Lindy Cares Students attend the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) Conference in Texas! Article Courtesy of Patrick Lopez
What did you do over the summer vacation? This July, the youth of Lindy Cares travelled to Dallas, Texas to attend the annual CADCA Mid-Year Training Conference. The mission of CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) is to strengthen the capacity of community coalitions to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities globally. This is accomplished by providing technical assistance and training, public policy advocacy, media strategies and marketing programs, training and special events. Nine students from the Lindenhurst High School, in grades 10-12 attended the conference, where they participated in 30 hours of training over the course of four days on how to conduct community assessments and advocate for appropriate prevention strategies in their respective communities. In addition to attending training sessions, the Lindy Cares youth, accompanied by Executive Director, Lori Ann Novello, and High School Coalition Advisor, Megan Scharf, conducted their own training session, titled “Escape the VAPE”, a 90 minute training session with more than 250 adult attendees. Generally delivered by prevention specialists and adults, CADCA entrusted Lindy Cares Youth to present after they submitted a detailed outline of the comprehensive strategies employed by our very own local community sectors. Lindy Cares Youth were exceptionally pleased to have the opportunity to share information with the attendees, and showcase the contributions of all of our community sectors to produce positive outcomes as we seek solutions to the issues of youth misuse of alcohol, vape/addiction and proper use/disposal of prescription medications. Town of Babylon Board and Supervisor Rich Schaffer joined forces with our school superintendent, Dan Giordano and school principals, the Mayor of Lindenhurst Mike Lavorata and the village board, local business members and students to implement prevention and evidenced based solutions to combat the issue of addiction among youth. The youth board hopes to present again at the CADCA Forum Conference held in National Harbor, Maryland in February 2020. Patrick Lopez, Youth Coalition President, reported “Having the opportunity to present to a large number of individuals in the prevention field was huge for our coalition, it puts us in a really good spot moving forward, giving us many networking opportunities with other prevention leaders on the national level, and I am grateful for it.” Moving forward, the Lindy Cares Coalition hopes to use valuable information learned at CADCA’s Mid Year Conference for their Annual Youth Summit, to be held in October of 2020, open to any Lindenhurst Students interested in community service and coalition work in grades 6-12. The youth are supported by so many government and local officials including Senator Phil Boyle, Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre, and Suffolk Country Legislator Kevin McCaffrey. They are always there to listen and respond when we give youth a voice. Lindy Cares youth were proud to present and explain how these officials invest time and energy into helping students create an environment they believe they can thrive in. The level of community support and commitment to funding the youth training is evidence of their commitment to our young leaders striving for the most well-rounded educational experience empowering them to reach their full potential. Lindy Cares…. Youth Led, Adult Guided!