Tuscarawas County Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting

ADAMHS Board Meeting Room

Friday, February 5, 2021

Present:

Briana Bobzien, Trinity Twin City Community Outreach

Ron Bond, Tusc Co Farm Bureau

Jodi Dean, MAOL Sunrise Vista Health

Nicole Dorsey, Harcatus, Planner

William Harding, CIC of Tusc Co

Kiersten Heckel, OSU Extension

Bill Houglan, Community Member

Gail Houglan, Community Member

Jennifer Kiko, Representative for Congressman Bob Gibbs

Peggy Leslie, Harcatus-RSVP- Civic Rep

Connie Limbacher, ADC Secretary

Kayli Luthy, OhioGuidestoe – Youth Led Prevention Facilitator- Youth Serving Rep 

Kristin Macaulay, Community Mental Health-AOD Rep

Mary Marshall, Community Member

Kerry Metzger, ADC Chairman

Jeff Neidig, Mediwise Pharmacy 

Autumn Poland Tusc Co Health Dept

Miles Riley, Community Mental Health

Jodi Salvo, OhioGuidestone

Jessica Sexton, OhioGuidestone – Youth Led Prevention Facilitator

Diana Smith, OhioGuidestone

Ruth Koenigsmark-Snow, Community Assessment

Kelly Snyder, Tusc Co Health Dept

Veronica Spidell, ADAMHS Board

Brock West, TCC Youth-to-Youth, Tusc Youth Advisory Board- Youth Rep

Adam Wilgus, Tusc Co Juvenile Court Judge

Meeting Summary:

Kerry Metzger called the Virtual meeting to order at 10:03 AM on Friday, February 5, 2021, with 25 members present. He started off the meeting with a history question with a gift card give away to the person who first knew the answer. Bill Harding answered correctly and won the first $10 gift card. Diana Smith made a motion to accept the November 2020 minutes. Kelly Snyder seconded and the vote was unanimous. 

Committee Reports:

Executive Committee: Kerry reported on the January 11 Steering Committee meeting—He wasn’t able to attend the meeting but reported off of meeting minutes. The Steering Committee is in the process of assessing and evaluating coalition function, as to what can we do better and/or needs to be changed. Some examples of their discussion included how the coalition will re-start once we are able to meet in person. Ideas included having a fair/gathering which committees could set up tables and share info and new resources, or hosting a coalition volunteer recognition event. Discussions were held around building capacity by inviting podcast participants to consider joining ADC, have introductions at virtual meetings, and utilize breakout rooms at virtual meetings, to allow more member participation, utilize zoom polls, have an evaluation poll at the end of meetings or send out a Survey Monkey evaluation after meetings. Jodi attempted to send ADC meeting attendees to one of four randomly assigned breakout rooms to discuss five questions around these issues, but was not successful. Being unable to do that during the meeting, we will re-visit this conversation and work out problem with breakout rooms for future meetings. 

Alcohol Committee: Veronica Spidell reported that she has applied for a stipend from SAMSHA Communities Talk to Host an Event in March/April with a national speaker. We are hoping to secure Jessica Nichols-Hulsey from Addiction Policy Forum. Information on this event will follow next Alcohol Committee meeting. The Ohio Investigative Alcohol Server Knowledge (ASK) Training is being placed into a virtual format. We hope to be able to offer this training once it is available, to liquor license holders in Tuscarawas County. They thought this would take a couple of months, so Veronica will follow up with OIU in May to see if it is available. The next Alcohol Committee meeting will be held on February 22 at 3:00PM. Then, beginning in March, the Alcohol Committee will meet on a regular basis on the 3rd Monday at 1:00PM.

Marijuana Committee: Jodi reported for Alex that the Marijuana Committee would be meeting February 22 at 10:00 AM. He will send out a meeting link. This meeting will be focusing on 2021 action plan to reduce youth marijuana use. Anyone wishing to be a part of the committee please contact Connie and she will place you on the Marijuana Committee email list. If you are not on a committee please consider joining as we need as much involvement as possible, as the current recreational legalization efforts across the United States are concerning and will impact youth use. Lawrence Township Trustee Meeting—Lawrence Twp. was approached about placing a medical marijuana dispensary off 212 at Wilkshire Golf course. The ADC had a strong presence at the township meeting, which included Jodi, Kerry, Alex, Mark Murphy and Dick and they were able to educate and inform about our concerns about having a dispensary in Tuscarawas County, especially when persons can access two dispensaries in Stark County and one of them just 12 miles away from the Lawrence township building. We have since been contacted by a township trustee stating that they are no longer considering a dispensary in that location, and it is now off the table. It was evident that the trustees were not well informed about the Ohio Medical Marijuana program and it did demonstrate the power of the ADC to educate, inform and advocate. Kerry asked that we be mindful of issues that arise in the county where advocacy is needed to protect our young people from issues around substance use.

Media Committee: Michaela writes approximately four press releases a month. Diana will be emailing the ADC members, as she does with the ADC newsletter, when press releases occur and with copies of purchased newsprint and billboard ads. This will increase transparency in ADC efforts, keep members informed and act as a reminder to members to share efforts on your agency/organization and personal social media sites. 

