Communities That Care

Posted on March 29, 2012

The “good ‘ole days”….

Some Five Town locals may know my mother, Diane O’Brien, a resident of Lincolnville for over forty years. During much of that time she has been an avid gatherer of local history; interviewing long-time residents, poring over historical documents and photographs, gathering the stories of the town that was. Since I have returned to Lincolnville and begun raising my own family, I have spent a lot of time talking with my mother in the family’s old farmhouse near the Beach. With her interest in history and my work with youth, our conversations have often focused on historical perspectives of adolescents. As my parents could attest, I have always challenged the notion of “the good old days.” I have now lived long enough to hear my peers refer to our own upbringing in the‘70’s and ‘80s as “the good old days”- “when children had Respect.” Baloney.  READ MORE

This entry was contributed by Five Town CTC Board member Ed O’Brien who is a Lincolnville resident and clinician at Harbor Family Services.

Posted on March 26, 2012

A little history…

Previously we had promised to provide more information about the history of Five Town CTC between our start in 2003 and present day. We will pick up the story in this week’s installment  READ MORE

The excerpt above is from our weekly blog, “Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth.” We would love to hear what you think about our Blog posts, and what you would like us to write about.  Please comment directly on the blog site, call our offices (207-236-9800), or email us (info@fivetownctc.org).

Posted on March 22, 2012

Dad, where are my pants?

I am not a great morning dad. Getting my kids ready for and off to school stresses me out. I look for my son’s pants (found in his drawer) as I mutter into my coffee cup. I tell my daughter who is yelling at me from upstairs that her breakfast is ready. With precious few minutes to go before we need to get in the car, I can become a manic impostor of my better self.

At a time when the books “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom” and “Bringing Up Bebe” are grabbing headlines for their portrayals of uber-effective parenting, my book title is “Dad Needs Coffee More Than You Need Pants”, or “Ignore my Morning Whimpering and Please Ace that Math Test.”  READ MORE

The excerpt above is from our weekly blog, “Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth.”  This entry was contributed by Five Town CTC Development Director Alex Owre.  We would love to hear what you think about our Blog posts, and what you would like us to write about.  Please comment directly on the blog site, call our offices (207-236-9800), or email us (info@fivetownctc.org).

Posted on March 9, 2012

Five Town CTC Honors Youth Advocates

Jerry Stone (right) accepts his award from Five Town CTC Board Chair Dick Strong (photo by Peter Russell)

Five Town Communities That Care is pleased to announce the most recent winners of its Youth Advocate Awards.  At the March 8, 2012 Five Town CTC Coalition Network Meeting Board Chair Dick Strong presented Jerry Stone with an individual award for his service to local youth.

In addition to his contributions through his work at Stepping With The Stones Preschool, Mr. Stone was a teacher at Camden-Rockport Middle School for many years, and has served as a pastor for local congregations.  Through the years, Jerry has been a tireless advocate for youth, and strives to empower others to recognize that ALL youth should be valued.

Jo Geddis (center) and Tina Murray (right) accept the Youth Advocate Award on behalf of Bangor Savings Bank

Also honored at the meeting was Bangor Savings Bank, with Camden Branch Manager Jo Geddis, and Assistant Branch Manager Tina Murry accepting the award on behalf of the organization.  Bangor Savings Bank has numerous programs supporting local youth, both through donations and staff volunteer hours.

The Five Town CTC Coalition honors Youth Advocates quarterly.  Selection of nominees to receive the Youth Advocate Award is to be based on one or more of the following criteria:

1) Involved in reducing problem adolescent behaviors (such as substance abuse, suicide, violence, delinquency, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy) among our local youth.

2) Involved in reducing Five Town CTC priority risk factors in the local community.

3) Involved in promoting Five Town CTC priority protective factors in the local community.

4) Fostering increased collaboration and cooperation amongst youth-serving agencies, groups, and businesses in the local community.

5) Fostering improved communication between local youth and their community—including between youth and adults, and between youth and their peers.

