Five Town CTC names Youth Advocate Award winners

l-to-r: Lisa Ettinger, Five Town CTC Mentor Program Coordinator.

Five Town Communities That Care has named Lisa Ettinger and the Penobscot Bay YMCA as their most recent Youth Advocate Award winners. The awards were announced January 23rd at Five Town CTC’s quarterly Coalition meeting.

Ettinger, winner of the individual award, has been a longtime volunteer for youth organizations in the five towns and beyond. For many years, she worked with the Rockport Elementary School and Camden-Rockport Elementary School Jump Rope for Heart program, the last six years helping coach the Camden-Rockport Skippers jump rope team. She also served for many years on the Program Committee for Youth Arts, which provides arts enrichment in the schools of Camden and Rockport, including Camden Hills Regional High School (serving also Appleton, Hope and Lincolnville). A member of the board of trustees for Five Town Communities That Care since 2004—she is currently board vice-chair and secretary, and chairs the Program Evaluation and Data Work Groups—Lisa is devoted to promoting healthy youth in our community.

Jasen Wood and Meghan Gustafson, Senior Program Director and Childcare Co-Director, respectively, received the Youth Advocate Award for organization on behalf of the Penobscot Bay YMCA. The Y’s mission is to provide high quality services that meet the youth development, healthy living and social needs of individuals and families in the communities they serve. Their vision is to be a recognized community leader, connecting individuals and families with high-quality health, recreational and social service opportunities. Since they opened their new facility in Rockport in 2002, the Y’s membership has grown to over 5,000.

Those wishing to nominate an individual or an organization for a Youth Advocate Award may email the candidate’s name and contact info, along with a statement of why they feel their nominee should receive the award, to info@fivetownctc.org.

Five Town CTC has been working since 2003 to promote healthy youth development and to reduce the incidence of problem adolescent problem behaviors such as substance abuse, suicide, violence, delinquency, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy. For more information, visit www.fivetownctc.org, email info@fivetownctc.org, or call 207-236-9800.

l-to-r: Jasen Wood, Five Town CTC Board member, Ken Gardiner, Meghan Gustafson.

Five Town CTC awards‏

Five Town Communities That Care is pleased to announce the most recent winners of its Youth Advocate Awards. At the November 14th Five Town CTC Coalition Meeting, Marcia Dietrich received the individual award and Five Town Football received the organization award.


A longtime member of the Five Town CSD and SAD #28 school boards, Marcia has steadfastly promoted the best interests of local students. “Educating our children is the most important work we undertake as communities,” she says. “Our local schools, with their reputation for excellence, are truly cornerstones for the quality of life our area offers. Integral to school leadership and local control, our towns have enjoyed a long tradition of highly capable, student-centered boards. The contributions made by these boards often garner little notice. I thank you sincerely for this award, which I believe recognizes the work done by many who serve or have served on our local school boards.”


Carl Chadwick and Cindy Polk, President and Secretary/Treasurer, respectively, represented Five Town

Local Prevention Coalition Has Increasingly Global Reach

 Dalene Dutton, Dr. Kevin Haggerty, Katie Ritzenheim, Gery Shelafoe, Mayra Paredes, Juliana Mejia

Five Town Communities That Care’s impact on the prevention of problem adolescent behaviors in the local community has been well documented. What is not as well known is the impact it is having further afield. With a rapidly growing number of communities around the world choosing the CTC system to address problem behaviors in their populations, Five Town CTC is increasingly finding itself on the front lines of prevention.



Dalene Dutton, Five Town CTC’s executive director, has been traveling a great deal in the last year and a half to train communities in CTC. Communities in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, California, and Manitoba have called on Dutton. The revenues she receives are reinvested here in the local effort. In recent months, Five Town CTC has fielded new inquiries nearly every week.



This week, two cohorts of trainees made the trip to Maine to learn more about getting CTC started back home. They underwent three days of intensive participatory instruction at Five Town CTC’s office in Rockport.



Katie Ritzenheim and Gery Shelafoe traveled from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to continue training they started with Dutton there. Juliana Mejia and Mayra Paredes made the long journey from Bogota, Colombia.



Mejia and Paredes represent Nuevos Rumbos, a Colombian agency dedicated to research and prevention of drug use. The agency has been working with the creators of the CTC system at the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG) to develop a similar system they call Comunidades Que se Cuidan (CQC) in Colombia. Nuevos Rumbos has been piloting the CQC model for a year and a half. SDRG put Nuevos Rumbos in touch with Dutton when they wanted to learn more about the on the ground challenges of training other communities.  Next, Juliana and Mayra will accompany Dutton to Parlier, California to observe a training she is leading in the largely Spanish-speaking community there.



Dr. Kevin Haggerty of SDRG also participated in the Rockport trainings. For 27 years, he and his colleagues have been developing methods to organize the scientific knowledge base for prevention in ways that empower parents, communities and schools to use it to organize, assess and prioritize approaches that meet their needs. Dr. Haggerty notes, “I’m impressed with the work of the Five Town coalition to create the conditions that promote well being. You serve as a model for other communities across the nation, and around the world.”



CTC is grounded in rigorous research from social work, public health, psychology, education, medicine, criminology, and organizational development. It engages all community members who have a stake in healthy futures for young people and sets priorities for action based on community challenges and strengths. Clear, measurable outcomes are tracked over time to show progress and ensure accountability.



