Healthy Dent County held a special substance use prevention town hall lunch at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory Dec. 13, where Jamie Myers of Prevention Consultants of Missouri Prevention presented on how to build protective factors and reducing risk factors to prevent youth substance use.
The event was a collaboration between area schools, Salem Rotary Club and the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. In attendance were nearly a hundred members of the community as well as representatives of local law-enforcement and city officials.
Myers has been working in the prevention field for more than 30 years. He has been the executive director of Prevention Consultants of Missouri since it was founded in 1993.
Myers focuses a lot of his time and energy into supporting the positive efforts or community coalitions, professional organizations, families and individuals is the emphasis of his prevention work. He is an accomplished trainer, teacher and counselor. He has led the successful development and implementation of multiple programs and services in many communities created from proposals and applications he has authored.
Myers’ presentation was centered around how a community can promote good decision making in their youth, not just by attempting to eliminate what he and other industry professionals call “risk factors” but by creating an abundance of what he called “protective factors.”
“Effective prevention focuses on reducing those risk factors, and strengthening protective factors, that are most closely related to the problem being addressed,” said Myers.
Risk factors may include a person’s genetic predisposition to addiction or exposure to alcohol prenatally; in communities, risk factors may include neighborhood poverty and violence.
Here, protective factors could include the availability of faith-based resources and after-school activities, or might include positive self-image, self-control, or social competence.
Protective factors are characteristics associated with a lower likelihood of negative outcomes or that reduce a risk factor’s impact. Protective factors may be seen as positive countering events.
Some risk and protective factors are fixed: they don’t change over time. Other risk and protective factors are considered variable and can change over time. Variable risk factors include income level, peer group, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and employment status.
A panel of JAG (Jobs for American Graduates) Eighth Grade students from North Wood R-IV also presented and fielded questions about the JAG program.
Marshall White, Dylan Parker, Mason Hawn, Abryanna Hawn and Melina Hawn each spoke and fielded questions from the community.
“JAG helps young people of truly great promise succeed both in school and on-the-job, leading to a productive and rewarding career. Jobs for America’s Graduates is led by a public/private partnership at the national level, comprised of leading Governors, C-Suite Executives among the Fortune 500 and national community leaders. It is organized to support State Affiliates in the high-impact delivery of the JAG Model across middle school, high school, and out-of-school and collegiate young adult populations. JAG is proud to have served over 1.4 million young people since 1980,” according to the JAG History found on their website. To learn more about JAG visit jag.org.
Another panel of students—seniors from Salem High School sat and spoke with Myers and fielded questions from the community on the topic of making alcohol and drug-free choices.
