A Message from the Coordinator…

Kings Partnership for Prevention kicked off 2010 with a general meeting on January 15th. Thank you to Sue Braz and the Staff of Hannah’s house for hosting many of our meetings. Sue has been a member of the Coalition since its inception and it has been a great pleasure to have her support and to be able to support her many programs including Champions, Celebrating Families and Hannah’s house. Support and networking is a large part of our coalition’s purpose. We invite all individuals, organizations and businesses who share our mission to join us at one of our general meetings.

A topic of great concern as we enter the New Year is the budget crisis in our state. This has resulted in many changes, issues, and challenges that affect substance abuse and crime in our communities and has impacted many of our members in their businesses and personally. Unemployment leads to crime, however our state is not in a position to increase court, incarceration or probation costs. In fact, they are focused on just the opposite. The state is taking extreme measures to reduce spending and it includes an “Early Release” program for inmates and reduced sentencing for new crimes. Treatment programs have been slashed due to funding shortages and those remaining are operating on reduced budgets.

What this means for prevention is we have to do our jobs better than ever at this time. Our economy cannot afford to wait to address needs in the crisis, or treatment needed mode. We need to focus on prevention of problems before they begin. We cannot claim the economic crisis for not doing good prevention. Prevention is less expensive than treatment. It makes good economic sense to put the dollars we do have available into prevention. Prevention has become a science over the past two decades and science based, research driven prevention is effective.

I invite everyone in our community to join the Kings Partnership for Prevention in its efforts to reduce substance abuse and crime in our communities. Through collaboration and networking, I believe we can overcome any economic stress and make a significant impact on the wellness of our community.

Happy New Year!

Nell Lobdell

KPFP Coordinator

]]> http://kpfp.org/2010/02/28/welcome-to-the-kpfp-website-2/feed/ 0 http://kpfp.org/2009/05/07/welcome-to-the-kpfp-website/ http://kpfp.org/2009/05/07/welcome-to-the-kpfp-website/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 20:37:23 +0000 admin http://kpfp.org/?p=409

A Message from the Coordinator…

Leading the Coalition into the 2009-2010 Fiscal year, it is my pleasure to introduce our new Chairperson, Karen Gomez Barrera and Vice Chair, Kathy Cruz.  This duo, as many of you know is a powerhouse team with a “Can do!” attitude.   Community is of the utmost importance to them and both have demonstrated this through their service in a variety of roles in Corcoran, Kettleman City, and Hanford.

Many of you know Karen from her role as Executive Director at the Corcoran Family YMCA.   Karen was elected in April and is focused on streamlining the Coalition’s meeting schedule and recruiting new members. Karen has been an active member of KPFP since its inception.   The Corcoran Family YMCA has hosted many events and meetings to benefit KPFP.

Kathy Cruz is the Director of the Corcoran Family Resource Center. Kathy has also been involved with the coalition since its inception and has also hosted a multitude of events at the FRC involving the Coalition as well as hosting meetings, trainings and t-shirt sales. Kathy, also elected this past April, will fill the Vice Chair role and serve as support and back up for Karen.

I have full confidence in this team and their leadership skills. 2009-2010 will be an eventful year! Welcome ladies and thank you in advance for your service.

Please continue to e-mail me your events and news to be posted on our calendar and in our site. Collaboration is the key to successful prevention now more than ever.

Nell Lobdell, Coordinator

The “Meth Recovery Project Report” is now available at http://sjvpartnership.org/ or by contacting Juanita Fierello via email or phone, 559-294-9772.

It can be downloaded electronically and it’s formatted for double-sided printing.  Please feel free to share it widely and often; we appreciate your participation and your assistance in getting it disseminated as much as possible.  The more it is shared, the more likely that the voices of the San Joaquin Valley will be heard!