HEY! (Helping Empower Youth Together – Hillsboro), is partnering with the Hillsboro Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)  for a first ever nationwide (and 2nd annual Hillsboro)  prescription and over the counter drug turn in event. This event will feature cities all over Oregon as well as other states joining together to keep our homes and children safer.  For more information on this event and to find the location nearest you if it isn’t Hillsboro, or encourage your family and friends all over the US to participate please check out the DEA website; http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.htm. 

This event will feature drug abuse education, information of the environmental concerns of the disposal of drugs, and tips to lock up your meds to prevent abuse by teens and others.  Brand new prescription drug lock boxes will be raffled throughout the day, or you can purchase one for $20.00 and have it to take home with you!  Check out the lock box below;

Police Officers along with evidence technicians will accept all non-liquid prescription and non-prescription drugs from the public and package them for proper destruction at an approved facility.

Rx Flyer

A special thanks to the panelists; Andy Cartmill – Washington County Addiction Services, Steve Vuylsteke – Hillsboro Police Department, Kim Chadwick – Pacific University, Sue Boucher – Hillsboro Parks and Recreation, Rachael Holley- Washington County Juvenile Department and Janeen Sollman – Hillsboro School District Board for taking time to come and share their expertise and stories with all of us.  Below is their information if you’d like to follow-up and contact them.

We appreciate everyone who volunteered in helping set up and take down the event.

Thanks also to our raffle prize contributors; Park Lanes, LA Boxing and Hillsboro Parks and Recreation and to our event hosts; Steve Krautscheid with Tuality Health Education Center, and Pizza Schmizza for giving us such a great deal on dinner. Be sure to thank them if you’re using their services!

Thanks go out to Beth Graser with Hillsboro School District Communications department and our high school Grad Night Committees who helped us spread the word to parents and students.  And special thanks also to Diane Keller from the Hillsboro High School Grad Night committee, who not only manned the Grad Night table but also helped with check in and clean up.

It’s obvious that the community cares about underage drinking!  We look forward to working more with all of you in tackling this very important issue!  Please contact us for more information if you are interested in hearing about more events like this one!

Here are some pictures from the event!

HEY STOP Flyer

Join HEY on April 28th, 2010 from 6-7pm at the STOP Underage Drinking! Town Hall event at the Tuality Health and Education Center located right next to Tuality Hospital in downtown Hillsboro.  This is one of nearly 2,000 town halls being held in communities across the country! The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is working with other organizations at the national, state, and local levels to sponsor these town hall events.

Parents and students are invited to join in a discussion with experts from the Hillsboro Police Department, Washington County Juvenile Department, Washington County Addiction Services, Hillsboro Parks and Recreation, Pacific University, and the Hillsboro School District. The discussion will center on how everyone can play a role in reducing alcohol use by our youth, with a special focus on our graduating seniors who will soon be attending their senior proms, grad nights, graduation ceremonies and parties. Presenters will provide information about what parents and other community members can do to help keep our young adults safe and healthy during this special time and as they move into adulthood.

GRAD NIGHT DISCOUNTS!!!  Parents of current HSD seniors (graduating this year) who attend will be given a 25% discount off their senior’s grad night ticket. If both a parent and the senior attend, a total 50% discount will be given! If the grad night ticket has already been purchased, they will receive a refund for the percentage from their Grad Night Committee, sponsored by HEY!

Raffle prizes including fitness and gym memberships, free bowling and batting cages, and other locally-sponsored gifts! Pizza dinner provided.  For more information call 503-681-5363.

HEY! (Helping Empower Youth Together – Hillsboro), is partnering with the Hillsboro Police Department and the Oregon Medical Association Alliance (OMAA)  for a first ever statewide prescription and over the counter drug turn in event. This event will feature 31 cities from around the state joining together to keep our homes and children safer.

