This past November, 20 Mount Si High School students from the Natural Helpers Club attended the weekend training retreat where they learned communication skills, how to recognize depression/substance abuse, strategies for suicide prevention, and how to better reach out to and/or refer peers in need.

Every year a new group of students are trained with upperclassmen returning to serve as peer leaders.  Students return with new knowledge, insights, inspiration, and enthusiasm for improving their school and their community.  Most feel the experience has profoundly changed the way they view themselves and others.

To see what they’ve been up to:  http://mountsinaturalhelpers.weebly.com/

“This program is so vital because students need to have a safe place to learn the skills needed to reach out to those who have gone through the same things we have.” 

“This training experience was one of the best times of my life.  I learned how to see signs of those in need and better reach out/connect to them.  I have never connected with anyone in the ways I have connected with the people here.”

“Best learning experience I have ever had.”  “It has made me a different person.”

“When I first came I honestly didn’t think this weekend was going to be very meaningful.  Last night completely changed my opinion.  Seeing how many people have been hurt made me want to do everything in my power to help them and others in need.  This camp was amazing and I am very thankful I was allowed to be a part of it.  I hope to come back next year.”

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Celebrates Community Members Who Make Our Valley Shine
By Sandy Dempsey
On Tuesday, June 3rd, over 125 community members gathered for the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network’s (SVCN) 18th Annual Rise & Shine awards breakfast. This event celebrates volunteers whose efforts make the Snoqualmie Valley shine and was held at the Riverview School District building in Duvall. Thirty-six Rise & Shine awards were handed out this year. Awardees were nominated by close acquaintances such as friends, families, colleagues, and neighbors. A Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Board committee selected the following award recipients from all the nominations that were submitted.

• Liz Anderson
• Steve Bates, Professional Legacy
• Jackie Boak
• Colleen Burin
• Mickie Butkovich
• Pam Cantilini
• Dannelle (DJ) Carlson
• Janelle Coughran
• Heidi Dukich
• Loren Eubank
• Claire Foster
• Jeremy Frechette, Youth Legacy
• Caron Nelson Glickman
• Andreas Hofmann
• Lori Hollasch
• Susan Husa
• Dwight Hutchinson
• Patti Inge
• Jake Knoth
• Monte Lindsley
• Lloyd McCracken
• Glenn Merryman, Professional Legacy
• Kevin Nolet
• Barb Powrie
• Red Pepper Pizzeria
• Bob Reife
• Cathy Renner
• Laura Rosner
• Elmer Sams
• Kelly Spratt
• Cindie Stevens
• Kim Totten
• Lyndsay Watson
• Kirk Werner
• Larry White

This year’s Rise & Shine award recipients span a broad range of service sectors including youth & families, faith communities, public service, senior services, environment/sustainability, health & wellness, and technology. The recipients also represent all of the communities served by SVCN including Duvall, Carnation, Fall City, Snoqualmie, and North Bend.

Traditionally, the individuals and businesses who are nominated for a Rise & Shine award are humble servant leaders, who do not seek recognition for their efforts. SVCN values the opportunity for this annual community gathering to celebrate the award recipients’ many contributions to the SVCN vision of a Snoqualmie Valley where all residents thrive.

By Ryan Lewis
What lies Inside? How peculiar that framed inside the word “lie” is the meaning of both resting and to betray the truth. Teens listening and sharing their stories about “what lies inside” (both meanings of the word) proves to be a much needed and empowering opportunity for young people at the annual Be The Change Leadership Conference year after year.

Take a close look for example at a simple fill-in the blank prompt asked of both boys and girls at this year’s conference. The prompts were given by keynote facilitator, Luis Ortega:

As students began to recognize how misleading these gender messages really are, something happened. They began to figure out how to relate to these messages, asking meaningful questions, and wanting to know more. This warmed up what came next.

All boys and girls moved into separate rooms by gender to take part in sessions entitled “Let’s Get Real.” After more discussion about gender roles in small groups, the session culminated with this exercise: students wrote 10 words they believe describes themselves on index cards. When completed, they taped the cards to their backs and then walked around the room. They were instructed to write on other people’s index cards good things they have noticed about that person. Finally, after regathering in a large circle, they read their cards and shared what was learned. Some examples given:

“I never realized the freckles on my face were pretty!”
“People said I was a leader.”
“I learned that I’m really out-going.”

