Alcohol Awareness Month

April is recognized as Alcohol Awareness Month, and it is the perfect opportunity for you to talk with your children about the dangers of alcohol misuse.

Click here to check out this video for other ways to get involved in the month!

Graduation Celebration Alternatives

We are coming to the season of graduation parties as families celebrate their children’s success. Better Brodhead has created this animated presentation that highlights alcohol-free alternatives when celebrating your child’s high school graduation. This presentation will be sure to catch your eye with the ever-changing backgrounds, diverse characters, and engaging flow of information. Click here to watch the video.

Parents’ Night Out

We virtually met with Teri Ellefson, the Founder and Director of the Jacob’s SWAG Foundation to discuss suicide awareness, prevention and education. During this conversation Teri discussed how the foundation was established, gave an explanation of the foundation’s goals and accomplishments, explained how the foundation supports the community, described the Got Your Back app they created as well as gave various resources and tips for a parent to utilize. You can watch a recording of this discussion here.

As graduation is right around the corner, this Parents’ Night Out recording will highlight what the transition from high school to college is like for youth. There will be a conversation between a mother and her daughter from the community about how the shift to college brought about new temptations for drug and alcohol use and how parent/child communication is beneficial. Please click here to watch a recording of this discussion.

We welcomed in Deputy Aaron King with the Green County Sheriff’s Office and member of the Crime Stoppers Board, to explain the benefits and uses of P3, an anonymous tip management software. This app can be used to submit intel regarding a variety of crimes that may have happened or are about to happen. A great aspect of the program is that rewards are sometimes issued. Please click here to watch a recording of this discussion.

What aren’t you seeing? During January’s Parents’ Night Out, we had a discussion with two fathers from the community regarding their reactions to the hidden in plain sight virtual walk through where they saw some of the possible hidden signs of drug and alcohol abuse in a child’s bedroom. Please click here to watch a recording of this discussion.

Better Brodhead hosted our first Parents’ Night Out in November where we had real conversations about how to talk to your child about underage drinking and the difficulties that may arise. If you were unable to attend, but wanted to listen to the discussion, please click here to watch a recording of this discussion.

Small Talks Campaign

Alcohol can do lasting damage to a kid’s growing brain, impacting everything from how they learn and make decisions to how they handle emotions. But you don’t need a big speech to help a kid understand the dangers of underage drinking. Start small instead. Having a lot of small, casual talks while at the store, in the drive-thru or between video games can make a big difference in a kid’s health. Start around age eight to prepare kids to make a lifetime of healthy decisions. Visit SmallTalksWI.org for tips, facts and more. This campaign is sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Tools and Guides

Parent Movement 2.0 is centered around helping parents help their kids navigate away from marijuana, alcohol, nicotine and other drugs through education and advocacy.

Click here for an excellent resource explaining how to start and continue a dialog with your teenagers regarding alcohol or drug use.

Mental Health and Grief Support in Brodhead

Sabrina Meichtry an Advanced Practice Social Worker who specializes in mental health and grief support comes to us with an open heart and ears willing to help those in need. There are lots of different ways that grief can strike a person, family or community and Sabrina goes further into discussion in her videos.

LGBTQ+ Awareness

See our page for LGBTQ+ resources for parents.

Digital Awareness for Parents

The digital world is constantly evolving with new social media platforms, apps, and devices, and children and teens are often the first to use them. Some negative things that may occur include cyberbullying, sexting, posting hateful messages or content, and participating in negative group conversations. If your child posts harmful or negative content online, it may not only harm other children; it can affect their online reputation, which can have negative implications for their employment or college admission.

While you may not be able to monitor all of your child’s activities, there are things you can do to prevent cyberbullying and protect your child from harmful digital behavior:

• Monitor a teen’s social media sites, apps, and browsing history, if you have concerns that cyberbullying may be occurring.
• Review or re-set your child’s phone location and privacy settings.
• Follow or friend your teen on social media sites or have another trusted adult do so.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest apps, social media platforms, and digital slang used by children and teens.
• Know your child’s user names and passwords for email and social media.
• Establish rules about appropriate digital behavior, content, and apps.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

SAMHSA offers a comprehensive list of resources for parents regarding underage drinking. This campaign is called, Talk; They Hear You.

