STOP Act Grant Awarded to the SAFE Coalition

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition and Van Buren County Community School District has been awarded 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 4 years beginning April 30, 2020. The program will work to make server trainings mandatory for every business that obtains a liquor license, provide 12 Merchant Alcohol Trainings (two trainings every other month), and will support the efforts of law enforcement to perform semi-annual compliance checks. The ultimate goal of these activities is to reduce the access to alcohol by underage youth and young adults, in turn reducing the number of youth and young adults who are using alcohol in the county. If you would like more information on the STOP Act Grant or any of the coalition’s activities please feel free to contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-3334 or safe.coalition@van-burencsd.org. 

Van Buren County IPFS Project Has Ended

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition was awarded the Iowa Partnership for Success (IPFS) Grant in February 2015 to address underage drinking and underage binge drinking in Van Buren County.  The coalition completed the fifth year of this five year grant on September 29, 2019.  The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition’s IPFS project was funded by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The coalition received a nine month extension (September 30, 2019—June 30, 2020) from IDPH funded through State of Iowa beer and liquor permit revenue to continue to address two of the IPFS strategies and two new strategies.  The coalition members chose to continue to address Alcohol Restrictions at Community Events at Privately Owned Facilities and Alcohol Restrictions in Public Places.  The two new strategies are a Media Campaign produced by IDPH “As You Age, THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK” to address the increase in deaths from alcohol use by people over 45; and to promote suicide prevention work in the county. 

During the nine month extension of the IPFS Project the coalition worked on implementing the four strategies it was funded to work on as follows:  

1) Alcohol Restrictions at Community Events at Privately Owned Facilities: The coalition worked with privately owned facilities to help them write, adopt, and implement newly written alcohol policies focused on the Best Practices for Alcohol Service at their location.  No new policies were put in place during the grant extension.  The coalition would recommend that all facilities in the county put into place a written alcohol restriction policy to help limit the access to alcohol by youth and young adults.  If you are interested you may contact the coalition office for more information. 

2) Alcohol Restrictions in Public Places: The coalition worked with city councils to help them write, adopt, and implement newly written alcohol policies focused on the Best Practices for Alcohol Service at their local parks and ball fields. The coalition worked cities to help them to implement these policies, but no new policies were put in place during the grant extension.  The coalition would recommend that all towns in the county put into place a written alcohol restriction policy for their community parks and ball fields to help limit access to alcohol by youth and young adults. 

3) Older Adult Drinking Prevention Media Campaign: The coalition worked with local media outlets to implement IDPH’s “As You Age, THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK” older adult drinking prevention media campaign.  The coalition utilized posters at the hospital and clinics, a billboard ad, newspaper ads, and radio ads to promote the campaign during the grant extension.  The coalition worked with local media outlets to ensure older adults were exposed to the media campaign. 

4) Adult Suicide Prevention: The coalition worked to increase the capacity of the county to address Adult Suicide Prevention.  The coalition worked to educate community members on the risk and signs of potential suicide in family members and friends.  The coalition provided the opportunity to community members to participate in the online START Suicide Prevention Training to train local community members and stakeholders in how to help prevent suicides in the county.  This opportunity is still available for community members.  Please contact the coalition office if you are interested.  The coalition members also worked to promote IDPH’s Your Life Iowa website (yourlifeiowa.org) and related resources.  This included articles and ads in the newspaper.   

For more information on the Van Buren County Partnership for Success work or the SAFE Coalition please contact the coalition at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017 or safe.coalition@van-burencsd.org.

Why Van Buren County Should Care About Having Drug-Free Workplaces

Drug-Free Workplaces are important because substance abuse in the workplace is a widespread problem.  Alcohol and other drug abuse is widespread in our society.  It affects us all in many ways.  Although national, state and local efforts have begun to show encouraging results, the problem of alcohol and other drug abuse remains a serious problem. 

Substance abusing employees often do not make good employees.  Studies show that, compared with non-substance abusers, they are more likely to change jobs frequently; be late to or absent from work; be less productive employees; be involved in a workplace accident and file a workers’ compensation claim. 

Workplace substance abuse can also have a serious effect on people other than the abuser.  For example, some studies suggest that working alongside a substance abuser can reduce non-abusers’ morale and productivity.  It also is quite common for substance abusing workers who are involved in workplace accidents to injure other people (rather than themselves), especially if they work in safety-sensitive industries, such as the transportation or construction industry. 

Employers who have implemented drug-free workplace programs have important experiences to share (Joel Bennett and Wayne E.K. Lehman. 2003. Preventing Workplace Substance Abuse: Beyond Drug Testing to Wellness. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.):

·    Employers with successful drug-free workplace programs report improvements in morale and productivity and decreases in absenteeism, accidents, downtime, turnover and theft.

·    Employers with longstanding programs report better health status among, and decreased use of medical benefits by, many employees and family members.

