Cultivating Youth Leadership Youth Empowerment Through Student-Directed Initiatives Franklin County Supervisory Union’s School and Community Approach

Why? We want to engage and empower youth at the school and community level. We want to create a community that functions with the youth. We want to create a community that functions with the youth. We want to empower the youth to make better choices to avoid the cycle of destructive decisions.

Engage and Empower Youth Students are able to start their own clubs. A great majority of BFA students are involved in some kind of extracurricular activity at school. Clubs cover a wide range of activities and interests Students and youth serve on the various boards throughout the school and community. Youth are given the opportunity to lead community and school projects

Creating a community that functions with the youth Student-centered action planning and implementation Informed by analysis and data driven decision- making Students serving on the boards and councils Data driven decision-making- YRBS initiative

Empowering youth to make better choices Giving students at BFA opportunities participate in clubs, sports and other extracurricular activities before and after school. Creating ways for students create relationships with adults and mentors. “Project New Beginnings”

“Project New Beginnings” Mission Prescription pills have taken over our community and they have become an epidemic! My generation has dealt with this addiction problem and I want more to be offered for myself and the other recovering addicts who deal with my same struggles. We have created a project called “Project New Beginnings” in an effort to make our community a better, safer place. we want to insure that our children have a choice/ chance against drug addiction and are made aware of the services/support our community has to offer.

“Project New Beginnings” Educate youth about drug addiction and the road to recovery. Partnered with Dr. Fred Holmes, a local pediatrician who first noticed the community problem with prescription drug dependence. Katie surveyed 39 Suboxone patients where she identified the major factors that may have caused the individuals to substance abuse. She, and other young recovering addicts in the community are leading initiatives to prevent and treat prescription drug abuse. They are working with a steering committee with the promise of submitting a budget and a sustainable plan for the future.

The Future… Challenges We have to move beyond students as “tokens” and have them become actual members of boards. “Project New Beginnings” is having difficulty getting to the demographic they need to reach. We see that we have to change the “culture” of the region in order to achieve our goals.

Contact Information Project New Beginnings Katy Tanner Dr. Fred Holmes Liesl Ulrich-Verderber FCSU School & Community Coordinator Loli Berard VT Department of Health Mary Pickener