Planning, implementing, and evaluating programs

Better Brodhead follows the Strategic Prevention Framework to identify issues, build the capacity to address those issues, plan and implement prevention activities with community partners and evaluate the impact our work has had.

The Strengthening Families Program is a nationally and internationally recognized parenting and family strengthening program for all families. This evidence-based program has been found to significantly improve parenting skills and family relationships, and improves social competencies and school performance in children.

Learn more …

Parents Who Host Lose The Most

During prom season for high schoolers, we are aware that some parents may host parties that include alcohol for the teens.

Why is this bad for their child or young adult? The human brains goes through three major growth spurts during a lifetime. If alcohol is consumed before the third and final growth spurt (during the teen years and into young adulthood) it can cause changes in the structure and function of the brain.

Compared to the adult brain, the teen brain reacts differently to alcohol. Drinking alcohol can damage the frontal lobes of the brain forever. The age when a person first consumes alcohol strongly predicts the developments of a lifelong addiction to alcohol.

Children who begin drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to develop problems with alcohol than those who start drinking alcohol after age 21. These changes in the brain can impact decision making, personality, memory and learning.

Adults will be given fines and time in jail and will be held liable if they are caught serving or giving alcohol to a minor.

P3 Anonymous Crime Reporting App

Better Brodhead is collaborating with Green County Crime Stoppers to promote a new and improved way to report crimes.

For emergencies, callers should use 911.

Green County Crime Stoppers is proud to announce that they have recently  partnered with the Texas-based company, Anderson Software, to provide a more seamless and efficient way for students and community members to offer information to help solve and prevent crimes or other serious or life threatening matters. Anderson Software leads the industry with its latest secure and anonymous tip acquisition and management solution, called P3 Intel.

Tips were previously accepted as SMS text messages using a short code and a dedicated keyword. Green County Crime Stoppers will now be accepting tips by phone, the web, and by way of the new, free P3 Tips mobile app available on the iOS and Android platforms, greatly enhancing the mobile tip submission process. Still completely anonymous, tips submitted through the P3 mobile app, unlike SMS text tips, have no length limitations and allow images, video, and documents to be uploaded with the tip. Anderson Software’s sophisticated encryption processes obscure any and all identifying information and provide assured anonymity for tipsters.

Even without the app, there is still an easy and secure option for submitting tips from any PC or mobile browser by going to p3tips.com. Of course, tips are still welcomed through calling our hotline 800-422-7463. Using whichever method, once a person submits a tip, they will be given a TIP ID and password. With this information they can login at p3tips.com and submit follow-up information, engage in real-time chat/two-way dialogue, be informed of the outcome of the tip, and access any pertinent reward information.

Green County Crime Stoppers feels that utilizing Anderson Software’s P3 Tips program will enhance communications with the public, thereby building a safer and more trusting community in which everyone prospers. To further show our value of tipsters’ contribution to the community, tips leading to an arrest will result in a cash reward.

Find the latest science-based information about drug use, health, and the developing brain. Designed for young people and those who influence them—parents, guardians, teachers, and other educators—these resources inspire learning and encourage critical thinking so teens can make informed decisions about drug use and their health. 

https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/parents-educators

Teens Abusing Drugs and Alcohol: A Guide For Caring Parents

https://addictionresource.com/guides/teens-abusing-drugs/

A guide for parents on protective factors that contribute to keeping kids drug free.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announces the launch of the all new GetSmartAboutDrugs.com, the website for parents, educators, and caregivers. Originally launched in 2008, the website has updated drug information, resources and is totally redesigned for easier navigation. To learn about marijuana use and drugged driving; how to identify drug paraphernalia; why spice/K2 is a serious drug trend; and more, please visit the website at www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com