Communities That Care

[Jaunty Guitar Music]

Mike: Welcome, everybody. This is Avoiding the Addiction Affliction brought to you by Westwords Consulting and the Kenosha County Substance Abuse Coalition. I'm Mike McGowan.

Mike: We've all heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes a whole lot of work and people to first build that village.

Mike: We all know that prevention works, but it has to be consistent and coordinated. We're going to talk today about a prevention initiative called Communities That Care. And what it takes to get it going. Our guest today is Timmie Sinclair of the United Way of Door County, Wisconsin. Timmie is a Community Impact Coordinator for the United Way and will lead the prevention project.

Mike: Welcome, Timmie.

Timmie: Hi, thanks for having me.

Mike: Well, I'm so glad you're here and we'll get more into depth. But first, I'm sure that there's most people listening. What is Community That Cares? And what's the mission behind it?

Timmie: Communities That Care. It's funny that you ask because CTC has actually been around since the middle 80's.

Timmie: It is a far upstream prevention method. It focuses really hard on protective factors and upping those protective factors so that you create a community bond. And when you have a community bond and a school bond and then family bond, you know, kids make better decisions. The thing that I love the most about CTC is that I always talk about it.

Timmie: It's subtitle could be, you know, grownups that pay attention. (laugh)

Mike: (laugh) I like that.

Timmie: But what it does is it helps equip different members of the community. Be it parents, but it could also be teachers. It could be business owners. It could be, it is the whole community. It isn't just school isn't just home.

Timmie: It helps the community equip themselves to be able to offer opportunities to young people to create a very strong community bond. When you have a community bond, you have better decisions you have and that community bond truly affects that individual, that student. That kid, that you know, that ne'er do well juvenile delinquent for the rest of their lives.

Timmie: The first group of kids that participated in the CTC study or the pilot program for that are still being tracked. Since it was in 1985, oh gosh, I should have looked that up, 1985 ish, those kids are now coming up on 50. And they're still watching these kids and the effects of the CTC program on those kids who are now grown ups with children of their own.

Timmie: But not only are they seeing a decrease in the behaviors and the problems that you don't want, not only are we talking about drug use, substance use disorder, substance use in general. But we're also talking unwanted pregnancy, crime, violence, and then we're also seeing an uptick in the positive things. Better odds of civic engagement, higher earning potential, higher instances of going on to college, university, so we're seeing the effects of this. It's just that ripple in the pond, that bond that you create, and it plays it forward.

Timmie: Not only that, it's generational. So even those parents who were part of CTC at the beginning, their kids are more involved. They're more involved with their kids. And it's just a fantastic program. And it's been around a really long time. It's just time to bring it to Door County.

Mike: Yeah. Well, it's a national program, right?

Timmie: It's international,

Mike: International.

Timmie: It's international. And it's, it's interesting because, you know, as you read like the Iceland the great Iceland experiment and all the things that were happening there, you know, you read that and you're like, oh, that's CTC. (laugh)

Timmie: Iceland went from having the highest drug use to the lowest drug use in Europe.

Timmie: And it was, it's CTC. It is that those same principles applied broadly. Another positive aspect to CTC is it understands that not every kid has something awesome happening at home. So, or something awesome happening at school, but it trains and facilitates other people in the community to be able to spot and offer those opportunities to maybe those kids that don't have that at home.

Mike: And that's more protective factors.

Timmie: Huge protective factors. We're going, you know, we talk about the, the great upstream downstream prevention. This is like at the mouth of the river.

Mike: You know, when I looked at the website it seems, one of the things I liked is oftentimes there's programs and you buy it and it comes packaged.

Mike: It's in a binder, you know, now software. But this can be tailored to the individual area. It's not cookie cutter because rural is different than urban. It's different. Wisconsin is different than Utah, right?

Timmie: Yes. Quite a lot. I've lived in both states. Utah is one of my 11. It is very sensitive and because it is locally driven you know what tailors, you know what works in your area, what doesn't.

Timmie: We have been planting these little Communities That Care seeds now that we're ready to do a full launch of the program in the county. I have been planning these seeds for a year now, and I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like we're going to have a really good harvest on this one.