“Unwanted and unneeded drugs sitting in medicine cabinets and around the house pose a serious danger for abuse and accidental ingestion by children. I encourage you to drop them off for destruction.” – Chief Lila Ashenbrenner.

This event will feature drug abuse education, information of the environmental concerns of the disposal of drugs, and tips to lock up your meds to prevent abuse by teens and others.

Police Officers along with evidence technicians will accept all non-liquid prescription and non-prescription drugs from the public and package them for proper destruction at an approved facility.

For information see flyer:

For a Downloadable PDF in English and Spanish click here:  RXFLYERFINAL2SIDED

In facilitating a community assessment, HEY! wanted to help address the growing concerns of substance use by our youth.  We wanted to help define our communities needs, address gaps in current resources, and establish a baseline for our work.

In 2009 a community assessment committee collected, analyzed, and evaluated data from the greater Hillsboro area about youth attitudes and behaviors regarding substance use and abuse.  Local, state and national demographic information was reviewed.  Included in the assessment were responses from high school Student Focus Groups and Key Informant interviews with school counselors and administrators, law enforcement agency officials, Washington County Juvenile Department staff, and substance abuse treatment professionals.  Also included is information and data about local and school policies related to youth substance abuse.

Below you will find the link to a PDF version of our 2009 Report on youth substance abuse.  We hope you find this information engaging and if you’d like to get more information, or find out how you can get involved, please contact us!

HEY Report On Youth Substance Abuse in Hillsboro, OR: HEY 2009 Report

If you’d like to view the PowerPoint presentation that was provided to our community leaders at our November leaders forum, please see below. 

Hillsboro Leaders Forum on Alcohol and Drug Use in Youth PowerPoint Presentation

January 25, 2010 7:00-8:30pm
Tuality Health Education Center Auditorium
334 SE 8th Avenue, Hillsobro OR

To download and print English version from PDF: TH Flyer Color – 2Up 4Printing

To download and print Spanish version from PDF: Save the Date Flyer Span bw 2-up

The Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) define environmental strategies as such;

Environmental strategies seek to:
(1) Limit access to substances
(2) Change the culture and contexts within which decisions about substance use are made
(3) Reduce the prevalence of negative consequences associated with substance use  (such as motor vehicle crashes, sexual assaults, etc.)

Thus the purpose of the Drug Free Communities Grant monies are to strengthen the capacity of coalitions to reduce and prevent substance abuse in the community by generating positive, lasting environmental change.

So What?  How will this affect my community?

When a local coalition talks about implementing these changes the intent is to really alter the framework in which substance abuse is looked at.  We all know that substance abuse happens for many reasons.  So the idea that substance abuse can be tackled by one program or strategy (building a rec center), is inconsistent with how real world prevention works.  Kaleen Deatherage, Vice President of Programs for Oregon Partnership gave me a great analogy, “to tackle plaque build up, or to prevent cavities, we are practicing prevention.”   Currently, we have things like week long activities in schools focused solely on engaging our students and parents around substance abuse…but then what?  If you put a concerted effort into brushing your teeth for one week and then forgo the brush for the rest of the year, do you think you will prevent cavities, or tartar build up?  NO!!!

What we’re trying to say is that prevention has to happen every day.  It could be the soccer coach who at each practice asks the kids to put their hands over their hearts and promise to not to engage in any activities that embarrass themselves, their parents or their community.  It could be a youth minister at a place of worship talking to the youth about how having self respect means not putting substances into your body that you know cause harm.  It could be parents asking every time their kid goes out; who what where and when.  All of these are prevention strategies and all people engaged in these activities are prevention specialists!  When a community rallies around a specific cause, and decides it will be on their collective agenda, it means that policies and practices can be put into place that fundamentally change that community.

