Family & Youth Initiatives Staff

On Saturday, June 13th and Sunday, June 14th, Family & Youth Initiatives hosted it’s annual For Kids Sake Silent Auction Party and Golf Tournament.  We raised over $23,000 thanks to the generosity of our donors and those who came to our event!  We are incredibly grateful to our community for showing such support for our youth and families.  Mark your calendars now for next year’s event - June 12th and 13th, 2010!

Mentors Plus match - Erik Sengel with Thomas - hung banners at the golf tournament

Family & Youth Initiatives Director, Arden Trewartha (l), spearheads the For Kids Sake fundraiser. FYI is supported by great donors including Kathie Younghans (r), owner of Amicas Pizza & Brewery. This photo was taken at last year's silent auction.

Mentors, volunteers, community members, and those just interested in a good time are invited to our 6th annual FOR KIDS SAKE Silent Auction party on Saturday, June 13th at 7pm at the Salida Steam Plant Ballroom.  You can bid on incredible items including a trip to Belize, tickets to Planet Bluegrass’ Folks Festival, golf packages, handmade jewelry, massages, and more - all while knowing that your purchases support important Family & Youth Initiatives programming.  Invite your friends and come out the best silent auction of the year!

Then, on Sunday, June 14th, join in the FOR KIDS SAKE GOLF TOURNAMENT.  The shotgun start is at 8:30am.  Two-person teams sign at the Salida Golf Club by calling 539-1060.  Fee is $50 / person.

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor or donating to the silent auction, please contact Arden at 539-1060.  Click here to see the event poster, including our Tournament-level sponsors.

Mentor, Steve Phillips, with mentee, Josh, served as "fore caddies" at last year's tournament. We're looking for volunteers to help at this year's event.

CCM+ Group Photo of Mentors Jen, Scot, Mentee Jess, & Mentors Beth & Bonnie

Teens and Fitness: The importance of recognizing the effects of daily life on our bodies

Many teenagers in Chaffee County spend most of their summers (or life for that matter) watching TV, sitting around with friends, or talking on the phone. Where’s the activity? Even for those youth not interested traditional sports, our area offers a wealth of both indoor and outdoor alternative activities, including pilates, yoga, hiking, kayaking, rafting, biking.

Mentors Plus seeks to help youth transform their sedentary lifestyles and get more involved in local activities.  On Thursday, May 28th, six youth and mentors attended our Body Awareness group activity held at the Salida Pilates Studio.  CCM+ Mentor Erin McIntire, who also works with Adventures in Body Awareness with Rebound Therapy, donated her time to teach us how to be more aware of our bodies, stretch properly using core muscles, and relax our bodies when tense.  So often we go through the movements in our lives without paying attention. Erin taught the group how to pay attention to the muscles we use throughout the day like bending over to pick up a box or blow drying our hair.  The strength exercises we did were subtle but powerful.  CCM+ mentor, Jen Walters, said, “What a great activity, the movements were so little, but the next day I was slightly sore!”

The relaxation skills we learned are critical for teens.  Most teenagers have difficulty getting to know the effects their habits have on their minds as well as their bodies.  Researchers  continue to reveal the effects of stress, anxiety, and negativity on the body (for examples, see Insight Journal and StressCenter.com). Many emotional states can have dramatic physical effects on the body. For instance, individuals with unresolved negative episodes throughout their lives may be more likely to get cancer.  [Read more at National Cancer Institute and Psych Central.]

So, let’s get those youth out of the house and into great activities like yoga and Pilates to build mental, emotional, and physical fitness.  We are thankful to Erin for taking the time to teach our group a few simple ways to be more aware of our bodies in our daily lives and letting us know we are capable of more than normally we do.  We look forward to future activities to learn more about body awareness.

Match Beth and Jessica share a moment of core muscle understanding

I took a workshop called “Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist Training” during the first week in May. This 4-day training was full of information and tools on how to work to keep kids safe in a culture that is riddled with substance abuse. Intentional media targeting of youth with alcohol and tobacco advertising was one of the topics we discussed. Research shows that kids are very susceptible to advertising and images that they see portraying products of all kinds.

Whether it is the latest gadget, sugary cereal or shiny toy - statistics show that kids are the most successful group to target with advertising. And this is no different for tobacco and alcohol marketing. According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the tobacco industry spends more than 8.4 billion dollars a year on advertising (that breaks down to $23 million per day!).