Mike: That's interesting you'd say that, because I was just going to go there.

Mike: That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this, because it's so much cheaper than what we spend on incarceration and treatment and the rest of it. And we know it works, but it seems like getting a community coalition going is like herding cats.

Timmie: You win understatement of the day.

Timmie: Congratulations, Mike. (laugh)

Mike: Well, that's alright. So how do you, so go with that. I mean, how do you first organize it, identify the stakeholders, and then secondarily, and I know these are, these are big questions, but how do you keep the initial enthusiasm going? Because I think that's what kills a lot of prevention programs.

Timmie: Right. So when I had to give my big sales pitch as to why I really wanted to do this. One, finding those stakeholders... one of my favorite authors talks in one of his books said, if you want something done, give it to a busy person. You've got to find those key members in the community that are already super busy that are already super involved. And you just give them a few extra tools to use and it's going to make their lives a little bit easier. And really spark that engagement. And then it perpetuates itself. The crazy things that I have been allowed to do, because again, I'm United Way, I don't have to follow the same rules if I were a state employee or something like that.

Timmie: We get to go a little rogue. Last summer I worked with the libraries and the Maritime Museum here in the county, and we were throwing robots into Lake Michigan, and fully functional underwater robots. The kids would have to design, engineer, and build their robots, and then we would throw them in the lake.

Timmie: Now, somebody's like, well, how is that AOD? How are you preventing drugs (laugh) with that? I am giving the steps for Communities That Care is to give kids skills, opportunities to use those skills, encouragement, and support to grow those skills. Which leads to the better community bond, which leads to better decisions.

Timmie: So now I'm the robot lady. It's funny when I go to the grocery store or just out and about in town, it's like, you're the robot lady. Are we doing that again? Like, why haven't you been doing it without me? Why do you need me? (laugh) But it, and it has been, you know, that connection. And as we threw those robots in Lake Michigan and we're, we're looking around with the camera because the robot's 50 feet away. What is that? Well, grab it. You know, use the robot and scoop that up. What is that? Pulling out that plastic debris, pulling out, you know, looking at what was in the lake. The number of vape cartridges we saw on the lake was revolting. (laugh) So we had that conversation. You pull those things out and you know, the kids, Oh, that's disgusting.

Timmie: What's disgusting. The fact that it's a vape cartridge or the fact that it's in the lake, both. Yes, that's it. We're good. (laugh)

Mike: Yeah, and it's not the lake perch that are vaping at the time, right?

Timmie: No, no. We did talk about that. We were talking about just how much sturgeon actually do vape.

Timmie: Turns out not at all, but again, that bond, because that water isn't mine anymore, I'm an old lady that that water belongs to those kids. So they felt an ownership to that. Which is huge.

Mike: It's interesting. You brought up vape right off the bat because you know, i'm also getting up there. And we've been through some of this before. We eliminate, well, we collective "we", the whole community stuff. We eliminated tobacco cigarettes for the most part in this generation of young people. I mean compared to almost every adult that's listening to us who saw corners of people smoking and smoking in the restrooms in school, or for those of us who are older, can I seat you in smoking or non smoking?

Mike: It doesn't exist anymore for the young people for the most part, but now they vape And so it sometimes feels like we're playing a game of whack a mole.

Timmie: Mm hmm.

Mike: We eliminate tobacco and vaping pops up. We eliminate cocaine and heroin, fentanyl pops up. The message has to change as well, does it not?

Timmie: Absolutely. And again, the bandages there are with those protective factors. My goal as a parent, I never wanted my kids to get into a situation where they thought my mom is going to kill me. I always wanted them to say, I need to call my mom, you know, I need, I need to, I have that bond with my child.

Timmie: And then when I was a teacher, I need to call Mrs. Sinclair.

Timmie: I'm freaked out. I need to call Mrs. Sinclair. So it is Steve Pemberton talks about the lighthouses that we need. This CTC training just is basically how to be a lighthouse and how to be those anchor points for those kids when they have to face these really tough decisions.

