Ottauquechee Community Partnership

Ottauquechee Community Partnership's History

1990

A group of school teachers, counselors, and administrators begin meeting as an Act 51 Advisory Council (Act 51 is 1983 substance abuse prevention legislation) as well as community concerns about youth and drugs. These school employees invite parents and community members to join the conversation.

1994

The Act 51 Advisory Council meets monthly. 20-30 people attend the monthly meetings. The Council includes school personnel and community members. Spectrum Teen Center is launched as a school-supported, youth-focused and youth-led group.

1995-1996

The Act 51 Advisory Council continues meeting monthly and addressing issues and concerns as they arise. The Council serves as the adult board of Spectrum Teen Center, with a youth board making and implementing most of the decisions on a day-to-day basis.

1997

The Act 51 Advisory Council accepts the general goal of “building assets” for young people.

1998

The Act 51 Advisory Council changes its name to the Windsor Central Supervisory Union Community Council.

2000

The Community Council continues meeting monthly and addressing issues and concerns as they arise. Shining Light Mentoring Program is established by the Community Council as a school-based, community-supported middle school mentoring program. Mentors meet with mentees on-campus or in sanctioned off-campus meeting spaces, during the school day. The first Shining Light Mentoring Program Coordinator is appointed; the coordinator serves as a volunteer. The Community Council serves as the board for the Shining Light Mentoring Program. The Council applies for its first grant.

2001

The Community Council helps establish the Tobacco Coalition with Gifford Medical Center (Randolph, VT). Community Council begins to organize “Project Graduation” (previously started by the High School PTA) and the after-prom event. In May, the first After-Prom-Party is held at Town Hall.

2002

A Shining Light Mentoring Program Director is hired with a small amount funding provided by the WCSU; SLMP adopts a policy requiring background checks for all existing and new mentors. SLMP adopts a policy allowing for after/before-school meetings, as long as prior approval from the mentee’s parents and the SLMP Program Director has been obtained.

2003

The Community Council is awarded a few small grants from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the Vermont Department of Health as well as from Community Partners. Programming is implemented by the Community Council, with the grants received and dispersed through the WCSU.

2004

Community members Cathy Hazlett and Sandy DiNatale are appointed co-chairs of the Community Council. The Community Council begins the process of becoming a non-profit organization, the Ottauquechee Community Partnership (OCP), Inc. An Executive Committee is formed to advise on policy matters related to OCP. Shining Light Mentoring Program, which is a stand-alone program between 2001 and 2003, loses its Program Director and comes back under the umbrella of the Ottauquechee Community Partnership.

2005-2006

Cathy Hazlett is hired as the Executive Director. OCP launches “Strengthening Families”, a parenting program, and conducts the community youth activity survey to find out what activities young people take part in and would like to see more of. OCP’s mission and vision statements and by-laws are crafted. A new Mentor Coordinator is hired who continues to support the Shining Light Mentoring Program. A bookkeeper is contracted to keep OCP’s accounts. The After-Prom-Party event is discontinued.

Additional OCP-supported programs and activities during this time include: Spectrum Teen Center, a substance abuse prevention curriculum at WUHS, tobacco use prevention and cessation work, Project Graduation, an Active Parenting Class for parents of elementary school children, education about 2^nd hand smoke, a community forum on the effects of alcohol on brain development, a community meeting about underage drinking, local launch of a public media campaign (“Kite Strings”) focused on underage drinking, support for local public TV programs focused on underage drinking, and a local pre-prom mail campaign focused on preventing underage drinking around graduation time.

2007

OCP receives federal non-profit status. An initial Board of Directors is elected in June to begin in July (the beginning of OCP’s fiscal year). An Outreach Coordinator and an Administrative Assistant are hired. Cathy Hazlett, Executive Director, resigns in the autumn. Tom Roberts is appointed Interim Director.

