Prevention Council

Providing Substance Abuse Education, Information and Referral Services

Prevention Council receives grant from NY Center for Problem Gambling

The marketing is prominent.

And so are the gambling options.

You can’t go far around here without coming across a chance to wager some money.

All the options tend to force the hand of parents to talk about gambling with their children.

Nick Parslow of Saratoga Springs, says honesty has been the best approach with his 15-year-old twins, Noah and Miles.

“We’ve been very upfront with them that there is a lot of interest and excitement around it but it can be a risky behavior,” said Parslow about what he tells his children.

He says his kids are smart and won’t buy into the “just say no” mentality when they see how the community thrives, in part because of gambling.

“It’s very hard to tell them all these things are bad when they look around at what a wonderful town we have based on some of those things,” Parslow said.

And soon there could be more gaming options in Saratoga Springs. The Casino and Raceway hopes to be the winning bidder for full-table games.

Here or elsewhere in the region, now’s a good time to step up prevention.

“It certainly makes it that much more important that we’re out there with the message and raising awareness among parents of the risks of you gambling,” said Robin Lyle of The Prevention Council. “Regardless of where gambling expands in the state there’s going to have to be heightened prevention efforts.”

The Prevention Council plans an outreach to 90,000 parents, beginning next month. They hope parents will share the message with children that gambling now can lead to gambling addicts later. Something Nick Parlsow’s boys already know.

“Try to be realistic with them and kind of show them real examples.”

The Prevention Council plans meetings and presentations to parent groups, and a web site that will launch next month.

Prevention Council looks to overcome loss of grants

December 7, 2012
YNN News

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Since its inception 10 years ago, the Prevention Council’s drug free program at Saratoga Springs High School has made great strides in the war on substance abuse.

“Their usage rates dropped almost 40 percent,” executive director Heather Kisselback said. “There’s still kids using so it’s just a matter of what as a community is acceptable to you. To us it’s zero, we don’t want any kids using.”

“When you have consistency over a long period of time it becomes part of the culture,” Saratoga Springs School District superintendent Michael Piccirillo said.

Unfortunately for administrators, that culture could be at risk. A 10-year federal grant for the program expires in September, with a state grant for a similar class at the Shenendehowa School District running out six months later.

“All of these grants have time limits on them and you really hope you can find a way to sustain them and that’s very difficult to do in this day and age,” Kisselback said.

The organization’s $1.5 million budget is already down $120,000 from a year ago thanks to the elimination of programs like Youth Court. By moving into a smaller space in The Mill building last month, they’re tightening their belt even further.

By moving out of the former Phila Street location, the Prevention Council was able to trim $35,000 off its budget, about the cost of one staff person but still not enough to cover the price of either expiring grant.

“The better situation would be that the money came back…that there was more grants out there,” Kisselback said.

With that scenario unlikely, the Prevention Council, local schools and other organizations are teaming together to look for ways and dollars to keep the programs running without the usual funding, a large task administrators say they must accomplish.

“Yes, the funding is moving away and yes, that’s an issue but we’re going to move forward, that’s a given. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll move forward,” Piccirillo said.

Prevention Council Moves Offices; Fundraising Event to Help Fill in Gaps in Funding

November 3, 2012

By Laura Rappaport
Saratoga Wire

Facing the end of two major government grants and severe cuts in programs, the Prevention Council has moved to a smaller, cheaper office space.

The move from a spacious suite on Phila Street to tighter quarters on High Rock Avenue will save the agency some $35,000 a year in rent, and is a stark reminder of the challenges this non-profit community-based organization will face in the next few years.

And it’s why this year’s One Stop Holiday Shop fund raising event is more important than ever, officials say. The luncheon takes place Sunday at Longfellow’s Restaurant from noon to 3 p.m.

A fashion show, gourmet luncheon, and holiday retail event, the One Stop Holiday Shop will showcase an eclectic mix of fall, winter, and holiday clothing and gifts from local boutiques. Tickets are $50.

The new space in the Mill office building is a lot smaller than the agency’s old digs in the building next to Ben & Jerry’s. But, says Executive Director Heather Kisselback, it had to happen. “It’s a huge adjustment for everyone, but my goal was to not lay off people.”

The Prevention Council, with a $1.5 million budget, serves as a kind of umbrella group to a number of grant-funded programs and community coalitions aimed at helping kids make healthy choices. Most of the funding comes from the state and federal governments, which have faced their own cutbacks and are reducing funding to prevention programs.

The council’s slogan, “Helping youth navigate life’s changes” describes its mission: educating kids about the dangers of using tobacco, drugs and alcohol, as well as learning how to combat bullying and other risky behaviors. Its service area spans Saratoga County, from Edinburgh in the north to Clifton Park in the south.

It hosts and funds the Saratoga Partnership for Prevention – a communitywide prevention coalition, as well as a new prevention program in the Shenendehowa School District, and also the Southern Adirondack Tobacco-Free Coalition, committed to tobacco use prevention.