Timmie: You know, when you're going through puberty... excuse me, I'm going to put on my science teacher hat for just a minute. I'm sorry. You literally lose your mind. There's dendritic connections, we don't know why it happens, there's this great pruning that happens, and we lose our minds, our, all of the things, all of those wonderful connections we made as children in our brain get cut, and we start rewiring to be adults, and we're more likely to take big risky moves, we're more likely to do things that are impulsive, we have poor emotional regulation, and at the same time, everything's being thrown at us, we're starting to look more grown up, and our brain is not caught up.

Timmie: So hopefully what the aim of CTC is and the aim of the program is, is to those moments of panic when you're confronted with, or you, you know that this is a decision that you're going to be making as a young person. Do I want to take a hit on that vape? Do I want to have that drink? Do I want to try that pot gummy?

Timmie: That moment, you want to have those protective factors where that kid feels like they have the security, one, to not do it, but two, if they do do it, and now they don't like it, or they don't want to do it anymore, that they have someone that they feel like they can trust, they have somebody, that lighthouse that they can go to, that lighthouse they can aim for, that can help guide them, make those decisions. As far as eliminating tobacco and when we were young, when I were a lass, as we would say you knew the kids that smoked because they smelled like ashtrays.

Mike: Yeah.

Timmie: Now they smell like root beer.

Mike: (laugh) That's, that's true.

Timmie: It is so much easier to hide now, but now we're starting to see now that they've been on the market long enough the research and all of the data is coming in. Vaping related seizures is a real thing, but these are just starting to crop up the where the researchers are actually seeing these detrimental effects. We got to wait for those really really gross ads.

Timmie: Do you remember the ad?

Mike: Yeah, I do.

Timmie: It ran in the early 90s and it was a lady, she was talking through her stoma about smoking and how she had basically smoked her whole life. And it was a really gripping, moving ad. Unlike, you know, This is Your Brain on Drugs, that one was disturbing because at the very end of the ad, Debbie with her stoma took a drag with her cigarette through her stoma because her addiction was so complete.

Timmie: I remember that ad from the early 90s, late 80s, and I can tell you what that woman looked like. It was such a profoundly disturbing ad. Now we have these ads that make vaping look kind of fun. You know, the ones that you see was like, that's metal, you know, this is big CGI monster. There's no emotional investment.

Timmie: There's nothing real there. So we need to have those conversations and that ability to have Debbie with the stoma with vaping, that is far more disturbing than a CGI monster chasing a guy that you know, with a stupid catchphrase. That's me on my own soapbox. I apologize. (laugh)

Mike: No, that's exactly it. I mean, what is, so the Communities That Care uses social development strategy. Right?

Timmie: Yes. I love that.

Mike: Explain that.

Timmie: Oh, so my best way to describe social development strategy is actually a story about a student named Hannah. I'm changing Hannah's name to Hannah.

Timmie: So she. You know, has a, has a degree of anonymity. I taught at an alternative ed school. Alternative ed schools are for those students who have had issues and end up through juvenile, you know, the juvenile justice system. This is kind of it. It's here or juvie that you have your, your. Things you got to do and Hannah was one of my students that was on the lumpy side of the law.

Timmie: She had issues with ecstasy and bath salts. She was a tough case. She was 15 years old. So smart, like obnoxiously smart, sharp witted, smart, talented and in trouble. And as teachers we had to take shifts with community service. So you have a group of students, you have to do a community service.

Timmie: They're the students have to perform community service. You get to be the responsible adult for the semester with these students and typically they were picking up trash. They were doing, you know, park maintenance, that sort of thing. I was a career and technical education teacher. I taught robotics, I taught physics, I was a shop teacher.

Timmie: So I don't want to do that. I don't want to go to the park and pick up trash. I don't think that that is super edifying. So I made arrangements with a local long term care facility, palliative care nursing home. There's the not politically correct term, for the kids to come in and do tech help.

Timmie: So we were going in twice a week to help old folk figure out their phones and their tablets and all of the things that they don't know.

Mike: Oh, awesome!

