Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A new anti-drug and alcohol program appears to be about to hit a stride in Tekoa. The Healthy Tekoa Coalition was founded last year and now its organizers hope for approval of a plan to start three programs this fall.
Tekoa was chosen as one of 52 communities across the state to receive funding after higher-than-average scores regarding drug and alcohol use came in on the state’s biennial healthy youth surveys.
Once Tekoa was chosen, a part-time community coordinator and a part-time counselor were hired at the school.
Diane Harp began as the community coordinator May 1 of this year and started an adult and a youth coalition, which meet once a month. She took over from previous coordinator Sigrid Gauger, who retired after beginning in September 2012.
Harp and the coalitions have been preparing a strategic plan which requests approval to begin three programs in town. They are, “Watch Out,” a campaign which puts stickers on alcohol bottles which warns of the penalties for providing alcohol to minors; “Let’s Draw the Line,” which teaches parents about the laws of serving to minors and seeks pledges not to and “Parenting Wisely.” Finally, the youth part of the coalition, led by counselor Carrie Hubert, hopes to put on “Rachael’s Challenge,” which is a speaker and presenter series designed to combat bullying and create a culture of kindness.
Tekoa High School senior Nicole Zimmerman and junior Kamryn Lehn serve on both the youth and adult coalitions.
“It’s just a real benefit to the community and our kids in the school,” said Tekoa Superintendent Connie Kliewer. “But it’s bigger than the school. It’s a community effort.”
The two Tekoa coalition groups began to brainstorm in January about how best to spend their energy and funds. The money comes from Washington state’s Prevention Redesign Initiative, a division of Behavorial Health and Recovery.
“We can only pick scientifically-based, proven programs,” said Harp.
“We were strongly pulled to what the reaction has been at other schools,” said Harp. “It’s been such a positive program.”
While Harp and the volunteers await approval on these programs they have been busy in other areas. At Slippery Gulch Days in June, the group handed out t-shirts to all race and games participants and have held two movie nights at the Empire Theater. They will have another in August, and this Saturday, they will host a family swim night from 7 to 10 p.m. and give away beach towels.
“We’re kicking it into high gear now,” Harp said. “We know we have certain goals we want to promote.”
“We’re supportive of it,” said Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger. “We’re doing anything we can to help with it,” he said of the city council, while also noting that he wonders how accurate the anonymous surveys are.
Nonetheless, the movie nights and swim night signify how Healthy Tekoa Coalition targets young children and families.
“We are promoting how much we want our families to do things together as families,” Harp said. “Our ultimate target is middle school.”
The group’s goals also include decreasing the perceived availability of drugs, decreasing intentions to use and delaying the initiation age of drug use.
The “perceived availability of drugs” is in reference to Tekoa survey results which suggested local kids believe that drugs are more widely available than in reality. Decreasing intentions to use regards part of the surveys which ask middle school and high school students which drugs they intend to try as they get older.
Since May, when Harp took over, she said there has been a lot of paperwork at first and now she and others are promoting and talking to the community.
“In addition to efforts with youth, adults are part of this as well, said Harp, saying that adults are surveyed every year as part of the program. This year it was in February.
Harp handed surveys out to businesses and organizations, along with going door-to-door. The results came back in March.
“In general, they reflected most of the same attitudes as the youth surveys,” said Harp. “Those numbers need to change too.”
Overall, the coordinator said she expects the grant for the Healthy Tekoa Coalition to run for six years.
It varies because the state evaluates progress each year. From there they can decide to pull funding.
In general, Harp indicated that Tekoa’s numbers of youth drug and alcohol use aren’t so much higher than other towns.
“It’s not terribly scary,” she said, citing that in the most recent Tekoa survey showed that 80 percent of junior high and high school students had not used alcohol in the last 30 days and 75 percent have never smoked a cigarette.
Harp said that Whitman County towns collectively have a higher percentage on these questions than Tekoa.
While the coalition hopes to put in place the programs, if approved, Harp said they will be watched closely.
“We will base everything we do in the future on what we do this year. We will adjust, if needed, based on pre- and post-surveys,” she said.
Harp indicated that there was no reason to believe that their three proposed evidence-based programs would not be approved.
The Healthy Tekoa Coalition meets on the second Monday of each month from 1 to 2 p.m. at Kathy Kramer’s house at 309 East Henkle.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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