In addition, the Prevention Council runs in-school programs in 12 school districts in the county. Educators go from classroom to classroom with their Too Good for Drugs and Too Good for Violence programs. This recently replaced DARE in Saratoga Springs schools.

The Partnership for Prevention, funded by a 10-year federal Drug Free America grant, ends next September, while the Shenendehowa program is funded by New York’s Prevention First fund and ends in 2014.

“The goal is to get the coalition to keep going after (our funding) is gone,” Kisselback says.  “We hope the community will find money to sustain it … Sustainability is hard, especially now when nobody has money.”

Kisselback says prevention programs work. She points to a 20 percent drop in drinking among Saratoga High School teens who have been surveyed every two years for the past eight years.  “Kids actually do listen to our message, even if they pretend not to.”

The tobacco-free coalition is equally vital, says its spokesman, Matthew Andrus. Smoking prevention and awareness programs face stiff cutbacks even as the state brings in billions in tobacco revenues. Andrus points out the that state has made $10.5 billion from tobacco taxes and other money in the last six years, yet in the past three years funding for anti-smoking programs such as cessation and youth prevention has been slashed by 50 percent.

“In the current fiscal year, New York state will spend a mere two percent of tobacco revenues on tobacco control,” Andrus says. He emphasizes that smoking prevention efforts cost the government much less money than all the health problems caused by smoking.

Many expect non-profits to do their own fund-raising to pick up where government leaves off. But, these activists say, private funds cannot possibly make up for the loss in government funding.

Sunday’s One-stop Holiday Shop is a way for the local community to support prevention programs.

Businesses participating in the event include: Spoken Boutique, Rockabella, Fusion The Salon, Violet’s and Stella’s, The National men’s clothing shop, Alpine Sport Shop, Karalina’s, Spa Cascada, Little Red Millinery, Mountainman Saratoga Outfitters, and others.

Guests are invited to shop at these retailers’ tables throughout the day, and to enter for chances to win tons of great giveaway items.

The fashion show will take place during a three-course luncheon; items will  modeled by local “personalities,” including Lake Avenue Elementary School Principal Barbara Messier, Putnam Market co-owner Gloria Griskowitz, YNN’s Marcie Fraser, HERLIFE Magazine owner Angela Beddoe, STAR 101.3’s Fran Dingeman and her daughters, and The Toga Tattlers and their families.

For more information about the Prevention Council, click here.

Saratoga Partnership for Prevention Funds to Run Out Next Year

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

By JENNIE GREY
The Saratogian

SARATOGA SPRINGS — After 10 years of receiving federal funding, Saratoga Partnership for Prevention will run out of grant money in September 2013.

Its members are determined, however, to keep its programs running and good results coming in.

Formed in March 2000, the Partnership is a coalition of Saratoga County’s Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council, a nonprofit community-based organization. The council’s mission is to provide education, information and referral services on alcohol, tobacco, other drug and violence prevention to individuals and local communities.

The state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services granted money to the Prevention Council to help fund the coalition. The Drug-Free Community Support Program then gave the Partnership for Prevention funding for a five-year cycle, renewing for another five years when that first cycle ended.

“This is the last year of our funding,” Partnership for Prevention Coordinator Maureen Cary said. “We will need to focus on sustainability, on how to run our programs without those government monies.”

A coalition is an agreement among individuals or groups to cooperate in joint action, each in its own self-interest. The members of Partnership for Prevention work to decrease substance abuse among youths, support families through the teenage years, develop better relationships among youths and adults and build family and community norms against drug use.

The Partnership has sponsored several popular programs in Saratoga Springs, including the All Stars Camp attended by 200 students this year. The set of four one-week summer sessions came out of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. Saratoga Springs students who have just finished fifth grade may attend the camp, where they do everything from set off model rockets to set goals for the future. The All Stars Camp — buttressed by related school curriculum, a lunch group program and an after-school program — is intended to reduce alcohol and drug use among middle-schoolers, as well as lower violence and early sexual activity rates.

The All Stars Camp can be sustained by campers’ fees, Cary said. Other programs, such as the youth and parent surveys conducted by the partnership, will likely be modified for efficiency.

Past surveys have shown gratifying results, Cary said. A decline in alcohol use in grades six through 12 has been indicated, and fewer than 50 percent of students surveyed reported regular alcohol use.

Cary has been with the coalition for five years. She said the various sectors represented have formed a cohesive, compatible group. The partnership’s active members include the Saratoga Springs City School District, Saratoga Springs Police Department, Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office, Four Winds Saratoga, Meditation Matters, Franklin Community Center, Saratoga Mentoring, Saratoga Springs City Recreation Department, Saratoga County Youth Bureau, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Saratoga Springs Parent Teacher Student Organization, Saratoga County Probation Department and Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church. These community organizations work together to coordinate their services.

“We are working to find ways to keep prevention on the public policy agenda,” Cary said. “We are also seeking new funding, as our goal is to not disband. We hope our members will commit to that and take on new roles here.”