6) Providing opportunities for area youth to learn new skills that they can use in service to their community.

If you know of an individual or organization fitting the criteria above please nominate them for the awards.  Nominations can be submitted by emailing the candidate’s name and contact info, along with a statement of why you feel they should receive the award to info@fivetownctc.org.

Five Town CTC has been working since 2003 to promote healthy youth development and to reduce the incidence of problem adolescent problem behaviors such as substance abuse, suicide, violence, delinquency, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy.  The organization provides direct service programming, support for other agencies providing prevention programming, public information, training, and technical assistance related to its mission.  For more information about Five Town CTC, visit www.fivetownctc.org, email info@fivetownctc.org, call 207-236-9800, or stop by the offices at 219 Meadow Street in Rockport.

Posted on March 8, 2012

Project X

Parents are faced with choices when their teens ask to go see a movie with friends…they can say no, they can allow it, or they can to go with them to the movie. When making this decision, I hope parents consider the following:

1) There is quite a bit of evidence that exposure to violence in the media increases violent behavior in youth. There is also a growing body of evidence that shows that exposure to drinking in movies increases the likelihood that youth will engage in underage drinking. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal concludes that reducing the amount of exposure to alcohol marketing and alcohol use in movies would significantly reduce the likelihood that a youth would either begin drinking, or escalate their behavior if they have already experimented with alcohol. (You can read the paper on this at http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000543.full).  READ MORE

The excerpt above is from our weekly blog, “Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth.”  We would love to hear what you think about our Blog posts, and what you would like us to write about.  Please comment directly on the blog site, call our offices (207-236-9800), or email us (info@fivetownctc.org).

Posted on March 5, 2012

March 8 Panel on Juvenile Justice Finalized

Five Town Communities That Care (CTC) is pleased to announce that the final members of the panel on Juvenile Justice scheduled to present at the next Five Town CTC Coalition meeting on Thursday, March 8 have been confirmed.

The mission of Five Town CTC includes prevention of youth violence and delinquency.  Towards that end, we invite community members to come and hear what a group of dedicated juvenile justice professionals feels are the greatest issues facing the youth with whom they come in contact.  The panel will also discuss what our community can do in order to reduce the risk that our youth will become involved in behaviors that may cause them to come into contact with the justice system .  There will be a question and answer session following the presentation.

The presentation will begin at 11:30AM at the John Street Methodist Church in Camden.  The panel members are:

* Chief Ron Young, Lincolnville Police Department

*Roy Curtis, Juvenile Community Corrections Officer

*Lindsay Jones, Maine Assistant District Attorney *

*Edwin Chester, Esq., Juvenile Defense Attorney

*Jeff Morin, Acting Superintendent, Mountain View Youth Center

*Bartlett Stoodley, Associate Commissioner: Juvenile Services, Maine Department of Corrections

This presentation is free and open to the public, but since the event includes lunch (catered by students from the Waldo County Tech Center) RSVPs are requested.  Simply call 207-236-9800, email mentors@fivetownctc.org, or stop by the Five Town CTC offices at 219 Meadow Street before noon on Wednesday to let us know that you will come.

You may be surprised to learn how many youth come into contact with the system here in Maine.  These youth may not all fit the profile of what many community members see as the typical “delinquent.”

Come learn more.  Together, we CAN promote healthy, happy youth.

Posted on March 1, 2012

Murder in the headlines…

In the last week, Five Town CTC staff were saddened to hear of the loss of life at Chardon High School in Ohio and of the murder of Jerry Perdomo right here in the midcoast region.  Our condolences and thoughts go out to all who were affected by these tragedies.  We often use statistics and “trends” in our work, but in following these stories we are reminded that behind every one of those numbers there are families, friends, co-workers, classmates, and communities who have been deeply affected. READ MORE

The excerpt above is from our weekly blog, “Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth.”  We would love to hear what you think about our Blog posts, and what you would like us to write about.  Please comment directly on the blog site, call our offices (207-236-9800), or email us (info@fivetownctc.org).