See what Danvers’ youth are up to…
2017-2018 (Current Year)
North Shore Community College Intern at DanversCARES
Each semester DanversCARES is proud to be a host work site for students at North Shore Community College in the Drug and Alcohol Counseling Certification Program. One intern interested in prevention, shares positive messaging with HRMS youth about ways to “Build Yourself Up.”
FalconsCARE Campaign (Year 2)
After a successful first year, youth leaders launched into year two with enthusiasm. They wanted to help reduce marijuana use by providing their peers with healthy stress relief alternatives to smoking marijuana. Below are a couple ways they have done this during Fall 2017.
Perfect Paws Pet Ministry – Dog Therapy Events
The DHS youth leaders began a new partnership with the Perfect Paws Pet Ministry to begin to bring therapy dogs to visit with students. Therapy dogs are known to reduce stress and build confidence amongst other benefits. The youth leaders invited the Perfect Paws pups in to the school to visit with them so they could learn about therapy dogs and plan ways to incorporate them into the school moving forward.
Update 1/24/18: Perfect Paws Pet Ministry brought three therapy dogs to visit with DHS students during mid-term exam week, over 100 students and faculty attended for a fun, stress relieving end to a day of tests. Thanks to Daily Harvest and Stop and Shop in Danvers for donating healthy snacks for the event!
Here is a brief presentation showing post-survey results from the event along with some great photos: Therapy Dogs Visit Mid-term Exams
Lunch time yoga class with Jenny Frontero
Youth leaders encouraged their peers to try new healthy activities such as yoga. Most people have heard of yoga but have never had a chance to learn the basics. Jenny Frontero, a local yoga instructor, generously donated her time to visit the students during their lunch periods to offer free mini yoga lessons. Participants enjoyed a relaxed lesson in mindfulness in the DHS courtyard. For more information about lessons with Jenny Frontero, click here: https://www.facebook.com/jennyfronterofitness/
3rd Annual DanversCARES Youth Leadership Retreat
The retreat provides a fun opportunity to get youth leaders from Danvers High School and Holten Richmond Middle School together to work on leadership, communication and team building skills in a fun, relaxed environment. This year, Project Adventure facilitated the day’s activities, so there was tons of high energy, hands on challenges for all!
“The Path of Becoming Ourselves” Screening Event at DHS
Students United For Acceptance (SUFA) and DanversCARES Youth Leaders hosted a screening of DHS senior Daisy Powers’ short film “The Path of Becoming Ourselves” at Danvers High School. The students watched the film and had a group discussion about issues and barriers young people may face while finding and expressing their true identities.
Daisy created the film as her service learning component of her employment in the DanversCARES Summer Job Program in partnership with Danvers Community Access TV. For more information about DCAT programs and events, check out https://www.danverstv.org/.
2016-2017
FalconsCARE Anti-Bullying PSA
Check out the Danvers High School Anti-Bullying PSA, part of the “FalconsCARE” campaign from the youth of DanversCARES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TCERvcDFeU&t=8s
15 Different clubs and sports teams participated to promote positive behaviors amongst their peers in an effort to support positive social norms and discourage bullying behavior.
Thanks to all of the clubs and teams for their participation, the youth for all of their hard work, Danvers Community Access Television for filming and editing support and the administration at Danvers High School and Willis E Thorpe school for helping to make this project happen! The PSA was shown at DHS school assemblies, on DCAT, social media and can be seen directly on Youtube!
Project Adventure Leadership Training with Social Capital Inc.
Working with our regional opiate prevention partners in Gloucester and Beverly, Danvers High School youth from 5 different after school groups experience a full day of leadership training, self-reflection, and a work shop on group presentations skills to use in their peer to peer messaging campaigns.
Improbable Players Youth Training
DanversCARES High School Youth Leaders partnered up with youth and staff from Be Healthy Beverly, Healthy Gloucester Collaborative and the Northshore YMCA to host the Improbable Players for a very special training event. The Improbable Players, an improv troupe focused on educating youth about substance abuse and recovery. They came to Beverly High School on October 20th to give youth groups a training on how to create performances that reflect healthy living messages. Throughout the fall, the youth groups will be preparing healthy living themed skits to perform and record to be aired on local cable channels such as DCAT.
FalconsCARES Kickoff Event
DanversCARES youth leaders at DHS kicked off their “FalconsCARE” campaign yesterday by asking their classmates to brainstorm ways that “FalconsCARE” about their peers, school, and community.
A big thank you to everyone who participated, and an extra special thanks to Sky Zone Danvers for providing a raffle prize for a free trip for 5 (including socks!) to Sky Zone at the Liberty Tree Mall!
