Tuscarawas County Anti-Drug Coalition Meeting
ADAMHS Board Meeting Room
Friday, September 4, 2020

Present:

Briana Bobzien, Trinity Twin City Community Outreach
Ron Bond, Tusc Co Farm Bureau
Nicole Dorsey, Tusc Co Health Dept
Terri Edwards, Twin City Chamber Director
William Harding, CIC of Tusc Co
Bill Houglan, Community Member
Gail Houglan, Community Member
Chris Lane, Business/Community
Peggy Leslie, Harcatus-RSVP- Civic Rep
Connie Limbacher, ADC Secretary
Kaily Luthy, Personal & Family Counseling Services- Youth Led Prevention Facilitator
Kristin Macaulay, Community Mental Health
Michaela Madison, Newsymom
Mary Marshall, Community Member
Kerry Metzger, ADC Chairman
Richard Miller, Community Member
Mary Ann Otte, Community Member
Beverly Pearch, Big Brother, Big Sister Executive Director
Miles Riley, Community Mental Health
Jodi Salvo, Personal & Family Counseling Services
Gerald Sanders, Community Member
Diana Smith, Personal & Family Counseling Services
Kelly Snyder, Tusc Co Health Dept
Larry Stitt, Pastor Lake Drive Fellowship
Brock West, Youth To Youth Advisory Board

Meeting Summary:

Kerry Metzger called the Virtual meeting to order at 10:00 AM on Friday, September 4, 2020, with 25 members present. Kelly Snyder made a motion to accept the August minutes as amended with the addition of the Updates on Legislative Bill 669 & 674 “Call to Action” and the correction of Bill Houglan’s Legacy Church to Community Member. Larry Stitt seconded and the vote was unanimous.

Committee Reports:

Executive Committee:

Kerry presented the By-Laws with the revisions needing to be approved. The red is new wording and the lines crossed out are deletions. Changes include: the Steering Committee and Faith Based Committee will now be recognized as Standing Committees. A change was made that OhioGuidestone the Fiscal Agent, will not be required to attend meetings but to provide/submit quarterly financial reports. Meeting minutes will be posted to website after approval and bylaws not define quorums for meetings. Meeting attendance changed from 3 to 5 unexcused absences. Added language was made to recognize Electronic Meetings. Changed Election of Officers to February since we don’t meet in January and the term limits and times changed. This was reviewed and approved unanimously by the steering committee. Larry made a motion to amend Article 6, section 3, #3 by changing line 3 the capital “T ’”to a small “t” and deleting “BOD” and adding “Committee” in its place, with Diana Smith seconding. It was unanimous. Michaela made the motion to adopt the By-Laws with Mary Marshall seconding. Approved unanimously. New by-laws in place following vote.

Alcohol Committee:

Jodi reported in the absence of Veronica on the launching of the “Talk, They Hear You Campaign,” SAMHSA’s underage alcohol prevention campaign, which launched August 24th. Campaign effort included a podcast, press release, email to all schools and ESC with campaign materials and request to share on their social media sites, and campaign is being pushed out on ADC Facebook and website. Committee also created new Alcohol Committee brochure and it is in process of being printed.

Marijuana Committee:

Virtual County Fair surveys: The committee is working on creating a marijuana survey to continue to collect marijuana trend data that is normally collected at the county fair. Data collected is used by committee to educate and direct efforts. WTUZ has agreed to promote and share survey and coalition members and organizations were asked to also share survey link. Survey will also be promoted at ADC virtual fair that will be held from 6:00-6:30 September 21-26 via Facebook live.

Media Committee:

There were three press releases that have gone out in August so far which include; the Marijuana White Paper, the “Talk They Hear You” Campaign, and a general press release about students returning to school and vaping—for parents and educators. September is expected to be even busier as the media committee will be creating press releases to promote the virtual fair, HOPE Sunday, vaping prevention information, and Hope Project. Media Committee will now submit press releases to Josh Aul to have them placed on the ADC website. ADC members were encouraged to utilize archived press releases on website if ever in need of prevention information or talking points. Kudos to the Media Committee.

Prescription Drug Committee:

Jodi reported for Jeff Neidig. He has done a phenomenal job, as well. He has engaged Sheriff Orvis Campbell to re-start hosting drug take back events. There is one now planned for Bolivar-Giant Eagle Saturday, August 12, that Kay Huth will man, and one scheduled for August 16, at Newcomerstown-Baker’s IGA that Rita Lahmers will man. 7,000-grocery bag inserts were printed to promote effort that will be disseminated the week prior to event. The new materials will be handed out at events to include new flyers, brochures, posters and magnets. The DEA Take Back Day is scheduled for October 24 at Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital, Mercy and Trinity Twin City Hospital. Stark/Wayne/Tusc Recycling pays for the advertising and Darrin Lautenschleger will submit press release. The committee also received another SPF-Rx grant, $13,000 from OhioMAS and will use it to purchase more drug deactivation bags, media buys and videos. The committee is having the home lock boxes personalized and filled (deactivation pouch, brochure, warning label and magnet). Home lock boxes will go to at risk homes and will be distributed through JFS. Conversation at meeting was posed about CMH and OhioGuidestone also disseminating boxes. Committee will discuss developing a procedure to disseminate at next meeting. The committee will work on developing a one-page flyer on those who qualify for those boxes. There is new signage and window clings for those who are passing out the Deterra bags. The PDC is planning to start focus around OTC “Over the Counter” usage and a subcommittee for this has been created.