·    Some organizations with drug-free workplace programs qualify for incentives, such as decreased costs for workers’ compensation and other kinds of insurance. (U.S. Department of Labor. “Florida State Law: Drug Free Workplace Act.”)

·    Employers find that employees, employee representatives and unions often welcome drug-free workplace programs.  If employers do not have a program the employees may be wondering why.  (Robert R. Bonds and Effie Bastes. 1999. “A Peer-Professional Team Intervention Approach in the Treatment of Drug and Alcohol Problems in the Workplace.” Paper presented at the International Union of Railways World Conference on Occupational Health and Safety, September 23.)

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition would like to encourage all Van Buren County residents, workers and businesses to find out the facts about Drug-Free Workplaces and be informed.  For more information please contact the SAFE Coalition at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017 or safe.coalition@van-burencsd.org.  

Senator Grassley Visits Van Buren County

Wednesday, July 8, 2020 the Van Buren County SAFE Coalition hosted a visit to Van Buren County by Senator Chuck Grassley for a question and answer time with community and coalition members.  This meeting was part of Senator Grassley’s annual tradition to hold at least one Q & A in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties each year. In attendance at the Q & A Session were: Gloria Brown – Van Buren County SAFE Coalition (Board Member), Melissa Daugherty – Van Buren County Hospital (Job Ops, PAT, and Coalition Board Member), Senator Grassley, Jennifer Heins – Senator Grassley’s Office (Director of Scheduling), Jeremy Hissem – Van Buren County Community School District (Superintendent and Coalition Member), Kasha Kite – Van Buren County Hospital (Chief Nursing Officer), Kara McEntee – Van Buren County Hospital (Chief Financial Officer), Lisa Plecker – Van Buren County Auditor (Coalition Board Member), Dean Rankin – Community Member, Kris Rankin – Van Buren County SAFE Coalition (Coordinator), Jon Tharp – Van Buren County Sheriff’s Deputy, and Penny Vacek – Senator Grassley’s Office (Regional Director). 

During the meeting Senator Grassley allowed the attendees to ask questions and share information on what was happening in their area of the community.  The issues discussed included substance misuse prevention work and substance misuse issues in the county, mental health, Paycheck Protection Program Loans, rural health care, back to school plans and guidance, transportation issues for schools and other entities in the county, etc.  Each attendee was allowed a time to present their information to the Senator and ask questions of him.  He also took time to ask questions of the individuals present about the work they are doing and issues they are facing. 

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition would like to thank Senator Grassley for allowing them to host this event and for coming to Van Buren County to interact with his constituents.  The coalition would also like to thank all of the community members who attended the meeting and added to the active and productive dialogue. 

For more information on the SAFE Coalition please check out these online sites: Blog: http://vbsafecoalition.blogspot.com/; Website: http://www.van-buren.k12.ia.us/vnews/display.v/SEC/RESOURCES%7CSAFE%20COALITION; SAFE Coalition Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/vanburencountysafecoalition/; YLC Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/vanburencountyyouthleadershipcouncil/ or you may contact the coalition at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017 or safe.coalition@van-burencsd.org. 

WARNING…. EXPIRED EMPLOYEES!

The Van Buren County SAFE Coalition will be completing an audit of all Van Buren County Licensees. When it has been completed the coalition staff will send you a copy of who is or is not trained at your business.  Coalition members are available to meet with business owners/managers to help you with your business and any questions you may have in regard to licensing rules and training your staff.  In order for a local business to be eligible to eliminate administrative sanctions on a local compliance check the employees must have a current certification with the coalition from the free Merchant Alcohol Training. In order to eliminate administrative sanctions on a state patrol compliance check your employees must be trained through I-PACT the ABD online training system.

The 3 Step Employee Training Process that the coalition encourages merchants to follow for trainings is as follows:

1. Orientation DVD: Checking ID’s– Easy as 1-2-3

2. SAFE Merchant Alcohol Training Program

3. I-PACT Online Training Program– Iowa ABD

The SAFE Coalition will be holding merchant alcohol trainings on July 23, 2020, September 15, 2020, and November 17, 2020 at 6:00 pm and July 24, 2020, September 16, 2020 and November 18, 2020 at 9:00 am at the Van Buren Community Services Center Conference Room (ER entrance of the Hospital – Building is on the Left) in Keosauqua. The trainings in 2020 will be held every other month unless a business or special event is in need of a personal training and those can be set up through the coalition by calling 319-293-3334 ext. 1017.

If you have employees who need to be re-trained or who have never been trained plan to get them to a training as soon as possible. If you are unsure of the status of your employees you may contact the coalition office. If you would like to set up a private training for your business please contact Kris at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017. If you have other questions or concerns the coalition can be reached via email at info@vbsafecoalition.com or by phone at 319-293-3334 ext. 1017. RSVP is required for all trainings.