National Prevention Week: May 15-19, 2017

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) hosts a National Prevention Week Annually. This is a health observance dedicated to increasing public awareness of, and action around, mental and/or substance use disorders. Volition partook in two main community activities for the 2017 Prevention Week, the I Choose Campaign and Generation Found, reaching over 100 community members through both events.

GENERATION FOUND
May 15, 2017

Volition cohosted a movie night with SouthBrook Church and Moving Beyond Addiction as a coalition faith summit. This event kicked off National Prevention week May 15th-20th with a film, Generation Found which focuses on one community coming together to ignite a youth addiction recover revolution in their hometown. The event was advertise through word of mouth, flyers printed and distributed at SouthBrook, as well as on the coalition Facebook page.

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    I CHOOSE
    May 15-19, 2017

    During National Prevention Week Volition facilitated an “I Choose” Project. This was a project inviting people to take a photo of themselves, their family, or friends holding a sign with a written statement expressing why they choose prevention. Images from this project were utilized in a slideshow before and after the Faith Summit, and prior to the showing of the Generation Found film. They were also shared on the coalition’s social media page.

    The coalition had over 40 participants/ participant groups including:

    • Franklin Police Department
    • Franklin Youth
    • Franklin Health Department
    • Franklin School Board President
    • Old National Bank Staff
    • Representative Ken Skowronski
    • Mitchell Airport Rotary Club
    • Franklin High School teachers and staff
    • Addiction to Recovery Staff
    • Aurora Healthcare Staff
    • Board of Health
    • City of Franklin Clerks office employees
    • FAPSU (Volition) Coalition Coordinator
    • Franklin Health Department Nurses
    • Community Parents
    • FAPSU (Volition) Executive Board
    • Forest Park Middle School Students
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    Stairway to Heroin: April 25, 2017

    Stairway to Heroin was hosted at the Saber Center on April 25, 2017. The coalition promoted this event in many ways. 20 vendors participated in the resource fair, and approximately 90 community members attended the event.

    Vendor organizations include:

    Event Survey

    A survey was distributed and 62 individuals responded.

    When asked, on a scale of one to five, with five being very useful, how useful is the information you learned tonight?”

    • 19.4% identified usefulness as a 4/5 and 80.6% identified a 5/5 for usefulness
    • 53.2% strongly agree, and 41.9% agree that after the presentation, they feel more knowledgeable about the risks and behaviors associated with substance use.

    Attendees were primarily parents making up 50.8%, 16.4% were family members, 4.9% teachers, 11.5% counselors, 8.2% medical, 14.8% students, and 19.7% other (to include chaplain, elected official, graduate student, coalition members, recovering addicts, public health professionals, veteran, and vendors)

    Light and Unite Red: January 23-27, 2017

    Light and United Red is a Milwaukee County wide campaign. The Light and Unite Red campaign is a week in January to shine a light upon the dangers of substance use and highlight efforts to prevent misuse. For this campaign, Volition organized the following activities within Franklin, with our messages reaching over 1,000 youth and adult community members:

    • The message board outside of Franklin High School displayed a message encouraging students to wear red on the Friday of Light and United RED week to help bring awareness to the topic and open the door to start conversations about alcohol or drug misuse
    • The class wearing the most red won a Volition sponsored pizza party
    • High School and Middle School Announcements shared facts about substance misuse throughout the week
    • Gold block teachers at the High School level were encouraged to share a Drug Fact quiz that was linked on the Saber Slate, the High School Newspaper
    • Volition youth hosted games at lunch at the High School
    • Volition middle school youth created Memes pertaining to substance misuse and hung them around the school
    • Volition presented the purpose of Light and Unite Red to the Franklin Common Council and Mayor Steve Olson signed a proclamation proclaiming January 23-27, 2017 Light and Unite Red Week in the City of Franklin.
    • The city website advertised Light and Unite RED
    • The evergreen tree outside of city hall was illuminated with red lights, and a banner was hung
    • There was a message on the sign outside Station 1 Firehouse in Franklin
    • City Employees were given Light the Way tip sheets providing information about starting the conversation at home, and resources for parents, teens, and educators. City Hall employees were also encouraged to wear red on Friday
    • The Volition Facebook Page shared posts of the student created memes
    • The senior lunch hosted in Franklin City Hall displayed informational table tents
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