January 26, 2020

Point Pleasant Beach Municipal Alliance Committee

Tuesday, January 26, 2020

8:00 P.M.

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Meeting ID: 935 8727 8636

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The mission for the Point Pleasant Beach Municipal Alliance is to address the prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana misuse and abuse through educational programming, public awareness campaigns and encouraging good mental health practices for our families and community.

The vision of the Alliance is to promote and enhance a positive, physically and mentally healthy community free of the misuse and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.

PPBMAC Agenda

7:30 PM Sunshine Law/Roll Call – all in attendance

Waive reading of minutes & adopt: motioned and adopted.

1. Open Discussion
   1. Family Dinner

Erin: plan looked to be heading in the direction we discussed at the last meeting. Good time for parents to notice cues and kids behavior so they can take note. Noticed something from presentation at last meeting that parents who aren’t around have kids who get into more trouble.

AT: Discussing the teen challenge and life transformation. Number 1 cause of men turning to drugs, etc. is because there is no father/parent present, and this is consistent with other research. When talking about outreach to bring families/parents together, this is why we are focusing on the family night.

Erin: let’s encourage committing 30 minutes at the table, no phones, etc. No need to get the restaurants involved.

AT: We can reach out to the Ocean Star and have a write-up, make up posters for downtown, have the Chamber advertise. If successful, maybe once a month. Create more of a community coming-together.

Erin: And there would be a commitment to doing this.

AT: Mentioned having a speaker, which may be difficult, but can organize and arrange down the line.

KF: keep it casual and include a hashtag to post. Maybe have a winner of a gift card from a restaurant.

AT: Once facebook is ready, we can post about “what it meant to people/families.” When do we want to do this?

KM: maybe include a simple recipe with a video to encourage families to make this or put their own spin on it. Piggy-back off of the rec department’s snowman contest with awards for the vote.

AT: Let’s get a write up, specify the video, write out details etc. Meet separately to get the article put together.

KF: can pick names out of a hat for the prize

• Targeting Sunday: Erin, Kait and Arlene will put together a framework for the article with the finer points of the details. Meeting on Sunday to discuss – Councilman Vitale will schedule the zoom.
  1. Food?
  2. Family discussion points?

• Contest? Angel suggested creating a photo contest to catch interest.

1. How to invite families?

1. Parents Who Host Lose Most campaign
   1. https://preventionactionalliance.org/about/programs/parents-who-host-lose-the-most/
   2. Materials: https://preventionactionalliance.org/shop/category/parents-who-host-lose-the-most/
      1. Informational flyers & stickers are in! (Could be used for to create a campaign for local liquor stores.)

Erin: Students usually get a bag with the materials, but the question is whether the parents will ever see the bag and contents.

Sofia: Miss Point High was a good event for handing out materials to the audience, so maybe one of those events may work.

Luke: Agrees that Miss Point High would be helpful.

Erin: What other events are coming up in the spring will happen for us to tag onto.

Luke: Can ask Ms. Tierney about any upcoming events.

AT: maybe we can ask her and see how to get materials or info to the parents. Superintendent also keeps us updated with what the schools do – maybe ask superintendent to help us pass out these materials.

KO: DART suggests putting pamphlets and stickers in stores like Wine Outlet or Spirits.

AT: Could also put these pamphlets in stores, like Stop & Shop, to bring awareness. We could spend an hour or so walking around and handing them out.

Erin: Great idea.

AT: does anyone want to join me doing this?

Kati: I will help distribute.

AT: We can meet somewhere.

• Kati and Arlene will meet up on Saturday morning to distribute pamphlets around downtown, around 10-10:30 A.M. We can meet at the police station KO and decide where to go from there.

1. Social Media
   1. Facebook page progress update?
   2. Use to promote events, provide resources, share information, etc.

AT: Did you have any artwork?

KO: I don’t have anything on file.

AT: so maybe we can create it, but see what it looks like before it is sent out.

Erin: Facebook?

AT: I can sit down with Luke and Sofia to create it. But I want to make sure everyone see it first.

Erin: Can we screenshot the page before finalizing?

AT: Get artwork and send to me.

Erin: I’m not a social media person, so how is it administered? What if someone posts something bad?

Sofia: You can create settings.

KO: check with Eileen/Kevin about keeping records or website/social media maintenance rules.

