The Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition reports on what it has been doing since August

Members of the Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition want you to know that they are putting in the work during these challenging times.

They have not stopped supporting the community.

They continue to provide resources, free training and activities for all members of the community.

The coalition also encourages everyone to utilize all the information it is putting out there by visiting its new website, warwicknyprevention.org, and to follow it on on Facebook and Instagram.

‘Essential’

In August the youth and Wickham Works created word art that spelled out the word “essential” and was displayed at the Warwick Community Center for a few weeks to show support to all the Essential Workers during this time.

The combined efforts of the WVCC Youth Advisory Board and the WVPC Youth Task Force on this project, weaving old, cut-up T-shirts in and out of wire, resulted in a moving display showing the hard work of both groups.

Along with this project the groups created and designed mask posters. These posters were displayed in store front windows in town and a scavenger hunt was made to create foot traffic in all the local businesses to show support.

‘Ounce of Prevention’

The WVPC youth group has created numerous Public Service Announcement Commercials, all of which can be found on its YouTube page, which is called Warwick’s “Ounce of Prevention.” These commercials are designed to inform youth and community members about the dangers of youth substance misuse, abuse and prevention.

A few of these PSA’s were featured during Red Ribbon Week in October. Red Ribbon Week is designed to get people to collaborate and work on activities that will help rebuild a sense of community and common purpose nationwide. Red Ribbon Week helps parents and schools deliver an effective drug prevention message to all youth across the board.

Drive-by Halloween

During the month of October, the youth also enjoyed making a drive-by Halloween display for the community at the Warwick Valley Community Center, as well as a family Jack O’ Lantern carving event.

Sticker shock campaign

The Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition has implemented three sticker shock campaigns since August in the Warwick and Orange County area. Sticker shocks initiatives are designed to be conversation starters between parents and children.

These stickers have been placed on pizza boxes, to-go containers and beverages.

In November, the Prevention Alliance of Orange County, of which WVPC is a member, held a countywide sticker shock event. Stickers with statistics about the number of DWIs during the holiday season were placed on alcohol sales beverages. This event got the attention of the Orange County District Attorney and a press conference was held at the Orange County’s DA’s Office on Nov. 20.

Francesca Bryson, the WVPC Coordinator, has recently teamed up with the Warwick Valley Middle School to effectively build relationships with their students. Together they designed and initiated a student discussion forum, where she explained to students what the coalition does and how they can get involved.

Bryson also created an outlet for them where they actively partake in ice breaker games to get to know one another, followed by breakout rooms to be on a personal level. This gave the students a platform to talk openly and freely about guided topics.

This “program” was offered to 5th and 6th grades, as well as 7th and 8th. There was a great turnout and the students seemed to really enjoy themselves.

“They just want a place to talk to their friends,” said Middle School Assistant Principal Chris Radon.