Newsletter

Winter 2023

Wood County Prevention Coalition

MISSION

We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.

VISION

Helping youth be drug-free, responsible, and productive citizens.

Mark Your Calendar

Mark your calendar for our next Wood County Prevention Coalition/Addiction Task Force meeting: Friday, March 24 at 9:00 a.m. This meeting will be held at the Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 North Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH 43402.

Meeting notices will be sent out, but please invite others to attend as well. Those not on our email distribution list should contact Tina Bradley at tbradley@wcesc.org to be added. All are welcome!

Download the 2023 WCPC Meeting Schedule

Drug-Free Communities Grant Updates

Welcome to 2023 and this unique season of beauty! Funding year 9 kicked off September 30, 2022. Lots of great stuff transpired this past fall, and much is underway this winter. Below is a photo collection summarizing just a few of the great collaboratives and activities involving our Coalition in the past few months.

Last fall, our Coalition Executive and Sector Leaders were each provided with a Red Ribbon Week goody bag--which included celebration banners. The bags were laden with promotional materials and information that were used to spread the Red Ribbon Week (October 23-31) message of living life drug free. Above is the banner our Vice President Madison Weilnau, of the Wood County Addiction Task Force, hung at the Wood County Courthouse.

Our Coalition purchased Red Ribbon Week t-shirts for WCESC Prevention Education Specialists to use as giveaways in the county's ten public school districts during the week's events (October 23-31, 2022).

Coalition President Francesca Leass and Christina Brode spread our mission as volunteer representatives at the Bowling Green State University Health Fair (October) .

Wood County Educational Service Center Prevention Education Specialists distributed the Coalition's "Why Animals Don't Smoke" coloring/activity books at several trunk-or-treat events including NAMI's AfterBurn (October). Pictured here (left to right) are Claire Hurtt, Kayla Medley, and Annie Pilmore.

The Coalition provided free Deterra to various agencies this past fall. These packets were thereafter provided to their clients/participants/the public and at given out at events--such as all four of Wood County's National Drug Take Back Day events (October 29). Pictured above is our Law Enforcement Sector Leader Lt. Ryan Tackett of the Bowling Green Police Division (BGPD). BGPD participated in the drug take-back event and made Deterra available to those in attendance.

Officer Jodi Johnson, Rossford Police Department, Shelley Bertsch, Rossford High School, Coalition staff (Tina Bradley and Kyle Clark) and WCESC Prevention Education Specialist Michelle Von Lehmden joined with Rossford High School students to record a prevention-themed podcast (November).

Two very-well attended and excellent presentations took place on November 9. Presenter Dr. Nicole T. Labor delivered outstanding afternoon and evening sessions of "The Addictoholic Deconstructed: The Neurobiology of Addiction." Many thanks to those Coalition members who provided us volunteer assistance during the evening session. This wonderful collaboration was made possible by the Wood County Addiction Task Force and Wood County Educational Services Prevention Education Department.

"Two wonderful presentations featuring four different presenters, great conversations related to community collaboration and resources, and we were 42 strong in attendance," best describes our December 9, 2022 Coalition meeting!

Our Coalition is a 2022 CADCA Blue Ribbon Award Winner!!!

Last July, our Coalition applied for Phase I of CADCA’s 2022 Got Outcomes! Awards. In Phase I, CADCA reviewed and scored our application and various submitted products (to include our Community Assessment, Logic Model, and Summary of Outcomes related to underage drinking).

In early September, we received notification that our Coalition would advance to Phase II of this select process where only the top 25% of applicants move onward!!! We applied early in October. As an advancing finalist, we thereafter told our coalition’s story of how we attained positive changes in our community-level outcomes through visual presentations/graphics. A special thank you to Peyton Massey-Adams, Wood County Educational Service Center, Alisandra Meija-Garza (fall intern), Bowling Green State University and Dr. Bill Ivoska, our Coalition Evaluator for working in conjunction with paid Coalition staff to bring Phase I to life visually in Phase II.

Mid-October, the Wood County Prevention Coalition was awarded Blue Ribbon Coalition distinction! The Blue Ribbon Coalition Program is a special recognition of coalitions (only 15 received this designation this year) who do an exceptional job creating a foundation for their work by updating and utilizing their products. According to CADCA, this two-year credential opens new doors to support our Coalition's work. For more information on CADCA's 2022 Blue Ribbon awardees, click here.

Volunteer Spotlight:

Andrew Baker

The Wood County Prevention Coalition is pleased to shine a bright light on dedicated volunteer Andrew Baker. Andrew is from Waterville, Ohio and currently attends Bowling Green State University, where he is working toward a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance and Management.

Andrew has been volunteering with the Coalition for over a year now. He assists us on an ongoing basis with a variety of tasks related to maintaining the Wood County Prevention Coalition website. His contributions are varied, but include podcast, news and photo gallery uploads as well as a the completion of other necessary items to keep our website up-to-date, looking great and running smoothly.

When asked why he chose to volunteer for us, Andrew said, " I was introduced to them and saw that they were looking to get help with maintaining their website. I read their mission and saw what an amazing organization they are."

Our gratitude, Andrew, for your ongoing work to further our mission of realizing a drug-free Wood County!!!

About the DFC Non-Federal Match Requirement...

Our Coalition's Drug-Free Communities grant requires us to provide non-federal match alongside our federal allocation, annually. Currently, our grant is in Year 9 (through September 29, 2023). Non-federal match requirements are 150 percent in Year 9 (150% of $125,000 (federal grant amount). This means, we must secure/use $187,500 in non-federal funding/contributions (to include in-kind (contributed goods/services)) this funding year.

Below is a graphic showing how our Coalition was funded in DFC Year 8. Our federal match requirement last year was 125 percent. This graphic includes the non-federal elements ($156,250 (125 percent)).

The table, below, provides a breakout of how private/corporate entities as well as individuals (volunteer services) contributed to our match requirement. As you can see, volunteer services made up the vast majority (98%) of the $17,900.86 contributed.

Thank you to those who volunteered as well as attended Coalition meetings (to include sub-committee, informational and planning meetings). These actions all contributed to our Coalition's ability to meet our funder's non-federal matching requirements!