A fifth grader admitted to drinking alcohol.
While San Benito County does not have astoundingly noticeable
high rates of substance abuse, community leaders and organizations
are getting together to confirm there is a problem and find
solutions.
”
The goal is to get people to acknowledge that we have a problem
and to come up with ideas of how to prevent it from getting any
worse,
”
said Lucia Aguilar-Navarro, community liaison with the San
Benito Prevention Coalition.
A fifth grader admitted to drinking alcohol.
While San Benito County does not have astoundingly noticeable high rates of substance abuse, community leaders and organizations are getting together to confirm there is a problem and find solutions.
“The goal is to get people to acknowledge that we have a problem and to come up with ideas of how to prevent it from getting any worse,” said Lucia Aguilar-Navarro, community liaison with the San Benito Prevention Coalition.
The coalition has been chosen to host training, support, mentoring and networking opportunities free to the community, a program known as Communities That Care.
The prevention coalition has invited 120 community members to attend one of two workshops Friday, Oct. 10, and Saturday, Oct. 11, to “develop a community-based framework for building positive futures for our children,” Aguilar–Navarro said.
Anyone can attend the workshop. Those who were invited include parents, educators, churches, elected officials and members from the health, police, probation and sheriff’s departments.
“We’re making a big effort to invite as broad sectors of the community as possible,” Aguilar-Navarro said.
Students will be on hand to provide input about tobacco, drug and alcohol abuse – how much of a problem it is, how accessible the drugs are, etc.
To her knowledge, Aguilar-Navarro said she doesn’t know of any other community-mobilizing efforts to abate drug, alcohol and tobacco use among the county’s youth.
“Kids as young as fifth grade have admitted to drinking alcohol at least once in their short lifetimes (according to the California Health Kids Survey),” she said. “Alcohol poses the greatest danger (to the county’s youth).”
The community not only needs to address availability and accessibility of such drugs, but must prevent demand. The workshop leader will try to get at the conditions present for risky behavior and those that keep kids out of trouble, Aguilar-Navarro said.
To attend either of the workshops, register by Oct. 6 by calling Aguilar-Navarro at 636-4382 or e-mailing her at
fn*@ga****.com
. The workshops are Oct. 10 and 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hollister School District office, 2690 Cienega Road.
