SAFE Offices Closed

The Van Buren County SAFE Office will be closed for the Holidays beginning December 23rd through January 5th. Have a SAFE and Happy Holiday season.

Merchant Alcohol Trainings Scheduled

The next county-wide Merchant Alcohol Trainings have been scheduled for January 28th. There will be two sessions held for your convenience. The first session will be at 10am and the second session will be held at 6pm. If your business is not able to attend either of these sessions but has employees who need to be trained a private training session can be set up at your convenience by contacting Tonja at 319-288-0912.

County Wide Merchant Alcohol Training
January 28th
10am & 6pm
Roberts Memorial Center- Keosauqua, IA
To register for this trianing please contact Tonja at 319-288-0912

For more information about the merchant alcohol training visit the SAFE Coalition website at: http://www.vbsafecoalition.com/files/MerchantAlcoholBrochure.pdf

December Meeting Cancelled!

Due to the weather the December meeting was cancelled. Due to the holidays the meeting will not be rescheduled, all agenda items will be moved to the January Meeting. (See meeting info on the right)
The educational forum will be postponed until the February meeting. The date and time of the February meeting will be announced soon. Meeting date and time will be changed due to conflicts of coalition staff on the second Tuesday of the month.
Everyone have a SAFE and Happy Holiday Season.

Celebrate with Care

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition has begun their Celebrate with Care media campign. During the month of December you will see various media messages from the coalition reminding people not to drink and drive during the holidays. Also reminding them not to provide alcohol to minors during this time.
Messages are sent out via newspaper ads, posters in stores & resturants, palm cards from local police officers, and articles in the local newspaper.

Please remember this holiday season:

• When you are celebrating do so responsibly.
• If you have had too much to drink- DO NOT DRIVE
• DO NOT LET A FRIEND DRIVE after they have been drinking.

Have a SAFE and Happy Holiday Season from the Van Buren County SAFE Coalition.

SAFE Meeting Next Week

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition will have their December meeting next week.
Meeting Details:
December 9th
2:00pm
Roberts Memorial Center
Educational forum to follow- Topic- Lobbying vs. Advocacy

Agenda Items Include:
Committe Work
Holiday Campaign
Newsletter Topics
Recruiting new members

STOP Grant

The SAFE Coalition is one of four recipients in Iowa for a grant from The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to STOP (Sober Truth on Preventing) Underage Drinking.

The grant award was for $50,000 a year for 3 years beginning October 1st, 2008. The program will work to make server trainings mandatory for every business that obtains a liquor license. It will also support the efforts of law enforcement to perform semi-annual compliance checks.

The ultimate goal of these activities is to reduce the access of alcohol, in turn reducing the number of youth who are using alcohol.

If you would like more information on the STOP grant or any of the activities please feel free to contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412 or Tonja Jirak (STOP Grant Coordinator) at 319-288-0912

FREE Training Opportunities

There are currently some free training opportunities available with the coalition.

• Merchant Alcohol Training- October 29th, 6-8pm, Roberts Memorial Center
• CADCA National Leadership Forum, Feb 9-12, Washington DC

If you are interested in more information about either of these trainings please contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-6412 or get more information on the web: www.vbsafecoalition.com

First October Update

So far October has been a busy month for the coalition. Activities include:

• Start of the Alcohol- Edu Program at Van Buren High School
• Received the STOP grant from SAMHSA and hired Tonja Jirak as the coordinator.
• Walked in the Fall Festival Parade with JEL/YLC youth
• Had a booth during kids day at the Fall Festival.
• JEL youth held a street marketing event and had a game during kids day at the Fall Festival.
• Our October meeting was held on October 14th- minutes of the meeting will be on the web after the first of November.

We encourage you to check out our website at www.vbsafecoalition.com to get the most updated information about coalition events and activities.

Our pictures from the weekend events have been posted on our Flickr site- check them out!

Reminders!

Coalition Members:
If you have an article for the newsletter please send it to Heidi no later than October 1st.

Just a reminder- Our next SAFE Meeting is October 14th @ 2:00pm @ Roberts Memorial Center

Upcoming Events:
October 11th- Fall Festival Parade (Jon T. & Karen R. walking)
October 12th- Fall Festival Kids Day (Main St.)
If you are interested in helping out with the Kids Day Booth please let Heidi know as soon as possible.

Website

Be sure to check out all the September updates on our webpage- www.vbsafecoalition.com.
There are links to all our photos, the blogs, the youth coalition, plus much much more.
Find out information about Family Day- September 22nd. You can get information on our website or visit www.casafamilyday.org.

September Meeting

Coalition Members-
This is just a reminder about our September Meeting
Date: September 9th
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Roberts Memorial Center
Board Members please be there at 1:30pm with secretary nominations!

Be sure to check out all the new stuff on our website- we have blogs, photos, new training opportunites, and a link to our youth page.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting on the 9th!
Heidi

Hey Guys!

We are just starting up our a blog for our coalition!! I hope you guys enjoy reading up about the coalition, and we can't wait to hear your feedback!