1Direction Prevention Coalition held their first Key Leader meeting at Four Corners Community Behavioral Health located in Castle Dale. Niki Allred, 1Direction Coalition Community Coordinator, began by thanking everyone for coming and taking on the role of being a key leader.
Blair Tobolski, liaison from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Use Prevention Team, was the first guest speaker. Tobolski discussed the importance of laying the framework for prevention. She discussed the importance of creating that framework through children’s elementary years.
“We’ve seen through many studies that youth who are located in communities that utilize the CTC (Communities That Care) framework are less likely to initiate tobacco by 33%, alcohol by 32% and delinquent behavior by 25%”, stated Tobolski.
Key Leaders were shown a slideshow discussing the immense changes in prevention that have been made over the years. It was discussed that identifying the risk factors that children are dealing with allows community leaders to address those and implement programs to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors.
The 1Direction Prevention Coalition was created to identify community needs and then to help in those areas. The coalition is in the process of adding community members who can offer a helpful insight into the needs of the community, who can also help support existing programs and create new ones.
For those interested in joining the 1Direction Prevention Coalition contact Niki Allred at (435) 637-7200.