Timmie: Wait, it gets better. So, first day, we go in, we're at the nursing home with these little, my, I lovingly called them my juvenile delinquents to their faces, so I lovingly called them my little juvenile delinquents.

Timmie: We come in, we do it, the next day we're in class, we have a debrief. And then there's Hannah, just like, boom, hands up. Why the heck are we doing this? So if you didn't say heck, I do not understand this. Why are we doing this for these people? They're going to die anyway. What is the point? This is so stupid.

Timmie: Can we please go pick up trash? And I'm like, expand. Why is this stupid? Why do you think this is pointless? And Hannah said, they're, they can't even, you know, poke the X because their hands are so crinkled up with arthritis, they can't even poke the X to close a window. And I'm like, well, congratulations, Hannah, you've never needed help doing anything, I guess (chuckle).

Timmie: She's like, that's not what I'm saying. So we talked about it. What do you think you could do to help facilitate that student of yours? Because you're the teacher. What can you do? And she was really, oh, I love this kid. It's just like, okay, we can give him a stylus. If I gave him a stylus, maybe that would help.

Timmie: Excellent. You're in a lab, you're going to go 3D print some styluses. You're going to figure out the design on that. You're going to make a stylus. So she goes in armed with her styluses the next time that we're in there. Goes a little better. We're into this three or four weeks now and Hannah's there with her yarn dreadlocks that she makes herself and by this point, by the time we're walking up the the front slab of concrete to the front door, the old people are like, it's the tech gods!

Timmie: The tech gods are here! They're clapping and they're happy to see them. And these kids, who are justice involved youth, for the first time for some of them in their lives. They're feeling like I'm appreciated here. I have a connection here. These people want to see me. That's unusual (chuckle). Normally when people see this face, they're locking the car door.

Timmie: And it was a different dynamic started to form as they connected with these older folks. Hannah in particular with her crazy hair, she, one of the ladies there said, do you know how to tat lace? You would be so good at tatting lace. By the end of that semester. My old folks could use FaceTime and they could set their flashing clocks.

Timmie: That was another thing. Hannah called them 12 o'clock flashers. And it was the funniest thing I ever heard in my life. All the clocks flash 12 o'clock. They're 12 o'clock flashers. (chuckle) Um, but she could tat lace. She could braid a single piece of leather. It was really cool. And she had this real bond with this group of older people.

Timmie: That summer, she volunteered as a candy striper at that facility. The next year, which was her junior year, she did concurrent education and became a CNA, worked at that facility. Her senior year, this gets even better, I get chills and I get all verklempt, sorry. Her senior year, she did concurrent education and started her RN.

Timmie: To this day, and mind you, Hannah is now 30 years old, she is a registered nurse at that same facility. This went from a kid, sorry. This was a kid that was a lost cause. She was too much ego. She was too much pride. She was never going to change her ways. Because she had the support of, as she liked to call them at the end of the year, my 20 grandmas and grandpas.

Timmie: She had that community support. She felt that bond. It changed her life. Even through COVID, she worked in that nursing home and she helped her old folk. It was perfect. And I could not ask for anything better for that kid. And if that is the only nut I ever cracked, that'll take it. But that, it works. It is a hell of a lot of work.

Timmie: It's not hard work, but it works.

Mike: That's such a great example and it hits all of the protective factors and it hits all of the different skills that you need to develop in order to be successful, which is what you're really talking about, right?

Timmie: Absolutely.

Mike: You're talking about making good decisions for yourself, having the skills to implement those.

Mike: And then also having the support to be able to make those changes in your own life.

Timmie: And to grow. It is such a big deal, that growth and that support. Because sometimes those kids aren't getting it at home. And sometimes they are getting it at home, but they don't want it at home. Mom and dad aren't cool.

Timmie: But it is nice to have those lighthouses, those other touch points in the community. Where kids feel like I'm safe here. I can make good decisions here. And if I make a bad decision, I know who I need to talk to. You know, that is, I'm sorry. I really, I do get verklempt (laugh).

Mike: Well, and we live in a state you and I, where.