Regional Teen Night at Sterling YMCA
On November 5th, DanversCARES DHS Youth Leaders participated in a Regional Teen Night with groups from Beverly and Gloucester. The Sterling YMCA in Beverly hosted the youth in their Teen Center for a night of games, pizza and fun. Youth also took time out of the festivities to talk about issues they are facing in their school and community and gained lots of insight by hearing how thing are different in other towns, and also finding out just how much they have in common.
2015-2016
#HealthyProm
Danvers High youth leaders encouraged their peers to make healthy choices this prom season. With a focus on nutrition, exercise and healthy relationships, this positive campaign stretched out over a week with creative tips posted throughout the school and an event the week of prom to get their peers thinking creatively about healthy choices. The youth also included their first Instagram component, urging others to use the hashtag “#HealthyProm”.
Youth Nights at the YMCA
It was well attended and fun was had for all! Thanks to the Danvers Community YMCA and all of the youth leaders involved for making this night possible.
Holiday Cheer Doesn’t Come in a Bottle
In December, our youth greeted holiday shoppers at the Liberty Tree Mall with a candy cane and a recipe for a non-alcoholic drink as part of their “Holiday Cheer Doesn’t Come in a Bottle Campaign”. Their goal was to remind people of all the fun things we can do together during the holidays that don’t involve alcohol. Looking good, everyone!
Dollars and $ense
The DanversCARES youth leaders at DHS team came together for the American Cancer Society’s “Great American Smokeout” this past November during their lunch periods.
They engaged nearly one hundred of their peers by asking them to consider the financial cost of smoking and vaping in Danvers, and encouraged them to think about more positive ways they could spend their money. The youth leaders compiled the responses on their bulletin board at the school along with important information regarding youth vaping and tobacco usage.
Youth Leader Retreat
For the first time ever, the Holten Richmond and Danvers High School youth leaders worked together to hold their very own youth retreat. Youth from all grades combined to come up with ice breaker activities and to lead large and small group guided discussions surrounding topics that they believe are important to the youth of Danvers. Topics discussed included marijuana, tobacco and vaping, alcohol, cyberbullying, mental health and coping skills.
2014-2015
Community Service: Supporting the Homeless
The HRMS DanversCARES youth leaders participated in the WalkHome 2015 Benefit Walk for the Homeless raising over $100 in donations to support The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the RTN GoodWorks Foundation. Homelessness is a family issue. There are an estimated 37,000 school-age children who experience homelessness in Massachusetts. Many of them are temporarily housed here in Danvers. Funds raised help children living in poverty stay in school. Every $250 raised means the Coalition can distribute a bed to a low-income student who does not have one of his/her own.
As a part of www.drugabuse.gov, and NIDA’s National Drug Facts Week, the Holten-Richmond DanversCARES Youth Leaders have launched a Myth/Fact series to distinguish the myths from the facts regarding drugs and alcohol! The goal of this on-going project is for the youth leaders to educate their peers and school community about the truth. A new Myth/Fact will be released each month at Holten-Richmond Middle School! Stay tuned to watch it unfold and be a part of this project!
The 84.org
Do you want to learn more about tobacco prevention? Do you want to be part of a group of youth who are actively working to share the truth about tobacco and nicotine products? Do you want to make a difference in your community? Come check out the awesome work that the DanversCARES Youth Leadership Board is doing as part of the84.org!
Kick Butts Day
As part of the84.org, Danvers Youth Leaders were invited to participate in the statewide kick butts day! 5 of our youth leaders traveled into the state house to learn about other tobacco products, big tobacco marketing practices, and learn about what we can do to help prevent tobacco products from getting to youth across the state. Through fun, informative activities, peer lead educational sessions, a march to the hill, and meeting with state government officials; our youth were able to see how they can make a real difference in the health of their community!
Youth Night!
Since the 1st Youth Night in 2008, we have been happy to partner with the Danvers Community YMCA to offer a fun, educational, youth run, substance free, youth night 2 times a year!
This event is developed, organized and implemented by the Holten-Richmond DanversCARES youth leaders with the help of their adult advisor. The goal of the evening is to offer activities that the youth want to participate in (swimming, dodge ball, contests, scavenger hunts, minute to win it games, movies, karaoke, etc.) while weaving a ribbon of health education and substance abuse prevention messaging into the fabric of the event.
This event is always fun, well received and one that we look forward to year after year.
Opiate Work Week
As part of our work with our MOAPC (Massachusetts Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative), we combined forces with youth from Gloucester and Beverly over the summer of 2014 for our first ever Opiate Work Week! During the week youth from all three communities had the opportunity to be trained in opioid education, overdose prevention, nasal narcan administration and social marketing.
The youth not only learned a great deal about opioids and overdose prevention, they learned first hand how to address it and develop education materials and messaging to help reduce opioid usage in the future.
Stay tuned to see the results of this work and to be apart of the Defy The Opi-Odds campaign!
