The McDonald County Coalition monthly meeting on March 18 included updates from the Regional Youth Ambassadors, Child Parent Relationship Training, Prescription Drug Take-back Program and the Art Feeds organization.
A Point of View Community Center (POVCC) flyer was disbursed regarding the upcoming Poker Run and Fun Fundraiser to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Kozy Kamp in Pineville. All proceeds will go to support the after school program and summer camp for the children of the community.
Meg Bourne Hulsey, founder and CEO of Art Feeds addressed the coalition regarding her organization.
The mission of Art Feeds is, "To feed creative development and facilitate emotional expression in children."
According to Hulsey, "Art Feeds believes all children are artists and exists to feed creative development and facilitate emotional expression in children through art and community. To do this, Art Feeds provides free therapeutic art and creative education programs within schools and children's organizations by mobilizing teams of community members to bring all forms of art into classrooms."
"We work with all students across the board," Hulsey said. "We use all forms of art to include therapeutic."
Hulsey said Art Feeds is dedicated to the growth and healing of children through art.
"Whether we are working with a student with a disability or a child that has experienced severe trauma, we are looking to create a great impact wherever we go," Hulsey said. "I find that the longer a child goes without a resource for expression, regardless of their ability, the more detrimental it can be for their development."
The idea for the Feed Arts organization generated from an experience Hulsey had as a volunteer. In 2009, she was a 19-year-old college student volunteering at a local school in her community. When one of her students started to fall behind in class, she investigated the issue and soon found out that the boy was not being fed enough at home.
"He was having trouble catching on to the lessons due to his malnourishment," Hulsey said. "So we provided him with sustenance and that's where the concept of Art Feeds originated. And once we spent more time with him in class, he began to thrive through his art. That's when I knew there was a deeper underlying issue.
"We can support kids through the food we give them, but it's just as important to feed them artistically and emotionally. Once I came to this realization, I knew there were so many more kids I could impact through this strategy."
After this experience, Hulsey launched Art Feeds.
Hulsey spoke to the coalition about murals produced by children and dispersed pictures showing many of the completed murals. Art Feeds provides the first opportunities to create murals to schools in communities with a high free or reduced lunch rate and with diverse student populations.
Art Feeds believes students working together to create murals, "becomes a great equalizer for all students no matter the socio-economic background. It offers students a shared experience and encourages pride and instills ownership in each student who contributed their creativity and ideas to produce a meaningful piece of art -- together."
"We are currently working on a mural sample programming with Noel Elementary School," Hulsey said.
Art Feeds is now recognized nationwide. Hulsey received the honor of Missouri Art Educator of the year in 2014 by the Missouri Arts Council.
More information about Art Feeds can be found at www.artfeeds.org.
Nick Clinton, prevention specialist of Regional Support Center, Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention (SAVP) Division at the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, in Springfield, also addressed the group regarding new laws for prescription take-back boxes.
Clinton pointed out:
• 0ne in four teens report having misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime;
• most people are getting medications which are abused from a friend/relative who are mostly getting them from a doctor;
• over half the supply that are being abused are taken directly from medicine chests;
• the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recognizes that prescription abusers are at a much higher risk of moving on to heroin;
• heroin is cheaper than prescriptions and a huge increase in the use of heroin is being seen in the Springfield area. Law enforcement reports that it is trickling into the rural areas also. This is why drug take backs were born and the DEA got on board;
• in September 2014 over 5,400 locations, over 617,000 pounds, 22,000 pounds in Missouri -- total collected 4,826,575 total pounds. Just in a 21-county service region there were almost 10,000 pounds collected last year. This does not limit ways to dispose of them, but rather it expands them.
• law enforcement gets rid of meds the same way they do illicit drugs -- using the standard operation procedure; and
• law enforcement continues to have autonomy with respect to how they collect substances from ultimate users, including: maintaining collection receptacles; conducting mail-back programs; conducting take-back programs.
The following persons are authorized to collect from ultimate user and other non-registrants for destruction: manufacturers, distributors, long-term care facility and collection receptacles (law enforcement or in pharmacy).
The mail back program includes:
• any authorized collector that has and utilizes at its registered location (on-site) a method of destruction;
• packages may be made available for sale or free of charge; and
• non-descriptive packaging.
If a pharmacy wants to do this they just need to modify their current DEA registration regarding Destruction of Controlled Substances.
Clinton said, "the community partnership is very involved in the 21 counties in southwest Missouri that we serve in many different ways. We sum it up by saying that we partner with each other to create the community you want to live in. This is done through the four divisions that we work in. We work with coalitions in communities, providing them technical assistance and various resources to try to lower substance abuse rates and decrease violence."
SAVP stresses substance abuse and violence can negatively affect one's life in many ways, including reducing the chances of having success in school; delaying the development of the social and emotional skills needed to establish and maintain healthy relationships; detrimental impact on both physical and mental health; and hindering one from being a productive member of society.
More information about the Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Division can be found at http://www.commpartnership.org/what-we-do/by-division/substance-abuse-violence-prevention/#
The next McDonald County Coalition meeting will be at noon, Wednesday, April 15, at the Pineville Community Center.
Community on 03/26/2015