Mike: A quarter of the kids at some time in their school are going to live in a house with one or both parents who have a substance use disorder, not to mention an older sibling, not to mention some mental illness. Right. So this is a whole lot of kids and you can't, you know, you sit there and look at them in the bleachers.

Mike: You don't know which ones are which. And so how do you, how do you go about including some of the student leaders in the Community That Cares? Cause I assume you're going to recruit kids as well.

Timmie: Oh, well, here's the thing. They recruit themselves. It's awesome, that, it's awesome. The kids that get involved, the kids that they, they gravitate toward.

Timmie: And here's the thing. I don't think there is any kid on planet earth ever that has dwelled. That would not love somebody to love them and appreciate them. That if nothing else, we want to belong. We want to feel trust as the primates that we are, that is what we want. And we gravitate toward it.

Timmie: It's like a black hole. You can't escape it. We like that feeling of belonging. We like that feeling of community. It is how we have survived as a species for as long as we have. And unfortunately, especially since the pandemic, and the pandemic is the, the great oogie boogie man, and don't get me started on social media because I get all frothy.

Timmie: We have isolated ourselves more. We are more disconnected from one another than we have ever been. And it's not healthy. And as a result, bad decisions are being made. So having those opportunities for those students that wouldn't normally have them to connect with their community and connect with their peers, connect with their families, is huge.

Timmie: It's absolutely huge. And that is what CTC is all about. It is training grown ups to pay attention to what's happening around them and really when to hone in and keep, you know, and focus on your students or focus on your young people or your community so that those kids who need that extra little bit of something, get it.

Mike: Well, yeah, and I'll close it with this. You're right. That's who you're working with. But those of you watching this on YouTube or even listening to it, it didn't just help Hannah did it Timmie? (

Timmie: laugh)

Timmie: (laugh) Oh, no. There's lots.

Timmie: Hannah's my favorite just because I'm still in touch with Hannah. (laugh) You know, she's such a magnificent young woman.

Timmie: You know, when she was like, I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate you teaching me how to do a non apology. (laugh) Hannah got in trouble with the math teacher, and it's like, alright, here's how to do a non apology, because it wasn't your fault. She just got mad at you. Apologize, that voices were raised.

Timmie: If she felt like she could have that conversation with me because she felt like she was being unjustly treated, she was being forced to apologize, sometimes you got to do the non apology apology. (laugh) But yeah, there's more than just Hannah. There are so many students that I had. And, but here's the other thing, it's not a silver bullet.

Timmie: It's not a magic bullet because there are those students that I had that we just lost and you know, there are just some nuts you can't crack. And you just hope that somebody else later can crack it. But did they crack? I mean, again, if Hannah was my only nut, great, but there were other nuts trust me.

Timmie: Hannah is just one that I am so proud of. I can't even, it takes my breath away to just think of where I first met her and where she is today. I mean, I've known her now her whole lifetime, you know, 15, half of her life, I have known her. And, You wouldn't even think it was the same young woman. You, you just wouldn't.

Timmie: And it just took a little bit of pushback and a little bit, and other kids don't want the pushback. Hannah's one that definitely needed pushback. You had to like meet that little bull. (laugh)

Mike: Well, what,I was alluding to though, which went zoom over your head was it also helped you.

Timmie: Oh, God yeah!

Timmie: Yes. It also, it helped me, it helped her family, her parents who had their own issues.

Timmie: It has ripple and when Hannah, you know, you know, has kids of her own, which she says she's not going to do, but we'll see but it will affect and the families that she touches as she's dealing with their, with their loved ones who are at the end of their lives. I know she's making a positive effect.

Timmie: I know she understands the value of community connections because it is the difference between living in a place you want to live in and living somewhere cause you got to live there.

Mike: Great.

Timmie: And I want Door County. That's where I live. That's where my focus area is. I want Door County to be one of those places that you just want to stay.

Mike: That's terrific.

Mike: And for those of you who are listening, you already know that I put links to the Community That Cares materials and information attached to the podcast.

Mike: Timmie, thanks so much for taking your time today and talking to us about how to get something started and then to keep it going.

Mike: For those of you listening, if you can listen next time, please do. Until then, stay safe and involve yourself locally.