|
ABOUT
OUR COMMUNITIES • OUR PROGRAMS •
OUR MEETINGS
|

RESOURCES |
Communities
for Children and Youth is a statewide initiative
of the Maine
Children's Cabinet designed to create a partnership between state
government and local communities as they work to prevent poor
outcomes for children and youth and promote positive child and youth
development. The goals of the initiative are to:
- measurably
improve the well-being of children and youth in every Maine
community, and
- increase
educational attainment and achievement levels of all Maine
children and youth.
Communities for Children and Youth
170 State House Station
25 Tyson Drive
Tyson Building 3rd Floor
Augusta, Maine 04333-0170
Phone: 207-287-4377
www.state.me.us/cfc/
|
Communities
for Children is a group of committed people of all ages and backgrounds
working together to, assess needs, prevent poor outcomes, promote the
healthy behavior, well-being, and positive growth of children and youth in
the community, and to evaluate the results of their prevention work over
time.
About Communities for
Children?
What do I have to do to be involved?
Your involvement is essential to the success of the Ellsworth Area
Communities for Children!
To start hearing about our projects and meetings e-mail Communities
for Children at
children@downeasthealth.org
Your involvement can be as much or little as your schedule allows.
You may just come to a meeting and get caught up on what is going on in
your community for children. You can also volunteer for an individual
project or even just bring some of your ideas to the table.
Our
Meetings
Every person has something a little different to share, which is why
we need you to be involved! Our regular meetings are held the fourth
Thursday of every month at 9:00 a.m. Call EAC4C at 667-5304, ext 261 to learn more.
Our Programs
The Zero to Three Coalition
Today more and more we hear about the importance of early brain
development in our children. Infants’ and children’s early
experiences, good and bad, profoundly influence the wiring of their
brains, affecting who they are and who they will become. It is so
important to learn about early brain development in children and what we
can do to help children grow and succeed as they develop. For this
reason the Zero to Three Coalition has dedicated itself to educating
people about this very important topic.
The coalition will offer completely free presentations on the subject
to any interested group. The presentation, entitled "Rethinking the
Brain" is informative and comes complete with visual aids for a
better understanding.
Contact Cathy Jacobs of the Zero to Three Coalition at (207)667-5304
ext, 225 or the local Adult Education Department for more information on these
presentations.
New brain-imaging technology shows us that the crucial time to affect
brain development is during the first three years of life, when
connections and pathways within the brain are increasing with an
astonishing rapidity that will never occur again. It’s important to
know what you can do to make this time the most beneficial it can be for
the children in your life so please join us for a presentation of
"Rethinking the Brain".
Keeping Kids on Track
We are currently working with Assets-Getting To Outcomes for Maine
(A-GTO 4 ME): a control-group research study with 12 communities to
explore the impact of the Getting to Outcomes planning process, paired
with the Developmental Asset Approach, on prevention capacity and
improved alcohol and drug outcomes among youth.
Assets - Getting To Outcomes For Maine
Alcohol
and other drug use among youth is costly for communities. More research
is needed about how to best support community based prevention programs
and how community prevention expertise can inform the research process.
NIDA has funded a 5 year collaboration of the RAND Corporation,
Search Institute and its training division, Vision Training Associates,
Communities for Children and Youth, and the University of Southern Maine
to implement and assess the impact on prevention coalitions, the
combination of two complimentary, community-based interventions:
- Getting To Outcomes (GTO), which enhances community capacity to
complete critical prevention tasks (e.g., evaluation), and
- Developmental Assets, which supports community mobilization and
collaboration to promote positive youth development.
The purpose of the project is to investigate:
- How well is the Assets-GTO intervention delivered, how much is
it used, and what coalitions think about it
- The extent to which the Assets-GTO approach enhances the
prevention capacity (knowledge, attitudes, and skills) of individual
coalition members and the quality of prevention performance; and
- Whether enhanced prevention capacity improves alcohol and drug
outcomes among youth.
Twelve community-based prevention coalitions in Maine (part of
Communities for Children and Youth) will participate. Six
coalitions—determined at random—will receive manuals, training, and
onsite technical assistance consisting of bi-Weekly meetings between A-GTO
4 ME! and key coalition staff. The other six coalitions will continue
practice as usual, but will receive an abbreviated version of the
Assets-GTO intervention near the end of the project. (Map
of participating coalitions.)
A Community Research Workgroup made of coalition representatives will
review all aspects of the study and interim findings and facilitate
dissemination on A-GTO 4 ME!
The project will demonstrate and evaluate strategies to strengthen
the prevention capacity of community organizations that can be used
broadly across many types of programs.
For further information about the study contact
Matthew Chinman at RAND
electronically or by phone at (412) 683-2300, or contact
Susan Savell electronically
at Communities for Children and Youth, or by phone at 207-287-4377.
A new website has been designed for this project:
www.maineassets.net
Search Institute Websites:
Here is a rundown on the current
Search Institute web sites:
www.search-institute.org
Our main web site. A map of initiatives and stories from them can be
found at HCHY Communities under the On-line Communities tab.
www.ParentFurther.com
This web site is designed for parents and parent
educators.ParentFurther helps you do just that: parent further.
Whether it is by providing parentswith everyday steps for raising
successful kids or helping lay the groundwork for open communication
about future challenges, ParentFurther has what parents need.
Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with kids today, ParentFurther
provides a positive, strength-based approach to parenting that
highlights what is right with kids. ParentFurther combines the
scientific approach of research about kids with a familiar and
reassuring voice. Features include a free weekly e-newsletter,
Everyday Parenting Ideas Sign up is at:
www.parentfurther.com/resources/enewsletter/signup Also
available are E-Cards, Conversation Starters and Activity Tips.
www.IgniteSparks.org
This web site supports our new line of inquiry around Sparks and
Thriving. Down the right hand column you will find a 5 minute video
featuring students talking about their sparks and the adults who
support them. Under Free Downloads you can find a variety of
handouts, and the introductory chapter of Peter Benson's book,
Sparks: How Parents Can Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers.
www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org
The Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence is
a global initiative to advance the research and practice of this
important and understudied domain of human development. Search
Institute, with major support from the John Templeton Foundation, is
designing the center to become an international hub of theory,
research, and practice. Go here for links to some of the research to
date:
www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org/Display.asp?page=fldInsights
www.bigtentconference.com
This web site was recently launched to provide information about the
2010 Big Tent Conference to be hosted by Search Institute and
co-sponsored by national organizations that care about positive
youth development. Location is Houston TX. Dates for the conference
are November 18-20, 2010.
|