Kim Habicht, Nederland.

The Nederland Communities That Care Coalition debated which health issues pose the biggest risks to local youth at a meeting on February 28, 2018, furthering their initiative to bolster risk prevention.

The meeting, held in the TEENS, Inc. space in the Nederland Community Center, was attended by youth and adult community members. Lively discussion and friendly debate were tossed around the room, as members of the coalition deliberated Nederland’s biggest challenges for youth health.

In January 2017, the CTC coalition was awarded a half-million-dollar grant that will allow it to target public health issues in the Nederland community, including substance use, teen delinquency and violence. The grant extends for five years, after which the community should have the bedrock foundation to continue pursuing the organization’s missions. The grant is funded by the marijuana tax cash fund and facilitated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Currently, the coalition is in the third phase out of five, which involves taking a data-based approach in order to analyze risk factors in Nederland. During the meeting, coalition members looked at the rates of controlled-substance prevalence, community norms and attitudes about controlled substances, academic involvement and opportunities for social involvement in the community. Members deliberated which three areas they would like to target.

After the coalition decides where to focus its efforts, it will create action plans for each of its initiatives. When that is complete, it will enter the fifth phase, which is implementation.

The coalition is still accepting members. Prevention coordinator Jen Lavely, who applied for the grant in 2017 and has been spearheading the initiative, hopes that more community members will join the efforts. “This is better and more effective with your involvement. If it takes a village, then be a part of it.” Lavely emphasized the need for community involvement for the group’s action plans to be maximally effective. “We’ll be informing people along the way. It’s only effective if we get buy-in.”

Over the past year, Lavely has been busy recruiting community stakeholders to fill different task forces within the coalition. The different groups look at data analysis, community outreach, funding, community board maintenance, youth leadership and family involvement.

On Wednesday night, the teenage members of the coalition didn’t hesitate to chime in with observations and anecdotes about what they see at their schools and in their community. Lavely is enthusiastic about young adults’ buy-in to the program and has encouraged their participation by creating a youth leadership academy which focuses on cultivating leadership skills in youth. There are four teens in the academy presently, and Lavely hopes that this number will grow.

Twenty years ago, the Communities That Care model was developed by J. David Hawkins and Richard Catalano, of the University of Washington. Since then, the CTC model has shown its effectiveness in localities around the nation. According to a study conducted by Communities That Care, students from CTC communities were 25 percent less likely to have delinquent behavior and 32 percent less likely to have initiated the use of alcohol.

If community members want to be a part of the initiative, they can contact Jen Lavely at jen@teensinc.org or 303-475-3947. The group’s next meeting will be held on March 21 at the Nederland Community Center.