For example, lets say I found out that a liquor store on the corner has alcoholic energy drinks placed right next to non-alcoholic energy drinks.  After doing a survey by youth, it was determined that often times kids will place those drinks in their parents baskets without them even knowing they have alcohol in them and will purchase them.  Asking the vendor to change the layout of the store is an environmental strategy and should be looked at for all of the vendors.  Same goes for advertising.  We have plenty of studies showing that advertising at a certain eye-level is specifically targeted at kids.  We can ask vendors to change their advertising habits.   This category falls into the first strategy; limiting access.  You could also work with local vendors on training their staff to identify fake IDs, and positively reinforce the work of those vendors by asking the community to support them financially since they care about underage drinking and are changing their stores to help the community tackle that problem.

Changing the cultural context on substance abuse could mean having open an honest discussions with community leaders about how alcohol plays a role in community events.  Is it necessary to have alcohol sponsorship at every fair?  Is it necessary to have races (bike or running) sponsored by alcohol where the winners receive; you guessed it, alcohol?  If you want to have beer gardens, how can you make it very clear to youth the boundaries of which drinking is acceptable?  How do you engage the community to talk about something that usually falls on the plates of parents or teachers who are often ill-equipped for the conversation?

The anti-tobacco advertising campaign of the past 20 years is a perfect example of changing the cultural context.  We went from having movie stars glamorizing the smoking habit, women using it to stay thin during pregnancy, etc.. to buildings with 25ft buffers where you can’t smoke, no smoking on planes, restaurants or bars (in some states) and just a generally accepted belief that smoking is bad for the people who do it and to the people around them.  It took a good 20-30  years to have this campaign actually materialize in less adults smoking and less young people becoming smokers.

The trouble with alcohol in particular is that we are not prohibitionists.  We are not asking communities to get “dry.”  We are saying that if you are not 21 you should not be drinking.  If you’re under 25 you’re brain is still developing and the consumption of alcohol or other substances can affect that development.  And we are saying that as a community you should care that youth are given the best possible information to help them make better decisions which in turn helps to create a citizenry that is healthier; physically and mentally!

Finally, instituting the first and second strategy will then hopefully affect the third.  In the long run what we really want is to have less car accidents from drunk drivers, less children born with fetal alcohol syndrome, less hospitalizations from accidents happening from substance abuse, less kids dropping out of school, less spousal or child abuse, etc.  There is a laundry list of things that are positively affected when a community engages its citizenry to make better choices for their youth.

In coming full circle, and to add a little green speak in ending this conversation; planting a seed, giving it lots of sunshine and fresh air and water, will hopefully create a plant that is healthy and thriving, very much like we hope to do with our youth.

We want to thank all of the HILLSBORO vendors who participated in this year’s Prom Perfect Campaign:

Thank You Prom Perfect Partaners!

How your donations help:

Community assessment and research

HEY! works with various sectors in the community to find out what alcohol and drug prevention in Hillsboro is all about.

Community coalition and partnership building

HEY! brings the community together to make a safer and healthier place for our youth!

Prevention programs in your schools

Programs like Guiding Good Choices; a five part parent course is in Hillsboro School Districts because of the work of the coalition

Posted by Angella Foret Diehl, Special to The Oregonian April 22, 2009 15:00PM

With prom nights on the way, area businesses, community drug and alcohol coalitions and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have teamed up to promote the Prom Perfect campaign, “for a safe and sober prom night.”

“Prom Perfect messages, featured on posters, wallet-sized cards and clothes hangers, are being made available for use in stores, restaurants and limousines as well as with tuxedos, dresses, corsages and other prom-related products,” according to the coalition Web site (www.promperfect.org).

Parents and friends can participate by sending text messages via the Prom Perfect Web site to their prom-goers, encouraging them to have an alcohol- and drug-free night.

Prom Perfect is a joint effort of Beaverton Together!, Helping Empower Youth Together! and Tigard Turns the Tide.

– Angella Foret Diehl: angellaforet@gmail.com

Next Board Meeting to be held at HSD Administrative Offices on Thursday, October 8th , 2009.