• KO to provide artwork and guidelines for facebook page.
  1. Overdose prevention programming

AT: A young man overdosed recently, and this is why we’re on the committee, to prevent these overdoses. So what can we do to help students and families, the community, to make a difference? I had someone reach out to me with an idea to discuss prevention programming and prevent the overdosing. Erin, you mentioned about taking a course.

Erin: Took an online Narcan training: 1) grant to offer the training ends in September so it needs to be applied for soon; 2) I don’t know about the particular situation, but what I found out, is that fentanyl is laced, and carfentanyl, that people are unaware of. Former addicts are much more prone to overdosing. So, if current/previously addicted, people will use the amount they previously used and, after recovery, tolerances drop and they end up overdosing.

Kati: Drugs have gotten much stronger and different from how it used to be. If you touch fentanyl, you will have a reaction and an overdose from touching it. This is crazy stuff.

Erin: So, who is it that we need to target and use this free training for? Should it be anybody? Younger, older? What is the data?

Kati: we are seeing it everywhere, all ages and neighborhoods. There’s a great program called “Not Even Once” and geared for high school kids where you don’t know you’re an addict until you try it once, so we advocate not even once. Targets kids going away to college who don’t have the boundaries, which is great. But we are seeing 30-40 year olds, so I don’t know where to target.

Angel: Great idea to have someone share their story. Maybe have an ice cream social with a guest speaker teaching people how to handle pressure, how to say no, and if someone had experience with addiction/overdose, a peer speaker would be great.

AT: Could do that where we have a campaign, a line up with some people coming to speak. Maybe at the band shell. Have to start getting it out there a month ahead of time. And, I like Kati’s suggestion of the program – that could be the line up. Then get the buzz out there, flyers, facebook, press, share #notevenonce. Get guest speakers, teenagers, anyone brave enough to speak about.

Kati: Important to get speakers who our community can relate to.

Angel: Maybe someone in college, with experience of how they handled social situations themselves, so maybe in late April/May. Can be socially distanced, COVID-friendly.

AT: Start planning, talking about in March so we are ready for May.

Angel: Can we involve radio station that’s always on the boardwalk?

Katie: Start the hashtag at the family dinner #notevenonce. Is it trademarked?

Luke: Is that trademarked?

Erin: If we partner, we may be able to do this and use their trademark. Sofia/Luke, will this resonate?

Luke: I’m sure people will go. Maybe not the kids, but it would be attended.

Sofia: May be hard to get the kids there.

Erin: What speaks to you? Anything?

Sofia: Thought the radio station was cool.

Luke: If we do this, we should get the middle school kids to scare them in a sense, but kind of scare them. College speakers to middle schoolers could connect.

AT: Getting them early would definitely help. Then, assemblies are captive audiences.

Luke: in gym class, they can come in and speak. They could come over two days, and speak four times each day, which I could ask guidance counselors about this.

AT: as a peer leader, it would be a good thing to ask about.

Luke: For example, a speaker at a gym class spoke about wearing your seatbelt really stuck in my head.

Kati: Maybe better to go through the school.

AT: definitely try for the summer time, for younger kids, a lot of parents would want to bring their kids. Then HS could go through the gym classes. Two events: summer event for younger kids & then the gym class.

Kati: My husband is a certified instructor for Not Even Once, and then he could pull in the speakers through the organization. We can get him to organize the program and get approval through the Police Dept. We’ll look into it.

AT: Perfect, so as soon as Luke gets info from school for permission, then we can communicate via email to get the program in place.

Erin: Recommendation – hot & heavy tonight which is great. So maybe 1) a little ambitious to do it so soon; 2) once the weather gets nicer, we might get more students back in school later into the year. SO maybe we can wait a little. So maybe a target of April or something.

AT: Will revisit this at our next meeting on the agenda, and we can put in place in April.

Erin: Then we have time to promote this over the next couple of events.

Luke: suggested a text group

AT: suggested creating a Slack group so we have everything on a record.

Kati: April is Alcohol Awareness month, so maybe May is a good time to target.

• AT to check into Slack group.
• Luke to speak with school guidance about hosting guest speaker.
• Kati Gant to speak with her husband about the program.

• AT has a friend who is looking to financially contribute to the committee. Perhaps this can be used towards speakers to fund them.

2. Adjournment – all in favor. Ajourned.