Baraga County Communities That Care Holding Events, Need Volunteers

The following information was provided by Carrie Rich, Coordinator of Baraga County Communities That Care.

Baraga County Communities That Care is a community coalition that focuses on prevention in our youth of problem and risky behaviors – things like substance abuse, depression and anxiety, low commitment to school, etc. We work with local agencies and organizations to help bring in programming that will help our youth in a variety of ways make healthier choices for their future.

We have two programs that are going to be offered quite a bit to families of youth and any groups that would like to know more about it as well over the next few months. We wanted to let you know what they were so that you could spread the word to your families, friends, and encourage the people in your areas to get involved or think about going to a program if they see it being offered.

Guiding Good Choices is a 5 week skill building workshop for parents and guardians of youth from ages 9 – 15. It helps open up the lines of communication and creates skills to help parents and teens communicate. It also helps to build awareness to help resist peer influences while building familial bonds and interaction. It is for EVERY family – whether or not they think their communication is good. Everyone can learn something from this workshop and it is generally free, but they do have to register for it.

QPR stands for Question. Persuade. Refer. This is a program that runs about an hour and can be given to any group of people (generally at least 16 years and older). It is an awareness training for suicide prevention. When a friend comes up to you and starts talking about having thoughts of suicide or even some standard phrases people say that are linked to suicide after the fact, this program helps you to identify if there might be a problem and how to persuade a person to get help and the tools to give them if they need it. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A PROFESSIONAL FOR THIS TRAINING. It is meant for everyday people to learn the warning signs and help get the person to the help they need when they need it. There is currently no cost to this program.

Both of these programs will be offered a few different times over the next 6 months in Baraga County. Please contact us if you would like to host one or more of these trainings in your facility or know of someone who would like to host us. We’d be happy to offer them in multiple locations.

We are also offering a 10 – 15 minute presentation on what Communities That Care is and how you can get involved in helping your community become a better place to live, work, and play. We are willing to present to any groups that want to learn more about us. So, if you know a group that would like to know more, please have them contact me at baragacountyctc@gmail.com or 906-201-4024.

We are currently looking for volunteers for lots of different areas of our coalition. If you have a skill you’d like to share, please contact us! There are LOTS of different ways you can help and we can try to have you help by doing something you love to do. Many things can be done outside of meetings and we encourage you to reach out to us to let us know how you would like to get involved.

Also, as most of you are aware, we are in process of tracking everyone’s interactions and those talking about CTC (grocery store conversations to full on board room presentations and everything in between) so that we can let our funding agent know that we are reaching out into the community. If you have been talking about CTC or answering questions, please be sure to get that information of who / where / when / and how many people to Carrie, so she can track it for our funding approvals.

We also are working on a list of different groups in and around the community that we can present to about what Communities That Care is and how they can get involved. If you would like to present (the presentation and what to say will be provided), please let me know and we will work you into the rotation, OR if you know of groups that would like to have us come talk to them, please let me know ASAP.