Communities in cultures as seemingly different from each other as Michigan’s, Maine’s, or Colombia’s, nevertheless often share similar difficulties with adolescent substance abuse, violence, delinquency, school failure and other problem behaviors. By addressing the unique circumstances of any given community, using local data to drive decision making, increasing the use of evidence-based programs and polices, and including stakeholders from all sectors of the population in the prevention effort---CTC has proven to make a positive difference in children’s lives wherever it is employed.



Five Town CTC has been serving Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, and Rockport, Maine since 2003. For more information, call 207-236-9800, email info@fivetownctc.org, or visit www.fivetownctc.org.

Story Sponsor...

www.shootmainestudios.com

Dalene Dutton: Risks for teen tragedy... transitions

RCN America Network wants to the time to share the following article by Dalene Dutton, the executive director of Five Town Communities That Care

On Aug. 22, I wrote a widely-shared article about one of the factors that increase the risk for suicide for adolescents (media contagion). I shared that I was motivated to do this because I have mourned the death of far too many of our community's young people. I don't want to have to mourn another, especially if the loss is due to suicide. Not only because the loss is so tragic, but because people suffering from depression and anxiety—and from suicidal ideation—can be successfully treated if reached in time.

I continue to speak out so that more members of our community will learn about warning signs and how to bridge those who need help to those places with the expertise to provide it. As I stated in my last article, suicidal behavior is complex and frightening and the frequency of suicide in Maine is real cause for concern; there is one suicide every two days on average. For Mainers aged 15-34 years of age it is the second leading cause of death. As frightening as it is to talk about, for me it is more frightening to do nothing.

As always, I encourage local readers to visit the Maine Suicide Prevention Project's website at http://www.maine.gov/suicide/about/index.htm , as it contains a lot of important information and links to local resources for help. You can also visit The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention by going to http://www.afsp.org/.

I don't believe that we can stop at learning about warning signs and resources. There is considerable evidence that we can prevent suicide and other tragic behaviors before they cause pain and suffering. I am writing again because media contagion is not the only risk factor contributing to youth suicide. In fact, there are several.

Transitions and mobility can increase the risk for suicidal ideation — and for substance abuse, violence, delinquency, and school drop out. Most adults I speak with understand that constantly moving from one community to another (as military families or agricultural workers are often forced to do) can contribute to a higher likelihood that the children of those families will experience problem behaviors. They understand that uprooting families can lead to the loss of the kinds of supports that come from spending enough time in a place to develop healthy relationships with community members outside of the family unit. We know that we need to reach out and actively help children who have recently moved to our community so they might find their niche and connect with effective mentors here.

What I find often overlooked is the other part of the label... transitions. Adolescents undergo a staggering

STAR is Back in Session!

The STAR Program is back in session this fall with a new Program Coordinator!

Mariah Smith has joined Five Town Communities That Care as their new STAR Program Coordinator. A member of the Colby College class of 2013, Mariah graduated with a degree in psychology and neuroscience and a passion for the social services. During her four years at Colby, Mariah acted as the Program Leader for the South End Teen Center Volunteer Program and as a mentor in the Colby Cares About Kids Program. She also worked to strengthen the connection between the Colby and Waterville communities through acting as the Special Events Coordinator for the Colby-Waterville Alliance. In 2012, Mariah served as an intern at Five Town Communities That Care during her junior year "Jan Plan." Mariah hopes to earn her Master's in Social Work in the near future and continue advocating prevention programs in Maine communities and beyond. Mariah lives in Belfast with her fiance Dale and their two cats.

STAR is open to 5th-8th grade students in Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, and Rockport. The program is designed to decrease risk factors and increase protective factors for certain problem adolescent behaviors such as underage alcohol and drug use, teen delinquency, school drop-out, and unsafe sexual practices. STAR focuses on skills development, recognizing youth as they learn and connecting youth with opportunities in the larger community. The program is offered at NO COST to participants.

Cycle 25 begins on Tuesday, September 24 with exciting new classes like Woodworking, Hope Elephants, and Permaculture Design! Registrations for Cycle 25 have already gone out to all 5th-8th grade students in the five town schools. Didn’t receive yours? Download a new copy at: http://www.fivetownctc.org/programs/star/  

Five Town Communities That Care works to promote healthy youth development and to prevent problem adolescent behaviors such as substance abuse, violence, delinquency, school dropout, teenage pregnancy, and suicide. For more information about STAR or Five Town Communities That Care, call 236-9800 or email info@fivetownctc.org.

Contact Name:
Mariah Smith

Contact Phone:
(207) 975-6722

Contact Email:
star@fivetownctc.org

Teen suicide and social contagions, a reality

BY: Dalene Dutton

Unfortunately, our Midcoast community has lost far too many young people to suicide. As a mother, former teacher, and community member I am deeply saddened by each loss. As the executive director of Five Town Communities That Care, which is dedicated to promoting healthy youth development and to the prevention of problem adolescent behaviors including suicide, I am driven to do something about it.

Doing something is not easy.  Suicide is widely regarded as a taboo subject, as are most subjects related to mental health. I am not trained as a mental health provider or counselor, but in spite of this, I cannot be silent or remain on the sidelines.  What I can do is provide information that parents and community members can use to respond to the young people they know and love.

We need to have conversations about it, even if those conversations are uncomfortable.  Suicidal behavior is