Natrona County Prevention Coalition
December 4th, 2018 Time: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Place: Oil and Gas Building @ 2211 King Blvd
Approve Minutes from November: Lisa Brown motioned approval, Ruthie Cann 2nd None opposed.
New Business
Ø Welcome Everyone to the last NCPC meeting of 2018!
o Presentation: Drug Endangered Children by Detective Adrian White (CPD) and Rebecca Hoard (DFS)
For a more in depth training, please contact Rebecca Hoard at 473-3966 or Rebecca.hoard@wyo.gov
o Meeting space update: It has been officially confirmed that NCPC will continue to meet at the Oil and Gas building!
o Strategic Planning: pushed to April/May to allow for time to collect all 2018 data, as per State Prevention funding
Subcommittee & Strategies Report:
o Family and Parenting:
o Family Game Night: Lisa was happy to announce that the #GivingTuesday Drive has started off well, The Child Protection Team generously offered a donation of $300 to purchase board games for the event. Thank you Child Protection Team! The 4th annual Family Game Night event will be February 1st 2019 at the Nicolaysen Art Museum. This year’s theme is Candyland.
o Community Baby Shower: April 13, 2019 at the Boys and Girls Club. Donation drive fliers for this will be sent out on February 5th. Last year 400 people were served. Mercer is taking donations for giveaways at this event.
o Family Day: 2019 Family Day will take place July 9th. This year’s theme will be “Living Substance Free is Out of this World” (space themed). Over 1200 people were served last year.
o YEC: Not present, no updates
o 21st Century Community Learning Centers: no updates
o Boy & Girls Club: Journey has been providing programing that emphasizes Wyoming history, Cowboy Poetry, Cowboy Ethics, team building exercises, and Lego Robotics.
o Science Zone: Not present, no updates
o YMCA: Not present, update via email- YMCA at Cottonwood just finished their Thanksgiving food drive and Turkey bowling events. YMCA provided turkeys for Cottonwood’s meal boxes, and together they served 12 families with a holiday meal. YMCA is getting ready to kick off their Christmas Extravaganza event with Cottonwood as well. The grades will all get a tree to decorate and the winning team will earn house points for their grade. The Y will have a giving tree at the Y as well, for gifts for families in need. The gifts and the tree will be donated to a family closer to Christmas time.
o VIBES: Vibes will be performing group ensembles and solo ensembles over the next 2 weekends at the Eastridge Mall from 12:15-4:30pm.
o Community Prevention Strategies Group
o CPSG will be delivering certificates in January to businesses who pass their compliance check inspections as well as those who drug test to provide their employees with a safe and healthy environment.
o Will not meet for December. Next meeting is January 23rd, 2019.
o NCPC Tasks
o Calendar information for substance-free, family friendly events can be updated on the NCPC website at ncpreventioncoalition.com, and on the NC Family Friendly 411 facebook page. Any questions can be relayed to Lisa Brown at lbrown@mercercasper.com or Sheena Hixson at shixson@mercercasper.com
Introductions &Announcements:
Present: Whitney Lamb (Mercer/NCPC Chair), Ruthie Cann (PAT), Mary Parkinson (PAT), Amanda Lewellen (BBBS/Progressive Youth), Amber Grant (Serve Wyoming), Michelle Dewall (YCC), Amanda Whistler (YCC), Charlie Krampner (sp?) (YCC intern), Vanessa Miramontes (POWER Employment Services), Amy Munsell (Vibes), Chelsea DePalo-Lara (ALC/GED@CC), Lisa Brown (Mercer/F&P), Alissa Thyfault (Mercer/21CCLC), Sheena Hixson (Mercer/21CCLC), Susan Buettgenback (PAT), Christi Parrish (WCCA), Amanda Montes (BGCCW), Sherri G. (C.A.P) Greta Hinderliter (NCSD- Homeless Youth), John Hatcher (CPD), Paul Fritzler (DFS), Bill Howell (CWCC), Amanda Montez (B&GCCW), Dave Bronson (BBBS), Rebecca Albertson (DOC/Workforce Services)
Announcements:
PAT- Planning for the next Roll and Read event will begin in January. PAT will be looking for volunteers/ideas. If you would like to get involved in the planning of this event, contact Stacey Walworth at StaceyPAT@nowcap.com. Mary Parkinson is still looking for Spanish speaking families to serve. Bilingual pamphlets were passed around.