This was a magic moment. Students had to resolve perceptions given from peers . How did it match their own perceptions? How did it differ? What is the truth really? Phoebe Terhaar, SVCN staff member and facilitator of the girls session may have assessed it best:

“They [the girls] were able to see how fragile self-image can be at this age and how empowering it is to use compliments as a social skill for helping one another feel good about themselves.”

Breakout Session Opportunities

After a lunch break, students had the opportunity to chose from a range of breakout sessions, including:

Making Friends & Social Skills
Managing Stress
Be The Solution: Preventing Sexual Assault & Sexual Bullying
Storytellers for Change
Live it up! Don’t give it up! – suicide prevention presented by youth
Learn about Farm to Table
Making Sense of Legalized Marijuana

Breakouts were experiential by design in order to encourage open discussions about sensitive topics like youth suicide. (See Be The Change Ripple Effects)

Starting a Movement

Luis closed the event with a powerful message and an invitation. He described to students the “#100HappyDays challenge.” The challenge is essentially to maintain a practice of being connected to and promoting one’s own happiness for 100 consecutive days. He shared research results about how neural connectivity in the brains of participants actually changed as a result of the challenge.

He referenced consumer culture at large and how it extols the promise of the “purchase of happiness” as compared to what the framers of the Constitution decreed: the “pursuit of happiness.” Judging by the audience receptivity and post-conference feedback, this was deemed a novel concept for many of the 8th Annual Be The Change attendees.

Credits & Special Thanks To…

Be The Change Leadership Team

• Luis Ortega, Event Facilitator
• Ryan Lewis, Event Coordinator
• Laura Smith, Executive Director

High School Facilitators

• Kaija Jensen
• Alicia Butsch
• Mike Powers
• Ellie Ish
• Samantha Rosas
• Brynne Hollasch
• Miles Denison
• Julia Lee
• Jessica Ho
• Tonya Cao

Breakout Session Presenter/Facilitators Volunteers

• Phoebe Terhaar
• Karyn Summers
• Chantel Thurman
• Rebecca Milliman
• Muriel Woods
• Brian Helzerman
• Zack Harmon
• Margaret Reed
• Sarah Cassidy

Attendees!!!

• Approximately 60 Middle School students from East King County
  

Sponsors

• Snoqualmie Valley Community Network
• Sno-Valley Youth Council
• Riverview Youth Council
• Snoqualmie Valley School District
• Riverview School District
• Friends of Youth
• Snoqualmie Police Department
• Snoqualmie Kiwanis
• Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District

Grant Funding

• King County Community Service Areas Grant
• Drug Free Communities Grant

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network (SVCN) and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) teamed up with students from Two Rivers School (TRS) to share a series of events and workshops to prepare students for their transition to further education, training and career.

The series began with an engaging and informative presentation about the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the role of resilience in setting goals and overcoming obstacles. Community volunteers teamed with TRS students to help them through every stage of how to plan for and pursue a variety of careers.

Break-out sessions focused on specific career paths, resume writing, mock interviews, and dressing for success. In addition, students have been provided with special sessions both at school and at the DVR office in Bellevue to help them through the application process and to help them envision what lies ahead in pursuing career goals.

As students explore careers and work with community mentors, their curiosity about possible career and training pathways takes on new meaning. Resumes come to life when students are paired with a community professional who provides tips and suggestions for improvements. Moving from a theoretical knowledge of resume writing to real-life application provides an invaluable opportunity for our students to actually rehearse and master skills they need for their future career success. Hearing mentor stories about what careers are out there and how real people have achieved success inspires young people to really envision what the possibilities are. Through our partnership with DVR and SVCN, Two Rivers School students are better equipped to take successful next steps after high school graduation.

By Laura Smith, Executive Director
At our recent Be the Change Leadership conference, I witnessed firsthand the impact of this type of event. A young boy in 8th grade who was attending the event to hone his leadership skills decided to attend the Live It Up! Don’t Give It Up! Suicide Prevention session. Later that night, he later revealed to his dad that when the teen facilitators leading the session shared the symptoms of depression, he could recognize most of the symptoms in himself. Not only did he recognize that he was experiencing signs of depression, he then asked his parents to help him get an appointment to see a counselor.

