Green Mountain Tech, Peoples Academy, Lamoille Union High School students and Community Partners at Healthy Lamoille Valley’s Strategic Planning Event on October 24th
On October 24th, Allied Health students from Green Mountain Tech & Career Center, Lamoille Union High School and Peoples Academy, and community partners from schools, youth-serving organizations, and drug & alcohol treatment and recovery services participated in Healthy Lamoille Valley’s Action Planning event at Green Mountain Support Services with the goal of strategically planning to prevent youth alcohol misuse.
We began our last strategic planning event of 2023 with the question: “What brought you here today?” Students responded by sharing that they enjoyed the last strategic planning event and that they care about the issue of preventing youth alcohol misuse. Some of the adult community partners shared their story of alcohol use disorder and recovery and how important they feel it is to prevent young people from using early which increases the chance they will form an alcohol use disorder or addiction later in life. Other adults shared that they are concerned about all the youth-friendly alcohol products that have taken over local stores and others shared concerns about the prevalence and norm of alcohol at community and family events and the impact it has on youth misuse.
During the session we looked at Lamoille county data and identified local conditions (a snapshot of who is doing what, where) and root causes (but, why?) of youth alcohol misuse. Participants came up with dozens of local conditions of where youth alcohol misuse is happening, how it is accessed, and the social and community norms that reinforce it. Out of these, the group prioritized the following 5 local conditions:
- High school students sneak alcohol into school and drink during or around big school events and end of year
- It is the social norm to consume alcohol at parties
- High school students are getting alcohol with fake ID at convenience stores – bringing it to parties
- Access from parents/family members/older friends (either by permission, by stealing) typically around family and social events
- Some teachers appear to be inconsistent when enforcing school policies (or there is insufficient enforcement) at events
The group came up with strategic actions to address these priorities. Next steps include finding hard data on these local conditions that we can track over time.
We are excited that these youth and adult community members truly care about the health and well-being of youth and the whole community. We know that we carry this work together and we are so grateful to all of the community members who do the day-to-day work of making Lamoille Valley a more healthy and connected community!
“I continue to be very impressed at the level of engagement of the students and their willingness to participate…I see this building their self-esteem and confidence. Something to build upon is peer-support… I feel like we have leaders in this area.” – Shannon Carchidi, Executive Director, North Central Vermont Recovery Center
“Student voice is really remarkable. Young people had self-identified they had enjoyed being at the last one and that’s why they came back…[they are] Interested and invested in this topic.[The student voice] brings a level of genuineness and authenticity to our work. A lot can be accomplished from peer support and people that are passionate about this work and out of the kindness and sincerity of their heart want to make a difference and provide a space.”- Dave McAllister, Executive Director/CEO, Laraway Youth & Family Services
“The engagement from the youth that came was really, really good. I wasn’t expecting that level of engagement right off the bat.” – Nate Bickford, Lamoille Union High School student
“I learned that alcohol abuse is a big issue in our society…especially in our area. It’s empowering to be able to come together with our superintendent, law enforcement, and a lot of different important people in our community and work on something that’s very current.” – Brooke, Allied Health student at GMTCC
“I really enjoyed the strategic planning itself, how the issue affects us, and solutions we can experience.” – Laura, Allied Health student at GMTCC