Tobacco Committee:

Vaping Task Force Update: Kelly reported that the committee met on Aug 24, as a combination of the ADC Tobacco Committee and Vaping Task Force Committee. Future efforts will be on information sharing until schools and businesses open back up. Efforts include emails to school administrators, press releases, and podcasts. Committee will work to determine what information to pump out and share with parent-teacher groups, social media pages, Twin City Chamber of Commerce, virtual fair, radio stations, and churches. Committee is looking into having members of committee becoming trainer of trainers for “Catch My Breath” vaping prevention program. At meeting a discussion about health equity and disparity of populations occurred. We then discussed having targeted efforts at Mako’s, food banks and “Tuff Bags” backpack program as areas to disseminate information. Next meeting to be held will be on September 28 at 10am.

Old Business:

None

Youth:

Kayli Luthy and Brock West reported that the YLP has been meeting via zoom and at the park over the summer. Kayli hopes to get back into the schools. Brock reported that being back into school is horrible. As a senior, he feels Y2Y might need to focus on mental health. They aren’t permitted to attend sporting or other events like prom, and since they didn’t get to last year, it is hard on the students. Dover will be having Zoom meetings. Tuscarawas Central Catholic mentioned that they are in a lot of chaos but would love to have them in the school. Most schools hope to allow them back after a couple of weeks. The kids are really wanting to be a part and not forgotten. Kerry asked that Brock have the YAB students come up with ideas of how the ADC could help. Miles expressed that substance abuse and trauma tie into mental health. The youth want to speak not only to other youth, but possibly start talking to the parents regarding what the youth are feeling and needing.

Faith Based Efforts:

Jodi reported HOPE Sunday is underway. It will be held September 27. A letter and an email has been sent out to area pastors. Connie is working with volunteers to call on all churches in the county. This year we are doing some data collection to ask churches re recovery programs, youth programs, clothes closets, etc. Year one we focused on Stigma Reduction; Year 2 was Reaching out and this year we are going to encourage churches to bring hope to communities impacted by increased issues around mental health and drug addiction. Tuscarawas County has experienced a 283% increase in drug overdose deaths in the first six months of 2020. Ask your churches to participate and if you can volunteer it would involve calling area churches, your help is welcomed. The video is being shot this week, so delivery date isn’t set yet. Each church will get the video, bulletin inserts with prayer requests and area resources on it and a pastor’s script that can be used before and after the video is shown will all be part of the bags handed out to the churches. Connie reported that we had approximately 100 churches participate last year. She googled the cities and added the churches that weren’t a part of the T-4-C church directory so if we reach out to all of them, we could have 194 participating. Faith Based Committee Members—Larry is trying to get area pastors involved to meet monthly probably on Tuesdays.

Overdose-mental health/silhouette project (October 1-24)

Jodi reported that we received $25,000 from the Governor’s Faith Based offices that we are going to put funding towards HOPE Sunday media and another project which will be called “Project HOPE” which will run October 1-25. This will be in partnership with the Addiction Task Force, which was formerly the Opiate Task Force—we will have silhouettes that are being made right now by Choice One and Crafted Elements- construction companies. They are making 30 life-size wooden silhouettes. We will be putting three up in nine Tuscarawas County communities. There will be three different colors, black representing overdose deaths, and gray with yellow ribbon representing overdoses not resulting in death and a yellow one representing HOPE. There will also be a yard sign that will accompany silhouettes promoting where a person can go for help-agencies and phone numbers. The remainder of the funds will be for media for this project. Representatives from the governor’s office will be invited to attend a press conference in New Philadelphia with other government officials from our county at the beginning of the campaign. We want a highly visible campaign that can create awareness, educate and share resources in the county. On October 25, we will bring at the silhouettes to the NP courthouse to have a community event. Details to follow.

Legislative UPDATES:

House Bill 674 & 669—Revises Ohio Liquor laws—Kerry reported that it has had Proponent testimony in the Senate Ag committee. Interested party and opponent testimony may be held in several weeks. Jodi, Chris Lane and Kerry are currently preparing opponent testimony. We have made contact with the chairman of the committee thru Jerry Lahmers who has a relationship with the chair to schedule a meeting with the chair next week to voice our concerns on HB’s. While the bills are in the Senate, we have also made contact with the House members again to again express our concerns. We have already had a meeting with Rep Ginter and he recommended 8-10 House members who may be interested in our cause. We have composed a letter to these members identifying our concerns and requesting meetings with them. It will be sent to them soon. These HB’s have many issues of concern around alcohol expansion that could create harm to our youth and communities.

Call to Action:

Federal bill called the Moore Act to commercialize and legalize under social justice. Legalizing recreational marijuana does not really help social justice as a nation. If you look at States that do have recreational dispensaries, they are often placed in the poorest communities. The communities that are already saturated with liquor retailers, cash advance and bail bonds stores. Placing dispensaries in poor communities does not make sense for social justice reform. You can follow the states that have legalized that their stats have increased. Write or call your representative and senators using the SAM’s example or use your own. “Smart Approaches to Marijuana”. If you send a letter, send as an individual not as an ADC member.

Peggy made a motion to Adjourn and all voted yes at 11:40 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 October 2nd from 10:00-11:30 am.