After learning more about the boy, I now understand that the parents had been encouraging him to go speak with the school counselor, but he hadn’t wanted to go. He felt someone might make fun of him. His parents were so relieved when he asked on his own to go talk with someone. This young man had his first counseling session last week all because of one experience in a session at this conference.

As an annual event in recent years, the Sno-Valley Youth Council has prepared and served meals at local tent cities. This year, the council served a meal in Issaquah Tent City serving a population of approximately 40 homeless individuals in King County.

The council served a full meal featuring tacos with all the fixings — ground meats, salsa, cheese, lettuce, etc. One student, Julia Navidi actually baked over 200 chocolate chip cookies!

Students had the opportunity to talk with the people living in the shelter. Sometimes casual chit chat, other times people shared stories of what brought them to the shelter.

Toward the close of the evening, several patrons approached students to give heartfelt “Thank you’s” for their donated meals and generosity.

Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Board Expanded!

We are thrilled to announce the expansion of the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network (SVCN) Board of Directors. The board will be expanding from seven directors to a regional board of 23-25 directors with a wide range of community members and organizations represented (Please see list below). The decision to expand follows an 18 month process of really working to identify how to best meet the needs of the residents of the Snoqualmie Valley. Board members have been carefully selected and will provide key leadership as SVCN looks to a future as the backbone organization in the Valley that provides coordination of community initiatives that promote health and wellness.

Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Board of Directors

• Steve Bates (SVSD)
• Amy Biggs (Sno-Valley Transit)
• Nela Cumming, Secretary (Encompass)
• Paula Frederick (Friends of Youth)
• Ken Heikkila (RSD)
• Sue Henrikson (Community Member)
• Molly Jensen, Vice President (Community Member)
• Izzie MacCubbin (Cedarcrest student)
• Dave Mayer (Snoqualmie YMCA)
• Jennifer McKeown (Mountains to Sound)
• Warren Moon (Wilderness Awareness School)
• Dariel Norris (SVHD Commissioner)
• Alan Painter (King County)
• Nate Perea (Snoqualmie Chamber)
• Debby Peterman, President (Civic Organizations)
• Paula Steinke (Early Childhood)
• Jason Walker (City of Duvall)
• Nancy Walton-House (Community Member)
• Irene Wickstrom, Treasurer (King County Library System)
• Sarah Cassidy (Oxbow Farm)
• Kim Lisk (City of Carnation, Carnation Chamber)
• Steve McCulley (City of Snoqualmie; Snoqualmie PD)
• Amara Oden (Sno-Valley Senior Center)
• Monty Wright (Snoqualmie Valley Alliance)

This is a thrilling time for SVCN as we move to further fulfilling our vision of a Snoqualmie Valley where all residents thrive by building collaborations that inspire actions. The kick-off meeting for the restructured board will be May 13th and we are excited to see where this new level of collaboration will take us. To learn more about our board members, please visit The Board Members.

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network recently led a key conversation among law enforcement and the local school districts about substance abuse in the valley and related prevention efforts. All three law enforcement jurisdictions in the Snoqualmie Valley (Snoqualmie PD, Duvall PD, and King County Sheriff) joined Superintendent Smith from Riverview School District and Superintendent Aune from Snoqualmie Valley School District for this important conversation.

The partners reviewed data from the Healthy Youth Survey (2012) and discussed what illegal substances are being seen most often in the Snoqualmie Valley. There was agreement that the Snoqualmie Valley community does struggle with illegal substance use like most places in the state of Washington.

The group discussed the need for key messaging within the community, not just messages that come from the school districts and law enforcement. The core message that really stood out to this group is: Talk Early and Often!

The group has agreed to this core message because it helps remind us all that talking to youth is essential to building healthy relationships. If we are making time to talk to kids about the everyday stuff on a regular basis, then when they need to talk to us about the really big stuff the behavior of talking to adults is normal. Talking early and often about peer pressure and substance abuse is also key to delaying and preventing youth use.

The next steps are to develop a messaging campaign that will invite other sectors of the community (churches, hospitals, health care) to also join in conveying this key message.