So how do we protect our kids from the strong pull of suggestive selling of tobacco products (and alcohol products as well for that matter) with posters and items purposely placed at their eye level (one of the current tobacco and alcohol marketing techniques)? This is exactly what our local Boys and Girls Club “Get R!EAL” coalition is working to address in the Salida community.  I attended the Salida City Council meeting last Tuesday evening.  Seven girls in black t-shirts displaying the “Get R!EAL” logo filled the front row. They were an impressive presence. Every person attending the meeting was given the option of wearing a purple sticker that read, “I care about Salida youth. I support a tobacco product placement ordinance in Salida.”

This ordinance has 3 elements: 1) Tobacco products would be placed out of reach of minors and behind the sales counter so that individuals must ask for the product they need; 2) Vending machines could only be placed where minors would not have access to them; 3) Merchants and companies could not give away free tobacco products in a promotional manner (at festivals, events, etc.). This ordinance is going before the City Council on June 2^nd to be put to a vote.  The Get R!EAL coalition has been working diligently for months at the Boys and Girls Club and with businesses and local municipal government in a responsible and inclusive way, making sure that this is not a divisive situation that could put small business owners at risk during these tough economic times.

If you would like to show your support for this ordinance, the next meeting will be held June 2^nd, at 6pm at Salida City Council (on 3^rd Street between F and E Streets). Let’s hear it for the good work of our local youth to keep themselves and each other healthy and tobacco-free!

 

Jessica is all smiles!

Mentors and activity volunteers with Chaffee County Mentors are invited to an appreciation dinner to be held Tuesday, May 12th from 6:30-8:30pm at the Twisted Cork Cafe, 8048 US Hwy 50, Salida.  RSVP by Monday, May 4th and let us know if you want chicken, fish, beef, or veggie.

Buena Vista mentors and mentees in Youth In Action celebrate the year

Youth In Action, middle school youth mentoring pre-school children, culminated last week with a potluck dinner celebration for youth and their families.  Youth In Action is held Mondays after school in Buena Vista and Wednesdays after school in Salida and includes reading, crafts, field trips, and guest speakers.  This year, our theme was “Around the World” and each month focused on a story from a different culture.  In addition to stories from our home country, we also “visited” Guatemala, China, the region of West Africa, and Afghanistan.  Activities included making a pinata, learning Tai Chi, making masks, doing African drumming and dancing, making friendship bracelets and photo frames, and visiting a local farm.

At each celebration, we honored our matches, especially noting our matches of the month, our peer leaders, and those who had awesome attendance (missing no more than one meeting the entire year).  All pre-schoolers received a special book from their mentor, including a personalized note written on the inside.  We are incredibly proud of our 12 Buena Vista matches and our 11 Salida matches and the connections they have made with each other, with reading, and with their community this year.

The response from our parents has affirmed these connections:  One parent of a pre-schooler said, “My daughter used to say she never wanted to grow up.  Now she wants to be just like her teenage mentor.”  Another pre-school parent notes about her daughter that, “she learned to love reading and sits and reads her books independently and to her sister.”  A parent of a middle schooler said, “My child learned. . . how he can better himself to help other people.”  Finally, another pre-school parent said, “the activities are well rounded and provide opportunities to the children to experience things they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

We are grateful to all our parents for their support and the delicious dishes they brought to the potlucks.  Over 60 family members attended the celebration at the BV Community Center on Monday and over 40 came to the Salida Middle School on Wednesday.  Thanks also to Punky’s Diner in Buena Vista for their yummy BBQ pork, to the Salida Middle School for helping make the dinner happen so easily, and to Salida Tool and Equipment Rental for their support.

The celebration and thank you to our middle school mentors continued last Saturday with a trip to Elitch Gardens in Denver.  The eighteen youth who attended this mentor appreciation activity enjoyed the rides and getting to know the mentors from the other town.

Volunteer Mentors Steve Phillips and Himani Ellis enjoyed Dr. Bavolek's presentation

Founder of the Nurturing Parenting Program, Dr. Steven Bavolek, visited Chaffee County the week of April 6th.  During his visit, he presented to various groups, including an open discussion with 18 mentors, parents, and community members held Thursday, April 9th at Bongo Billy’s Salida Cafe.  Dr. Bavolek offered valuable insights into the deeper meaning of nurturing.  Derived from the Latin, nutritura, meaning “to nourish, nurse, and promote growth,” nurturing can be either positive or negative.  When it is negative, it is abusis (Latin meaning harsh, mean, and cruel) or negligere (Latin meaning to not pick up or touch).  Dr. Bavolek reviewed the three kinds of touch - hurting, sexual/scary, gentle - and shared his philosophy of zero tolerance of hurting or scary touch.  While many adults claim that they were spanked as a kid and turned out fine, Dr. Bavolek reminds us that most people who were hit can remember each and every instance in which that happened during childhood.  “Remembering an event 20 years ago like it was yesterday is called trauma,” Bavolek said.