Prescription Drug Committee: The committee met on January 18, and continues to identify distribution partners for lock boxes. Jeff mentioned reaching out to relators and collaborating with them on educating their clients on safe storage of medications when showing homes. Over-the-Counter Medication Safety: The education resources were given out at the January school principals meeting and they were provided a link to access the material from Johnson & Johnson to include grade schools curriculum. The committee needs to look at the adult piece on the importance of teaching young persons to read labels and to underscore the proper use of O-T-C medications. These efforts are vital, so persons/young people are not over using, which can lead to the use and abuse of prescription medications, i.e., if “one doesn’t work; two is better and three is fantastic!” we don’t want that mind set. The Prescription Drug Committee meets on the 3rd Monday of the month at 10:00 AM.

Youth: Kayli Luthy congratulated Brock West for receiving a scholarship that was available in 42 different countries, and thousands of people apply each year, and he was one of twenty chosen. He made sure to write a lot about his involvement in Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y), Youth Advisory Board (YAB) and the ADC and the opportunities that have been provided to him from his involvement in these groups. He believes that played a huge role in him getting this scholarship. Also, thanks to Brock, as he was the only youth from Ohio present at this week’s CADCA Forum and he attend and spoke at a senator and congressional representative’s appointment. YAB has been discussing several projects to include a youth podcast. They have been working with Dover-Phila Federal Credit Union (DPFCU) to start with their Bonzai Program mentoring—teaching young people how to save money and be financially stable. The high schoolers are going to look at the program and answer questions from student in elementary school about how the high schoolers spend their money, or what they would have liked to known, when they were younger. They are also staring to plan for National Drug and Alcohol Facts week efforts. Kerry commended Brock on attending the Legislative Day with Senator Portman and Congressman Gibbs. Brock and Kayli did report on The Scavenger Hunt project at TCC and is a project being explored by other Y2Y groups. For this project posters and facts are being displayed all around the schools, and in order to participate in the scavenger it requires students to read all the posters. Three winners from TCC were selected and given $5 gift cards that had been donated. Jessica Sexton also expressed how she is enjoying seeing the work come full-circle, as she was a students involved in Y2Y and YAB prior to being hired to work in youth led prevention and she is inspired by the student’s creativeness.

Tobacco Committee: Vaping Task Force Update: Kelly introduced Autumn Poland who will be taking Nicole’s position on the Tobacco Committee. She was introduced at the January 11 meeting. During that meeting, they updated the Vaping Task Force Action Plan to reflect changes that were made due to COVID. They also discussed offering the evidence based prevention education program “Catch My Breath” to the schools. Jodi provided information to the principals at the January school principal meeting on the vaping task force, resources, and on the Catch My Breath program. Jodi and Diana are already trained to teach this, two staff from the Tuscarawas County Health Department, two staff from the Educational Service Center and four staff from OhioGuidestone’s Prevention Department will be trained in the next few months. This will build capacity to offer support and training throughout Tuscarawas County on this issue. Claymont will be the first school to do the podcast which they will be talking with Jodi regarding vaping—what they are seeing what they are doing—with the hope to do this with many of the other schools in Tuscarawas County.  Autumn is working on the resource button that will be discussed at the February 10 meeting and when approved will be shared will be offered to all districts to provide education and resources such as the Ohio Quit Line for easy access to all students. 

Old Business:

ADC December/January efforts: Jodi updated that during the holidays the ADC was very active with press releases, billboards, The Outreacher, Times Reporter, Bargain Hunter and with podcasts. Again, Diana will start sharing ads and efforts in real time via the Smores newsletter platform. Advocacy Boot Camp: Both Kerry and Jodi were chosen and attended a bi-monthly training from November through January 22. Only ten people from Ohio were selected to go through this program offered by Prevention Action Alliance. Both Jodi and Kerry though it was a great learning experience and they both feel much more equipped in advocacy at a state level. We would like to see the ADC become even more involved in advocacy efforts and the Executive and Steering Committee will be discussing how we can better prepare ADC members in advocacy, more to come on this issue. Jennifer Kiko encouraged everyone to get involved in advocacy. She said what we are doing in Tuscarawas County is not happening in other counties in Ohio. We are being noticed not only at the state level but also the federal level. We are needed to give out the facts for laws and funding. She expressed her thanks to the ADC and having us to continue communicating with Congressman Gibbs. Connie shared her contact info. Jodi also asked Jennifer to do a podcast at her convenience.  Connie gave kudos to Chris Lane who was also a part of our advocacy efforts at the Ohio state house with the recent HB’s on alcohol expansion representing the business sector as restaurant business owner. 

New Business:

General Price, President and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA): He will be present at our next ADC meeting. Please encourage attendance at this meeting. He is a dynamic speaker, new to this position and it is an honor and privilege that he will be attending our meeting.

Public Speaks: Adam Wilgus will be sworn into as Juvenile Court judge on February 9. He is welcoming of ways that he can support prevention efforts in the courts. Kerry mentioned that he would like to get with him and discuss some of the current issues. Jodi Dean spoke regarding Sunrise Vista Health and its inpatient psychiatric, dual diagnosis, intensive outpatient, community walk in component. They will also be opening up a geriatric unit at the end of February, please contact J. Dean for more information about their services.

Dick made a motion to Adjourn and all voted yes at 11:17 AM. Kerry expressed how enthused he is with the coalition and the direction the coalition is moving in the community.

Next Board Meeting will be a virtual meeting on March 5th from 10:00-11:30 am.