BBBS- Still seeking mentors for their enrolled children. Dave Bronson offered to do presentations if needed to explain what the recruitment process looks like and what being a mentor entails. January is national mentor month and they will be doing interviews on the news and the radio in the coming weeks. On January 17th a fundraiser with Rodeo Rick will take place benefiting BBBS. BBBS is also still seeking a Progressive Youth coordinator to help put together 4-6 fun activities per year. The position is part time from 3-7pm.
Serve Wyoming- recruiting volunteers to help out with the Point in Time homeless count event. They will also be hosting a MLK event in January. For more information, go to servewyoming.com
YCC- Amanda reported seeing an increase in youth coming to the facility: 70+ youth in November alone. They recently received donations of Christmas items for the youth.
Vibes- Vibes will be hosting ensemble performances over the next 2 weekends at the mall. Everyone is welcome to come enjoy the music and show their support.
Adult Learning Center- Their annual Holiday Open House fundraiser event will be happening Thursday December 6th from 11am-6pm. They will have 70 auction baskets to bid on filled with local goodies. The ESL students will also be serving foods from their native country along with cultural presentations on 20 minute rotations from 11am-1pm. Chelsea passed out fliers for everyone to put up. The next orientation for enrollment in ABE/GED classes is December 18 at 9am, 1pm or 6pm.
POWER Employment Services- No updates
Mercer- Family and Parenting classes will be offered at a $10 discount for the month of December. Classes make great gifts!
WCCA- the next enrollment period starts January 13th. Orientation will be January 6th.
CAP- Sherri talked about how CAP now has a safe house for children to go that feels warm and welcoming, with an interview room equipped so the child only has to tell their story once, and all agencies involved can have the information.
NCSD- There are about 165 homeless children attending NCSD. Greta is collecting Christmas donations- kids have asked for things like socks, hats, scarves, gloves, shoes, etc. This Thursday night (Dec. 6th) there will be a Chocolate Walk fundraiser downtown from 5-8pm to collect donations.
CPD- The Alcohol Task Force has joined up with Lyft to offer $10 off ride vouchers from December 21-January 3rd. Uber has been hard to connect with. Lyft vouchers will be available at the following 6 bars: The Beacon, Galloway’s, Keg and Cork, The Office, Gaslight Social, and Taylor’s. If this event window goes well, SafeRide plans to partner with Lyft again for future events. The biggest complaint with SafeRide using taxis is that it usually takes 45 minutes to an hour for the cab to show up. This is due to the fact that there are only about 8 cabs operating on a given night. Also, this may be John Hatcher’s last NCPC meeting as he is retiring from the PD. (Best wishes Officer Hatcher! You will be missed! Thanks for all you have done for NCPC!)
DFS- Paul gave some background on the DEC presentation. In the early 200s Natrona county had a huge meth problem, leading to the formation of the Meth and Substance Abuse Committee, which now hosts the annual Meth Conference every April. Meth and worse is now on the rise again. DFS reports there are 30 more kids than usual in the foster system each month lately. Carbon County was the first in Wyoming to be trained with the DEC team and are recognized as on the national DEC national website. “It took a fatality for that to happen in Carbon county. We don’t want a fatality here to be the reason we take action.” DFS will offer various DEC training sessions in the following weeks. Contact Rebecca Hoard if interested in joining a training session.
CWCC- no updates
BGCCW- The main facility will be open during NCSD’s Christmas Break (except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day) and they will have fun things for kids to do each day. Also, the Stuff the Van Drive will kick off December 10th at East Side Walmart. Some suggestions for teen gifts that were mentioned were tech things, such as earbuds and pop sockets, and matching scarf/hat sets.
DOC/Probation- Wyoming has 3 re-entry centers in the state (Gillette, Cheyenne, and Casper) which is overseen by a Community Corrections Board. The Board reviews parole applicants who are wishing to transfer from prison into one of the re-entry centers. Rebecca extended the invitation to NCPC members to join the board, as it is down by 2 members currently. They meet monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month at 3pm at the Sherriff’s office. If interested, please contact Rebecca w Probation & Parole.
Subcommittee Meeting Times:
Family & Parenting Committee Next Mtg: Thursday January 24th, 9am @ Mercer FRC
Community Prevention Strategies Group Next Mtg: Wednesday, January 23rd, 3pm @ Mercer FRC
Next NCPC Meeting
January 8th, 2019 – 1PM-2PM