On Friday, March 9th, students from Two Rivers and Mount Si High School took a field trip to the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital. Students were greeted by the Chief Executive Officer, Tom Parker, and Director of Pharmacy and Imaging, Ron Bennet. Mr. Parker and Mr. Bennet lead students on a tour of the Emergency, Rehabilitation, Pharmacy, and Imaging Departments.

After the tour students, hospital staff and healthcare professionals in Snoqualmie participated in a Round Table Q and A. Students had an opportunity to engage with healthcare professionals from a variety of careers such as: physical therapy, mental health, nutrition, pharmacy, personal trainer and wellness coach to name a few.

We are actively seeking mentors for the Youth Success! Mentoring program at schools throughout the Snoqualmie Valley. If you are interested in becoming a mentor (for no more than an hour per week), please CLICK HERE to fill out an application. If you have any questions about the program, please contact Program Coordinator Heather Downing at heather@svcn.info

Teen Leaders from Cedarcrest High School and Two Rivers School have trained more than 800 middle school students using the How to Help a Friend peer-to-peer training so far this school year!

This peer-presented training teaches students how to recognize when a friend is struggling and the important steps to take. Teen Leaders present an easy-to-use acronym CAN to make it easier to know how to help.

C- show you CARE
A- ASK the questions
N- identify NEXT steps

The peer-to-peer model is recognized by the American Association of Suicidology as a best practice in prevention.

 

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.