Summer in prevention

Welcome to STAR Council's official blog! If you're not familiar with STAR Council's services, or even if you're an active supporter of what we do, our hope is that this blog will serve as an educational tool as well as an update on how STAR Council is serving our 7 counties.

While I invite you to visit our website for more information, let me quickly point out that STAR Council has two primary domains: treatment and prevention. Within prevention, we use universal strategies to educate the public, primarily youth, and environmental strategies through the use of our coalition. More on these later.

For today, here's a word about substance abuse prevention from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation:

"Pervasive, consistent messages to young people about drugs and alcohol can prevent substance abuse. Effective prevention requires that the same messages about alcohol, drugs, and tobacco be delivered by multiple messengers--schools, parents, peers, and the community--repeatedly throughout childhood and adolescence."

While we know we cannot supplement peers or parents, we do strive to represent our communities as trustworthy, knowledgeable "messengers" who act as role models for our area youth. We provide character education and alternative substance-free activities in safe environments where youth can learn to lead successful and healthy lifestyles.

Enjoy these photos from our recent All-STAR Camp, tailored to 4th and 5th graders on the topics of teamwork and cooperation.

Teams were given a bag of tools and instructed to work together to build the tallest free-standing structure they could.

Teams were instructed to stand along a beam and, without stepping off, to trade places with other team members. We are proud to announce that they were eventually successful.

We filled water guns with watered-down paint and created masterpieces. Just for fun!

Our next camp will take place on July 18-20 for incoming 6th-8th graders. Focus will be on leadership. Contact our prevention department for registration and information.

Here's a link to our website: http://www.starcouncil.org/