Forum will be held on Thursday

It’s not just another meeting.

At least, that’s the hope.

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition is hosting a “Community Leadership Forum” Thursday with a goal of bringing representatives of various sectors together and developing goals to combat substance abuse.

“The whole purpose of the forum is to get the community to collaborate and move forward with one voice related to substance abuse,” said Chenoweth-O’Brien. “And especially around our youth. Trying to engage them a little bit more in our community.”

Hope McMickle of Prevention Insights, part of the School of Public Health at Indiana University that seeks to assist those who work to curb alcohol, tobacco, drug, gambling and other addictions, will facilitate the meeting.

The first half of the event, which begins at 9 a.m. at John Jay Center for Learning, will be about coalition building and collaboration. The goal is to look at how various entities and individuals in the community can work together and best pool resources and expertise.

It will build off of what the drug prevention coalition leader gathered from community surveys as part of its Drug Free Communities Grant work. Among those results were the identification of underage drinking as the No. 1 problem area.

Chenoweth-O’Brien noted that using substances, including alcohol, earlier is one of the indicators that leads to future addiction. So, one of the goals is to delay the onset of use of substances like alcohol through community engagement.

“How, as a community, do we help our young individuals feel connected and engaged?” she asked.

After a break for lunch, participants will split into smaller groups to work on specific initiatives. Those will focus on specific areas such as businesses or schools.

The idea is to walk away with ideas for programs, marketing or other actionable plans to make a local impact on substance abuse.

“It’s a little bit of all,” said Chenoweth-O’Brien. “Our goal will be that the different breakout groups will then be able to take something from that day and move forward. So it may be an environmental message to go across the whole community. It might be getting more life skills or evidence-based treatment for our community, for our schools, for our parents. So the goal is to leave with something tangible going forward.”

The drug prevention coalition sent out about 60 invitations to community leaders in government schools, business, social service and other areas, in addition to invitations to its members. But the forum is open to anyone who wants to get involved.

“But it’s not just about having movers and shakers at the table,” said Chenoweth-O’Brien. “It’s about allowing anybody in the community to have a voice.”

Attendance is limited to 50, so pre-registration is required by visiting eventbrite.com and searching for “Community Leadership Forum.”

On the day after the forum, McMickle will meet with about a dozen local teens who are part of the drug prevention coalition’s A Chance to Serve program that places high school students on local boards in order to help increase youth involvement in the community. There she will share discuss strategies for preventing substance abuse as well as sharing the results of the Community Leadership Forum with the students.

“We hope that it will be meaningful,” said Chenoweth-O’Brien. “We want it to be something that an individual can come and say, ‘OK, I got something from this day. And I feel like I understand what the coalition is doing and how we can participate as a community.’”