To practice the value of gentle touch and positive nurturing, Bavolek had each of us hold hands with a partner and compliment him or her.  The job of the person being complimented was to say, “thank you.”  A seemingly simple task is not so easy in a world where many have had childhoods with more negative nurturing than positive.  As we held hands, we learned that we are 99.8% genetically the same as all other human beings.  Bavolek said, “as you hold another, you are holding yourself.”  At the end of this exercise, Bavolek had us all offer a “strength bombardment” to Heather Barron, Chaffee County Mentors Program Coordinator.  We should include remember to give our youth regular strength bombardments.

Another way to offer positive nurturing is praise.  Dr. Bavolek encouraged us to distinguish between praise “for doing” and praise “for being” and to not give both at the same time.  Bavolek continued offering powerful advice for our mentors:  “Offer our kids unconditional regard and remember that they are greater than their behavior.  Every kid is a basic caring individual, biologically predisposed to form and maintain long-term positive relationships.  At the same time, kids have developed behaviors to adapt to their circumstances - they are wearing an adaptive shell.  When kids are ‘acting out’, then catch them ‘acting in’.  When they seem to be lacking accountability, notice the situations in which they are being accountable.”  Notice how our actions (as mentors, parents, etc.) reinforce negative behavior.  We need to make sure to include our youth when develop rules and consequences.

We also discussed the power of empathy.  All of us have feelings and thoughts.  Feelings have energy and energy wants expression.  How can we help youth express their feelings?  We were encouraged to really listen to our youth and not to squelch their feelings.  As an illustration, Dr. Bavolek had us write three feelings, each on a small piece of paper.  We then walked around the room and socialized until Dr. Bavolek stopped us.  Each time we stopped, Bavolek shared how an adult might ignore a child, and we had to drag one of the feelings under a foot or a hand.  Pretty soon, we were hunched over, moving as if we were crippled.  Positive adults in the lives of youth have the ability to help them feel heard, stand up straight, and move forward.

Dr. Bavolek is excited about the positive nurturing happening in Chaffee County and wants to continue offering his support of our community.  We are looking forward to his next visit.

Choppin' Veggies

Hello All,
First, I would like to greatly thank Kyle Johan for teaching the kiddo’s cooking last Thursday. He did terrific! Also to all the mentors and help that I had-you guys are the bomb! Thanks to Scot for hooking us up at the Center for this to happen.

It has been suggested to us by Susan, director at the Senior Center that if we have some kiddo’s that could come and help paint or even staff, that they are willing to work out a deal with us on the use of the venue. They were ever so kind to let us use the venue for free and for our program this is really helpful. It has 2 terrific kitchens and plenty of space!

Although it’s last minute, Susan is buying paint for the rooms today. She is asking that we have ANYONE come and paint after 4pm on Tues and Wed. We could use all the help we can get. This is a terrific opportunity and I strongly ENCOURAGE mentors if they are hanging out with their kids either of these days, to PLEASE take them over to paint for a few hours. Scot Zellmer, our mentor will be there those days and is trying to recruit all he can. Please help us make this happen! The more we have, the quicker it gets done. Please call Scot at 221-1404 or email him at his email (attached) to this email.

For kiddo’s that need community service, please use this as a opportunity for that.

The Senior Center is also changing it’s name and trying to get a larger varied crowd in there and this is why they are looking at getting as many kiddo’s involved in this project. They don’t want to be known just as the Senior Center, but a People’s Community Center. They will start showing independent films down there every Thursday to begin the opening of a crowd. We are hoping that our programs, especially CCM+, will being using and working with them more.

Thank you for your help and consideration. Please pass on to those interested.
Cheers,

Menessah Nelson, MA, LPC
Chaffee County Department of Human Services
Intensive Family & Youth Therapist/Caseworker
Mentors Plus Program Manager

Glenn Mallory with mentee, German

A huge thank you to Salida Super Bowl for hosing our March bowling activity.

Our April activity is a Tour and Picnic at Weathervane Farm and Cottonwood Creek Dairy.  With the support of Farmhands Education we’ll get to meet the farmers and the animals and find out how a farm works.  Mentors and mentees are invited to join us Saturday, April 11th.  Bring a bag lunch, a warm layer, and a water bottle.  The Salida bus meets at the back of the middle school at 9:30am and will return at 2pm.  The Buena Vista bus meets at 10am and will return at 1:30pm.  Call us to let us know if you can make it:  719-395-7006 or 719-539-2630.

Farmer Lindsey teaches Youth in Action how to collect eggs