OCP sponsors a home show, “Healthy Homes/Healthy Families,” which is held in the Union Arena.

The Shining Light Mentoring Program and Strengthening Families program continue.

2008

Jacqueline Fischer is hired as Executive Director. Existing Mentor Coordinator resigns to accept a position with a national mentoring organization based in Washington, DC. Existing Administrative Coordinator resigns. New Mentor Coordinator is hired in October. OCP moves from a small, one-room office on the 3^rd floor of Woodstock Recreation Center to a suite of offices owned by the Ottauquechee Health Foundation, on the river level of the Ottauquechee Health Center.

The Shining Light Mentoring Program continues.

Other OCP programming launched this year includes:

CHAMPPS (Coordinated Health and Motivation and Prevention Program) with a focus on obesity prevention
New Directions, with a focus on building coalition and community capacity, underage drinking prevention, youth engagement in peer leadership activities.
Community Tobacco prevention program, with a focus on developing smoke-free zones and implementing themed campaigns.

OCP and WUMS/HS collaborate in administering Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Asset survey Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors, with 331 students in grades 7-10 in December of this year.

2009

OCP partners with and serves as the fiscal sponsor for the Upper Valley Farm to School Network and three new local Farm to School programs: Reading Elementary School, Bridgewater Village School, and Woodstock Elementary School.

With a focus on youth empowerment and community involvement, OCP holds Community Dialogue trainings with Robert Bryant. Bryant trains youth and adult teams to facilitate Dialogues. The first Community Dialogue is held in Woodstock with a focus on underage drinking.

OCP holds a 2-day “Generations Together” retreat in May. The retreat is based on examining the findings of the Search Institute survey conducted in December 2008: Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors. Over 40 people of four generations participate in the retreat. The retreat spawns seeds of ideas for future initiatives to connect together youth and community.

OCP partners with the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park and the Upper Valley Farm to School Network and other Walk Woodstock community partners for “Trek to Taste” - a local celebration of trails and food.

OCP partners with the Windsor Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) Coordinated School Health Team (CSHT) to work on Botvin’s LifeSkills evaluation and on building Farm to School support throughout the WCSU.

OCP contracts with WUMS for OCP’s Outreach Coordinator to assume the role of leader of the school-based Vermont Kids Against Tobacco (VKAT). OCP’s Outreach Coordinator is also involved with school-based Vermont Student Leadership Program (VTLSP) when it aligns with goals of other OCP programs.

A core group of six students are trained to analyze the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results in the WCSU area and then to train others in the YRBS Data Analysis process. In November 2009 a group of 17 students analyze the 2009 survey data and define their top areas of concern.

The Shining Light Mentoring Program continues to support mentoring in the Woodstock Union Middle School (WUMS) and Woodstock Union High School (WUHS). CHAMPPS (Coordinated Health and Motivation and Prevention Program) obesity prevention programming continues. New Directions coalition and community capacity building, underage drinking prevention, and youth engagement in peer leadership activities continue. Community tobacco prevention programming continues.

2010

With Community Coalition input, a new logo is designed for OCP.

Another Community Dialogue is held in May in all five WCSU sending towns on the same night. The focus of this dialogue is: “What is Our Ideal Community?” Five teams of youth/adults facilitate the Dialogue in Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Reading, and Pomfret.

In January 2010, the group of students who analyzed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results for the WCSU area present their findings to the community in a Community Dialogue Night and a Community Action Planning Night. Four action groups emerge from these events:

Youth Matter Community Collaborative (stemming from the concern that 48% of youth feel they don’t matter to community)
Woodstock Healthy Teens (stemming from the concern that 25% of 8^th graders report having had sex)
ATOD Policy group (stemming from the concern that 37% of youth report having easy access to drugs at school)
Youth: Parent Town Hall meetings about alcohol (stemming from the concern that 72% of youth report that it is okay to have 1-2 drinks per day)

Farm to School programming, with OCP sponsorship, continues in the Bridgewater Village School, Reading Elementary School, and Woodstock Elementary School.

