BELLOWS FALLS — The Bellows Falls-based Greater Falls Prevention Coalition (GFPC) recently received $107,750 from the Vermont Department of Health, part of $1.5 million of federal and state coalition grants presented to organizations working to reduce retail tobacco advertising, improve nutrition and physical activity for young Vermonters, and address alcohol and drug abuse.
Chad Simmons, former interim director and currently media coordinator of the GFPC, said the grant represents a change in how the agency addresses prevention.
He described it as a “multifaceted approach looking specifically at environmental strategies that encourage positive, healthy environments in schools, parks, and businesses, creating change from within.”
“Our community has demonstrated the need for prevention and community building,” he added.
Simmons said that the combination of persistent multi-generational poverty, health access disparity, widespread substance abuse, and limited educational and economic opportunities continues to devastate local families with poor health outcomes across a range of indicators.
The grant is meant to fix that.
“The way the grant was structured encouraged increased collaboration with various organizations and community members,” he said.
“You're digging deeper into underlying causes of alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse,” he added. “It's a holistic approach to prevention.”
Simmons said one means by which the GFPC is collaborating is by supporting the New Era, a team of students at Bellows Falls Union High School that uses positive peer pressure to change the “social norms” that teens perceive.
That work has evolved into what is now the “Underground Hour,” a youth radio show unique to Bellows Falls on WOOL-FM that airs the second and fourth Monday of each month. The program has “teens talking about positive health issues on the air, which creates positive community and positive messaging through the radio,” Simmons said.
The radio show “sends a positive message to enjoy life - that there are other ways to take risks,” Simmons said.
“Teens are hard-wired to take risks,” he added. “We, as adults, have the responsibility and challenge to offer healthier alternatives, such as outdoor activities, sports, poetry, art ....”
Parental pressures
GFPC also works with parents by giving them tools such as positive communication through nurturing language.
“...Saying, 'I love you,' or complimenting teens and adolescents on work that they are doing,” he said, can make a big difference to the parent-child relationship.
Parenting classes will start in May, and will provide guidance and communication-building skills.
Simmons said parents are learning from other area prevention coalitions, such as the Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition's “Those Who Host Lose The Most,” a campaign that helps parents come up with alternatives to hosting parties that serve alcohol.
“The No. 1 thing we're asking parents to do is talk with their kids and other parents who have issues with hosting underage parties to cooperate with one another [in finding alternatives],” Simmons said.
“We advocate for dialogue,” he added. “It needs to be a reciprocal process and dialogue encourages parents and guardians to talk about [these issues] with one another.”
“We know many parents need help with the difficult and exhausting job of raising kids,” said Simmons.
GFPC employs a dedicated parent outreach coordinator, Deb Witkus, who offers support and training classes for parents.
“We want to provide help with more than just getting by,” Simmons said.
GFPC also collaborates with the Bellows Falls Police Department. Christine Bullard is the liaison with the department.
“We started partnering with them to reach out to families and community members that are struggling,” Simmons said. The partnership helps adolescents and young adults that have gotten in trouble with the law, or children who are at risk of abuse or whose care-givers have a problem with drugs or alcohol.
He said they also made the connection with younger parents.
In 2011, more than 100 parents were involved in programs that GFPC supports in the community, mostly through Parks Place Community Resource Center.
“We're all under one roof here so it's easy to make the connections for people who come in to the services or programs that best serve them,” Simmons said.
Healthy choices
The GFPC recently took the holistic approach to community wellness by asking voters at the Rockingham Town Meeting to pass a resolution to support several community gardens with a $1,500 grant. Voters approved the measure. The agency also approached small businesses and talked to owners about the way they advertise tobacco and alcohol, and about offering healthy food choices in their stores.
D & R General Store in Cambridgeport, the Saxtons River Village Market, and Lisai's Corner Deli in Bellows Falls are working with GFPC, Simmons said.
The campaign is focused on small retail outlets. “A fair number of people utilize small markets for their food and beverages,” Simmons said. “We are focusing on the stores that are already doing good work and have already committed to have minimal amount of tobacco and alcohol advertising.”
GFPC will soon kick off the “healthy retailer of the month,” program, highlighting D & R General Store in Cambridgeport.
“We're working with them to get additional farmers to supply fresh food,” Simmons said.
“It's a pretty small general store and the hub of a community that was dramatically affected by Irene,” he added. “The store was the anchor. People went there to get milk and produce.”
He said D & R General Store owners are putting in a fresh food section with locally grown produce.
D & R General Store owner Vicky Barrett said local organic produce is more expensive than conventional food that's trucked in, but the cost of delivery and fuel makes it “a wash.”
“We're pretty far out and hard to get to,” she said, adding that importing food from far away means “you don't know where it came from, or how long it's been sitting in the warehouse before delivery.”
Barrett said she would be stopping at Harlow's Farm Stand to pick up the fresh produce and that it works out better for everyone.
“I go pick some up to keep prices down. Yes, healthy food is more expensive, but we are trying to keep prices in check.” She said the majority of her customers are senior citizens who feel the store is part of their daily lives. “It saves them the trip elsewhere.”
“We cater to the locals. They are our customers,” Barrett said. “If they ask me for something and it's a healthy request, I'll try to get it for them.”
Tying it all together, Simmons explained, “We collaborate with other programs, and try to promote and support groups in the community, families and individual parents who can get together and share and learn [how to make healthy choices].”