference, honing her skills as a prevetion trainer. She will be showcasing those skills at upcoming CADCA conferences this year. Way to go Michelle!
Be sure to check out pictures of all of our events at the Photo Gallery.
YAB STUDENTS TAKE A STAND IN PREVENTION
The Birmingham Bloomfield Community Coalition's (BBCC) Youth Action Board (YAB) served as youth "hosts" for a unique 2 day Prevention training program in September, bringing CADCA's National Youth Leadership Initiative (NYLI) training to their own backyard. The teens spent the weekend of September 29 and 30thwith NYLI trainers and teens from four other area Coalitions learning the strategic prevention framework, logic models, interventions, evaluation, and sustainability of a coalition. In an effort to reach out to other teens and to learn about issues in other communities, the YAB extended the training to our ACHC (Alliance for Coalitions of Healthy Communities) partners with youth groups. ACHC sponsored part of the training.
Over 35 teens from six different communities (Birmingham, Bloomfield, West Bloomfield, Madison Heights, Troy and Waterford) participated in the weekend training. CADCA is the governing body of anti-drug community coalitions and the BBCC is a participating coalition that works to unite all sectors of the Birmingham Bloomfield community to realize a substance-abuse free community. The teens and their Coalition advisors spent Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 3 pm in hands-on workshops. YAB member Jessica Stanley said she liked the hands-on approach. “We learned the steps to take, and then experimented.”
Follow this link for a video on the CADCA Youth experience.
http://www.bbcoalition.org/cadcayouth.wmv
Each youth group worked out a Logic Model to address a problem in their specific area. The BBCC teens chose as their problem statement: Marijuana use is on the rise. Sara Dzierbicki said “I could find 10-15 kids to sell me marijuana at a moment’s notice.” Michelle Bartoshuk added that “Parents and police are concentrating on alcohol. And some parents act like marijuana is not that big a deal.” The teens worked through all the reasons that marijuana use is on the rise in their area which led to discussions on how to combat it.
The teens worked through team-building exercises, which made them realize that everyone in a group, or community, Natasia Partynski of Troy found the training “…really fun. We learned the steps you have to take if you really want to help people to change.” Seheri Swint-Daaja-Ra, a sophomore from Madison Heights found the training very productive. “The metaphors they used really got us thinking,” she said. Tony Biallis, a sophomore from West Bloomfield, said “I liked that they put us in groups with people we didn’t know. At first it was uncomfortable, but now we all know a lot more people!”
The teens ate dinner as a group at Gameworks in Auburn Hills, then spent the evening playing video games.
YAB co-president Dzierbicki said, “As much as I wanted to go to Tucson, this was almost better. The training was fantastic, and now I know a bunch of other kids who are working on the same issue right here in my own area.”