Woodstock Elementary and Sherburne Elementary schools partner with OCP on a Guiding Good Choices parenting program.

OCP enters into an agreement with the Coordinated School Health Team efforts to improve fidelity of Botvin’s Lifeskills being newly taught in all 6^th grades of the Windsor County Supervisory Union. OCP also partners with CSHT to implement the School Health Index through a Department of Education School Tobacco grant. At the same time, OCP prepares to use the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) tool with members of the school sector.

OCP’s Outreach Coordinator continues to provide adult leadership for WUHS’s Vermont Kids Against Tobacco (VKAT) and Vermont Student Leadership Program (VTLSP, previously called “Students Against Destructive Decisions” or “SADD”)

Along with partners throughout the community, OCP launches the “Healthy Eating Active Living” initiative – focusing on increasing good nutrition and physical activity.

OCP creates and hires (in September) a new position: Volunteer and Administrative Coordinator. The new position is responsible for the implementation of the Shining Light Mentoring Program and the design and implementation of any new mentoring programs, including recruitment logistics, training, and support of mentors. New mentoring programs are planned for Reading Elementary and Bridgewater Village School at the request of the schools.

OCP forms a coalition of three coalitions with the Quintown Prevention Partnership and Gifford Tobacco Free Coalition, and they jointly submit and are awarded a grant for VT Dept of Health’s Community Tobacco grant.

A partnership is established with WISE of the Upper Valley. This collaboration leads to the launch of a “Woodstock Healthy Teens” project, which focuses on developing a community-wide model of support for healthy teen relationships.

2011

OCP continues to provide adult leadership for school-based VKAT and VTLSP. The Outreach Coordinator works in partnership with VTLSP and the Spectrum Teen Center to implement an underage drinking prevention program called the Sticker Shock campaign. OCP also works with Spectrum Teen Center, VTLSP, and the Vermont Department of Liquor Control to present a training for 34 retailers around preventing tobacco and alcohol sales to minors, and a Town Hall meeting special event in April 2011. Some 50 people attend the youth-led event.

The Shining Light Mentoring Program continues to support mentoring for 7-12^th graders in the WUMS and WUHS. New mentoring programs at Bridgewater Village School and Reading Elementary School are launched and are named “OCP’s Buddy Programs.” Woodstock Elementary School (WES) requests that OCP start a buddy program at WES. The Woodstock Inn becomes an active partner with the WES Buddy program.

CHAMPPS (Coordinated Health and Motivation and Prevention Program) obesity prevention and chronic disease prevention continues. The CHANGE tool is used with Woodstock Elementary School in conjunction with the School Health Index. OCP also begins to use the CHANGE tool with local health providers and community-at-large sectors.

Community tobacco prevention programming continues.

OCP partners with Mount Ascutney Prevention Partnership for facilitation of the Guiding Good Choices series, January through March, in the town of Reading with 11 parents participating.

Support for Farm to School continues and expands to developing environmental strategies to “make the healthy choice the easy choice.” This includes increasing access to local, healthy food in the public venues of schools, stores and restaurants and assessing the built environment so that being physically active is the easy choice.

OCP establishes the Vermont Healthy Stores Workgroup, with a focus on how to implement the best practices from the VT Dept of Health’s “Healthy Retailers Initiative,” which focuses on reducing advertising for tobacco and alcohol and increasing sales of healthy food. The Workgroup, consisting of coalition members and independent country store owners, is designing criteria and incentives for a “Vermont Healthy Stores” designation. OCP is invited to lead a workshop at the Vermont Department of Health’s Healthy Retailers Initiative statewide training. OCP invites partners, including retailers, to present on the panel.

OCP begins work focused on chronic disease prevention through increasing options for physical activity and good nutrition, decreasing tobacco use, and expanding the Healthy Retailers Initiative.