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network (SVCN) recently partnered up with the Mount Si PTSA to hold a community meeting designed to raise awareness about youth substance use and to offer concrete skills to parents and community members that can help keep youth safe. More than 75 community members joined together for the Legalized Marijuana and Our Teens event hosted at Mount Si High School. Principal John Belcher was on hand to speak to questions related to what the administration sees happening at the school and how the administration is responding.

The event provided participants with the opportunity to hear directly from a youth panel about any impacts they are noticing now that marijuana use has been legalized for those of over 21. When asked about underage marijuana use, Mount Si Freshman Ellie Stedman shared her thoughts:

“I think that kids who have not used marijuana are not phased by the legalization because either way, it’s still illegal for the kids to use it because they are under 21. I think that kids who smoke weed in high school do it regardless of legality. The legalization of marijuana has not increased or decreased the amount of students using it in a dramatic way at all. The freshman class has had no big impact in that way but I can’t speak comparatively because I’m at the freshman campus.”

Adults in the audience expressed concerns about the new marijuana edibles and how those can be kept out of the schools. Administration and parents acknowledged that this is going to be a big challenge, and parents were encouraged to get out and learn more about what is (or will be) available for purchase. Figure 1 below shows some of the products being sold in medical marijuana dispensaries that are expected to be sold for recreational use as well.

Figure 1: Edibles

Next, the participants learned about marijuana’s impact on the growing brain from Kevin Haggerty, School of Social Work. He noted that the potency of marijuana in the United States is changing (See Figure 2 below) and is not the same marijuana that many people think it is. Additionally, he shared some research on marijuana and teen mental health (See Figure 3 below). The good news is that there are programs that teach specific parenting techniques that are shown to prevent youth from making risky choices related to substances and two of those programs, Guiding Good Choices and Staying Connected with Your Teen, are taught annually in the Snoqualmie Valley. The next Guiding Good Choices class will be held in the fall.

Figure 2: Potency

Figure 3: Marijuana and Adolescent Mental Health

Officer Nigel Draveling from Snoqualmie Police Department spent time reviewing Washington’s medical and recreational marijuana laws. The theme throughout his presentation was that it is still illegal for people under the age of 21 to use marijuana. Use of medical marijuana by someone under 21 requires parental consent.
The evening concluded with a presentation from Parent Educator and Prevention/Intervention Specialist Phoebe Terhaar. She described concrete tools that parents can use within the home to decrease the likelihood that their children will use illegal substances (See Figure 4). Terhaar also identified some of the ineffective approaches that families sometimes resort to using (See Figure 5).

Figure 4: Effective Approaches

Figure 5: Ineffective Approaches

Terhaar’s presentation concluded with a slide of resources that are available for parents and /or teens related to preventing substance abuse (See Figure 6).

Figure 6: Resources for Parents/Teens

he information offered during this particular event related to marijuana; however, please remember that it is important to have ongoing conversations with the youth in your life about any harmful substances that are available to them. Please talk to your kids early and often.

SVCN is also partnering with the Riverview School District PTSA Council to host Community Awareness events in that area. The next event will be held April 18 from 6:30-8:30pm at Tolt Middle School and will focus on drug and alcohol abuse prevention.

To view the slideshows that were part of the Legal Marijuana and Our Teens presentation, please visit here.

More than 115 Snoqualmie Valley leaders joined together to share ideas and discuss ways to leverage the strengths of the valley at the Leading the Way to a Sustainable Snoqualmie Valley Summit in mid-January.
The event was a collaborative effort between the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, the Snoqualmie Chamber, the Carnation Chamber, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, and Stewardship Partners. The event opened with a sharing piece about how the valley’s sustainability relies on collaboration between the three legs of sustainability: economy, environment, and society.

Representatives from each leg of sustainability took a few minutes to share current collaborative successes in the valley including the new website developed by the Snoqualmie Chamber (www.SnoValley.org), the Healthy Community Coalition’s efforts, and the Fish, Farms, Flood Task Force. Then, attendees took part in participatory conversations about each leg of sustainability.

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network led a conversation about what a thriving, healthy community looks like and the resources and assets we have in the valley to further support and build a thriving, healthy community. Two overarching themes of a thriving, healthy community emerged from the conversation: 1) how a community is connected and 2) how accessible a community is (including systems and programs within the community).

The Snoqualmie Valley Community Network is looking forward to continuing the community dialogue to expand on the overarching themes that came up during these conversations.