Five Town Communities That Care » News and Events

Binge Drinking: Not just having a good time

dalene — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:29:00 +0000

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a fascinating report on binge drinking in the United States. We been concerned about the increase in this behavior amongst our local youth, but it appears that drinking to excess is a problem that affects many Americans of all ages.

The data reveals that one in six American adults binge drink, and that they do so about 4 times a month (weekends, perhaps?). Rates in Maine are on the high end of the national range, where between 18% and 26% of adults binge drink. The number of drinks Maine binge drinkers consume is also on the higher end of the range…7.8 to 9 drinks per episode. 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).

Why NOT to ask, “Is your homework done yet?”

dalene — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:58:29 +0000

This week’s blog entry is by our Executive Director, Dalene Dutton. Here is an excerpt:

Although my three children are all adults now, I remember the nightly family rituals around homework well. As a working mother, evenings were crammed with things needing to be done. Usually, one of the tasks for my kids was school assignments. The task for me was to be available to help if they needed it, which was not always easy. READ MORE

We would love to hear what you think about our 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).

Come Have Fun With Other Parents!

dalene — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:07:07 +0000

Yes, it IS a parent workshop…but it really is FUN!

Another round of Guiding Good Choices will be offered on Tuesday evenings in March to parents of students in grades 5 through 9 in the five-town area.

Each Tuesday evening session begins with a dinner for all the families from 5:00 to 5:30. Yes, we provide everything! Then at 5:30 the parents and kids separate. The kids stay with two experienced childcare providers and receive homework help, play board games, work on puzzles, or draw. The parents gather together for the workshop portion of the evening. Each of the five sessions focuses on a different topic. Although the topics are serious, the program is interactive in nature and incorporates discussion and group activities. Parents learn a lot in a fun and relaxed setting.

GGC is not an intervention program. Guiding Good Choices is a tested and effective prevention program proven to enhance parenting skills and parent-child communication. Feedback from participants shows that by the end of the program parents feel that they have acquired more skills to improve family management practices, to increase bonding in the family unit, to assist children in resisting peer influence, and to network with other parents to continue the dialogue started in the workshop.

For more information, call Five Town Communities That Care at 236-9800 or email mentors@fivetownctc.org.

Registration forms are available at http://www.fivetownctc.org/programs/guiding-good-choices/

Embracing the positive in prevention

dalene — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:56:29 +0000

This week’s blog entry is penned by Five Town CTC’s new staff member Alex Owre, who is a parent of two students who attend Appleton Village School. Here is an excerpt from this week’s post:

“When my daughter came home from school last year asking me to sign her up for STAR, I confess I knew very little about the social-development theory behind the program. What I did know was that parents whose children had been in STAR tended to rave about it.” READ MORE

This week’s blog by Adam K.

dalene — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:51:33 +0000

This week’s blog entry is penned by Five Town CTC Board member Adam Kohlstrom, who is also the pastor of Chestnut Street Baptist Church. The faith community here has been an important part of the success of our efforts, and Adam has been active with the coalition and its efforts since we got started when he was a youth pastor. Here is an excerpt from this week’s post:

“While the faith community seems increasingly comfortable with and competent in its support for those healing from substance abuse, how are we doing at prevention? Prevention seems a far more elusive and insubstantial goal. It is easier to grasp how we treat substance use problems than how it is we might prevent those same problems in the first place.” READ MORE

Today’s blog entry

dalene — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:36:31 +0000

This week’s blog compares birthing classes (like Lamaze) to parenting workshops (like Guiding Good Choices). Here is an excerpt:

Parenting workshops and classes for parents seem—to us—to fall in the same category as birthing classes. They provide information about common problems encountered when raising children, provide an opportunity to share ideas with other parents, and provide coaches who model techniques that parents may find useful in given situations. Taking a parenting workshop doesn’t imply that you can’t parent, any more than taking a Lamaze class implies that a woman couldn’t have a baby without it. You can successfully parent a child through their adolescent years without taking a parenting workshop, but doing so has been shown to increase the likelihood that these years can be navigated with less conflict. READ MORE

How the Five Town community got started with CTC…

dalene — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:59:08 +0000

This week’s blog installment begins to tell the story of our local CTC efforts. Here is an excerpt:

Based on feedback received via email over the last couple of weeks, we decided it might be a good idea to provide a brief summary of how Five Town CTC got started. SO, here goes:

Back in 1997 researchers at the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG) began a study called Diffusion of State Risk/Protective-Focused Prevention—The Diffusion Project for short. Dr. Richard Catalano and Dr. J. David Hawkins were interested to learn how communities made decisions about the strategies they use to prevent youth problem behaviors such as substance abuse, violence, delinquency, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy. READ MORE

We welcome suggestions for topics for our blog, and encourage you to join the conversation by commenting on our entries! If you have questions, contact Dalene Dutton by calling 207-236-9800 or emailing dalene@fivetownctc.org.

Why “Good Job” isn’t necessarily good enough

dalene — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:25:14 +0000

This week’s addition to the weekly blog, “Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth” is available for viewing. This post delves a bit deeper into the kind of recognition we provide to young people. Here is an excerpt:

If students feel that positive feedback is generalized or—even worse—not accurate, they may become skeptical and alienated…and actually less likely to become bonded to those delivering what they feel is false or empty praise. They may discount future statements meant to be positive and hear only the criticisms. READ MORE

Holiday office schedule

dalene — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:33:26 +0000

The offices of Five Town CTC in Rockport will be closed from Monday, December 26th through Monday, January 2. We will reopen on Tuesday morning, January 3rd, at 9AM.

Newest blog entry: “Skills+Opportunities+Recognition=Bonding”

dalene — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:29:29 +0000

This week’s Fostering A Community That Cares About Youth entry is about how important having opportunities where young people can learn new skills and be recognized for their learning is. Here is an excerpt:

Praise, recognition, positive attention…we all crave it. Even people who don’t like to be in the spotlight want to know that they and their contributions are appreciated—it is a basic human desire. Coaches and teachers have long known that recognition plays a major role as young people develop new skills. We also now know that recognition plays a role as young people develop standards for their own behaviors. READ MORE